Flip #7
I didn’t see that the property referenced by Marilyn went down in price. I might go look at that. That is the type of ‘gutted’ that I can work with. The other house was gutted without roof, exposed to elements for over 5 years. That’s a whole different story My main issue with the one on Akron is trying to determine that the steep hillside is in good condition and the house is not slipping in any way. Houses built into steep hillside are hard to sell because it eliminates a big portion of buyers.
Also going to see a property that just went up for sale in the Fleetridge area. This one is in good condition and just needs cosmetic updating inside. It might be worth it just to have an easy one for once, even if profit is slim.
I just uploaded some pics of the deck we are finishing for the young couple. My carpenter made an error when we were first measuring for materials. I prepared all my material lists and labor estimates based on those measurements. Then, after I gave them all the estimates and they chose their design… he tells me he had a new measurement at 30% larger than anticipated. Yikes, that is a 30% increase in costs.
But the husband is really excited about the deck and very involved in a lot of design decisions.
Just for comparison… cost for the substructure of 330 square foot deck that is raised off the ground about 4 ft with really solid posts in concrete, with pressured treated under structure and composite deck boards, including 4 large stairs to back yard with railing was $6,285 (includes $200 worth of redwood for fancy top rail)
We are now going to start putting on 2 x 8 beautiful redwood top rail. But, the owner wanted a clear marine varnish on the redwood. We put one coat on the bottom of the pieces and it looks horrible. The clear varnish just brought out the yellow in the wood and the coloring is just too light for the design. Unfortunately, there is now one coat of varnish on these boards and I cannot go back and stain them darker. I am going to have to experiment with mixing some color into the varnish itself to keep on moving. And, the oil based varnish takes almost 12 hours to dry between coats and we need at least 3 coats on these boards. Cannot move forward with building roof until these rails are installed because we are doing something fancy with them. We have 4x4 square holes cut into the long wood and they are dropping down over the top of the posts to fit snugly and provide a nice long seamless run of top rail.
FYI… Amazon sells open box merch! The light we got from them was 35% off and looked brand new. Mr. B “plugged” it in a 110 outlet to see if it works - it did! I’m now thinking about getting a sink from Amazon deals… they apparently will take it back if it is not as described.
It looks like the house is too high for that, to me. The stone work descending to and surrounding that house is gorgeous, I must say. I’m wondering why they gutted it. It looks as if it would have had quality finishes, since they didn’t spare the $$ on the hardscape.
That is REALLY strange! What happened? All the pipes in the house burst while the owners were in Europe for six months? And no one was checking on the house?
CB…that would be my first question…“why was this gutted down to the studs given its elegant finish 3 years ago?”
Is it possible that there was a fire in the Akron house? Not that I’m an expert in such things, but the studs seems dark in one of the rooms and the sides of the house seems oddly stained.
Current owner purchased it for $950k in 2004. Then he tried to sell again right away for $1.2 million. Then back on the market in 2013 and tried to sell for $1.35mil reduced to $1.2 mil. Current listing has been on market starting at $1.3 mil since 4/25.
I have no idea why it got gutted, that will be an interesting story. I think the current owner is the one who updated it because the listing from 2004 shows some outdated 1980s style kitchen.
But, I think the issues with the house might be the steep slope. There is a code violation recorded against it for ‘deck’ and there is an outstanding permit which was submitted to City right after the code violation for a 6ft retaining wall. That permit is staving off a fine. As long as there is an open permit the City thinks you are addressing the violation. Buyer is going to have to assume the liability for the violation and rectifying the situation.
If it is a soil / slope issue I am going to stay away from it/ It’s the only thing that scares me to death
Yes
Stay off on a property that is listed since 4/25 and was not able to sell many times on the market. I am almost certain it has soil problem and you may have to take it down and rebuild.
Cosmetics, yes, soil and slope, NO.
It is not that hard to imagine junking marble floors… If the subfloor is particle board. Tubs - that is a different matter, especially if they are freestanding.
It’s probably easier and cheaper to get rid of everything instead of picking and choosing a few things to save. I’d get the scoop and find out WHY things were stripped before investing too much time on that place.
Photo 3 for rent and photo 4 on Redfin look like they were taken from a similar angle. What is going on with the subfloor in pic 4? Fire (mostly smoke and soot from something?) and then water damage plus the slope began to sink? Slopes scare the daylight out of me… and we live on a slope.
My main issue with the one on Akron is trying to determine that the steep hillside is in good condition and the house is not slipping in any way. Houses built into steep hillside are hard to sell because it eliminates a big portion of buyers.