<p>CB, yes, I should walk away with that project. That was my initial thinking to begin with. The house is being sold by owner, not an REO or short sale. The owner had tried to renovate the house and he found that he is in trouble, thus the sale. The three completed rooms (Master Suite and a study) was his work and after he demolished the rest of the house inside, he realized that he made a mistake and to fix it is a big job that he cannot do. He is finding a way out. In 2010, the guy paid 251K for it and proceeded to renovate, however, he did not have a sense of construction and screwed up every thing. Now he wants out and pass the hot potato to the next guy, well, it won’t be me.</p>
<p>Just saw an tv episode. This time it was a duplex. The guy bought it and pre-sold the project to an investor. During the renovation, they encountered some cost overruns and the buyer is interfering the renovation, which makes the episode interesting. But the guy finally overcome the problems and made a pretty penny in the flip. </p>
<p>Its finalized that I am funding on Tuesday and they are letting me pick up the keys from the real estate office.</p>
<p>I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can.</p>
<p>I begged my agent to stall the buyers but she just told me they want to drive downTuesday night to see it before they leave for 3 weeks on Wednesday. Geez, you’d think they have more important things to do like pack or something. On top of that they are moving out of their sold house on Wednesday. </p>
<p>Just got termite inspection report from Seller and there are both subterranean and dry termites plus a ton of wood damage that has to be replaced. Oh well, that’s to be expected in a house 90 yrs old that has probably never been fumigated.</p>
<p>On my discussion above on the house #2 with no garage, now the listing agent posted in the MLS that 16 offers were received and no more showing. Apparently there is money to be made at the listing price of $275… I just cannot see myself get into a project like that.</p>
<p>The reason why that house went so fast is because the dated houses half size of this one in lessor neighborhood not on the hills are selling at around $300k.</p>
<p>Artlover, I’m glad you didn’t end up in a multiple offer bidding war on that one and possibly end up making a mistake. It happens a lot.</p>
<p>DEMOLITION STARTS!
We closed escrow yesterday. I drove around in the morning and gathered Cashier’s Checks and the Escrow Company accepted the cashier’s checks and immediately recorded in the afternoon. I was surprised because usually escrow companies insist on holding the funds overnight to make sure they clear. But a cashier’s check is supposed to be honored exactly as cash so they did record.</p>
<p>I cannot believe that the Seller was meticulous about vacating the property. She cleaned everything!!! and cleaned very nicely. I just don’t have the heart to tell her that most of it is going to be demolished out anyway. But, at least we have a nice clean little refrigerator to put our food in while we work the next couple of months. </p>
<p>I have to run to Home Depot this morning and the dumpster is arriving in one hour!! We are getting started. I took lots of Before Pictures, but I have only had a chance to load detailed exterior photos to the Flickr group. </p>
<p>I will load more tonight</p>
<p>coralbrook, you’re off and running! How wonderful!!</p>
<p>Kindly remind how to access the flickr accouont.</p>
<p>The link is in this post: <a href=“Flip This House - Number Two - #140 by coralbrook - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>Flip This House - Number Two - #140 by coralbrook - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums;
<p>The buyers that came down from Orange County have decided that this small house is not for them. They wanted to put grass in the little dinky back yard because they have 2 dogs. The bedrooms are really small, you cannot get a king size bed into them. The majority of the square footage is in the living areas.</p>
<p>I’m honestly relieved because I wasn’t ready to deal with trying to rebuild to suit their specific requirements. I think that I want to put this one for sale on the open market and see what happens.</p>
<p>Good for you!</p>
<p>BTW, I have checked the codes on installing canopy or parking lot covers. You need 20’ clearance from the far edge of the cover to your property line. In general, your house need be 30’ set back from the curb. Very few low priced homes can have that in CA.</p>
<p>We got a lot of demolition done today and made some good discoveries and some very bad discoveries. Once again, not a glamorous job. </p>
<p>But for now I have put a few more pictures up of the kitchen, bathroom, garage and back patio of this house. These are the areas that are going to get the largest transformation. </p>
<p>I’m saving pictures of some of the cool things in this house for tomorrow and then some amazing pictures of what we found in the demolition (no, it wasn’t hidden treasure in the walls!) As usual it has to do with poop :)</p>
<p>I love the ornate doorknobs… totally wrecked by a hack paint job.</p>
<p>coralbrook, I think that’s great news that that couple decided not to buy it. I agree; it will make your job much easier. Not easy, but easier. ;)</p>
<p>I have no idea how you guys can see the ornate door knobs. I haven’t loaded the good photos into the Flickr Community Group yet. Since Notrichenough let the cat out of the bag, I finished loading all the before photos into our photo group. </p>
<p>Note the gorgeous built ins!! Note the original crystal door knobs. Note the original solid wood doors. One of the doors is a ‘swing’ door installed between the dining room and the kitchen. I have taken down all the doors and stored them in a room so that they will not get damaged during demolition and construction. I have taken all of the crystal door knobs and cabinet knobs off and brought them home so I can sit at night and meticulously try to clean them.</p>
<p>Note the fireplace. Believe it or not the fireplace tile is very desireable. But it is worn down and lost some of the color pigment. Needs to be cleaned really well. Also, the fireplace is unlined which is a safety hazard now because inspectors will note that the mortar will deteriorate. I am calling in a fireplace specialist to see how much money it will take to get that fireplace lined and back into working condition.</p>
<p>The original floors are in good shape except for the one area (see photo) where there was water damage and the prior owner tried to patch it up with lovely wood putty. </p>
<p>Note the original baseboards - they are gorgeous. But, the entire house is suffering from horrible paint jobs that have painted over the door knobs, the base boards, the windows, etc. In fact the whole living area has been painted some horrible blue color, including all trim, that is gloss paint. It makes the texture on the walls look just tacky!</p>
<p>I have added detailed descriptions on the photos to explain some of the challenges</p>
<p>Sorry to steal your thunder!</p>
<p>I was just clicking around and saw the picture in there. Maybe there is some setting that you missed that made them all public? </p>
<p>Oh, those built-ins are to die for!!! Wow! I can definitely see why you jumped on this house!!!</p>
<p>Are those tiles batchelder tiles? Or just something of similar vintage? </p>
<p>It’s gorgeous!! Love the view from the LR into the DR. Love the built-ins, and the crystal knobs.</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about tile to definitely identify if they are the coveted batchelder tile. I’m desperately trying to find a specialist that can clean and restore them. But I believe I’m seeing a bucket full of some special solution and a toothbrush in my near future. I need to start doing some Internet research!!</p>