Flip #7
I crawled through a small house for sale on
3
7
5
8
Charles
92106
Roof is pretty flat and there are slope issues with the main roof. Prior owner enclosed an outdoor patio right on top of the sloped concrete and the roof is flat with no drainage. Water has been pooling on the side of the house and you can see flood lines inside the family room. Whole room is paneled and the bottom 6 inches of paneling are rotted and full of termites. Ceiling boards are full of termites also. So the entire family room would have to be rebuilt and roof torn off to build a better roof with slope drainage.
One car garage in front of house. The neighborhood norm is a 2 car garage on the alley in the back. So, I would have to pull permits to build a 2 car garage in back of the house and convert 1 car garage into a master suite. And, of course, gut the entire interior and open up.
But my biggest problem is that we cannot raise the floor in the sunken family room because the final ceiling height would be about 7 1/2 ft and it would be ridiculously low ceiling. So, I would have to design some kind of nice looking step arrangement into the sunken family room… if I could ever solve the flooding issue
So, in the end my gut tells me it will take $150,000 to $165,000 to renovate the house and it probably would not sell for more than $1,175,000. Agent tells me he has several offers at the current price but I think they are contingent on loans and inspections. Not sure if a bank appraisal is going to catch all the flooding issues and whether they care about the flooding issues to value the house for a loan. But a home inspector is definitely going to tell them that there are major issues with the house. Lots of termite damage and live termite action.
“Not sure if a bank appraisal is going to catch all the flooding issues and whether they care about the flooding issues to value the house for a loan.”
Bank appraisers do not give a hoot as long as the downpayment is large enough so the land is basically what is covered by the loan. With so many issues, IMO, you did the right thing passing this up.
Yep, agent thinks they are sitting on valuable land. Its not that valuable because it is close to very busy Catalina St. He kept telling me to buy it, slap some paint on it, and rent it to Pt Loma Nazarine college students.
Yesterday when I went for 3rd time with my carpenter the neighbor across the street had put up a big sign “Families Welcome McMansions Are Not” . Wonder if agent or investors have seen that
My agent called me this morning that the chicken house had just gone Pending into contract. So I looked in the MLS and the listing agent had just updated the listing backdated to last Saturday. I was not happy that he didn’t even have the decency to call me with the news.
So I called him and he actually answered the phone.
He said that my new offer last week was the number that got the Sellers to finally cave in. They took a higher offer but mine was only $40k under. The higher offer is an investor who is using hard money loans with a 17 day inspection period. He assured me I am in position if the buyer comes back asking for credits or something.
That agent has been horrible. Knowing that your offer would be first backup, and that your offer has expired, he should have been calling you and keeping you informed (and on the hook for his client).
Flip #7
Yes, I agree about the agent. He has been ‘courting’ me to be my agent. He has a slim chance in $%^&& to ever get my business again. No communication, absolutely no response to my written email with the new offer. I’m sure he wasn’t even going to bother to call me back that the Sellers had accepted an offer unless I hounded him myself. In my book, if you are representing a buyer you should at least have the common decency to call the buyer and let them know that another offer has been accepted.
My first offer was way lower than the other offers so I can understand that he didn’t want to give me the time of day. But, it turns out that my revised offer really wasn’t that far off. He should have called me and let me know that I was close (he does not need to reveal the exact dollar amount of the other offer). I might have made a decision (if I was really desperate) to raise my offer to be competitive. I think the sellers actually took him by surprise and accepted the other offer. But, to not even call with an update is poor representation as my buying agent.
My agent says it’s for the best and there will be something out there soon.
The biggest danger in my business is to make a mistake on the ‘buy’ side. I quickly learned that I have to be careful that I don’t get emotionally attached to a property or don’t get into a bidding war ‘Just to Win’. A lot of guys get into the bidding war just because they want to win.
I will admit that there are a few properties that are so special that I just have to have them. The last one was ‘special’ and I knew it was unique with a unique location. I had to have it!! But somehow the Seller chose my offer over a higher offer. I think because they knew I would preserve the house and the other guy was going to demo out and rebuild something else.
Barn door is installed and it’s really beautiful. We went a little industrial /contemporary with the barn door hardware and style to please the husband. We mounted a frosted glass door because it was interesting and we got it at a good price. This week we are tearing apart an alcove in the garage. Owners are living for 5-6 days with no hot water heater or laundry. Have no idea what they are going to do, but they said they don’t mind and they will go take showers somewhere else.
They finally moved their stuff into the kitchen and enjoyed cooking a meal over the weekend. They are over the moon with their new kitchen.
We have finished everything inside the regular house except the fireplace surround. Baseboard, casing and trim are done and painted out. In the small bathroom we installed a subway tile baseboard configuration because it just isn’t a good idea to have MDF baseboard next to a bathtub. It will get ruined quick. She was really happy about my suggestion to use tile for the baseboard since kids will be splashing around in the bathtub.
Curtain rods and curtains are up. House numbers are up. Front door keypad lock is on. I mopped up all the floors… boy were they full of sawdust and mess. Big cabinet installed in living room with shelves and pull out drawers. All kinds of details.
Yesterday we tore all the drywall and some horrid particle board off the walls in the garage to build the laundry room. Well, guess what??? Massive termite damage in the studs and posts in the wall. We are going to have to sister up a lot of stuff to get it structurally sound. It doesn’t look like live termite action, just years of termite damage.
I’ve finalized the cost of the remodel of interior and exterior project.
Original budget $65,000
Deck with cover $6,000
Laundry Room
Spent against original scope of work
$9,800 to rebuild structure and new roof
$14,000 kitchen plus living room cabinets
$4,000 bath
$5,200 painting and texture inside and out
$5,000 flooring
$1,800 new windows and french doors and install
$200 curtains and curtain rods
$1,500 baseboards and trim and install
$4000 plumbing and electrical
$14, 000 general labor and construction materials including lighting and door hardware
So we are at about $60,000 but we were 3 weeks behind schedule. I feel bad about the schedule issue because they are living out of one room in the back
And now we have an issue with laundry room and we are going to have to rebuild basic structure. They are going to be an extra 3 days (because of Easter Weekend off) without hot water. Luckily they belong to a gym with showers!!
