<p>Wow, coralbrook, that is quite a deal!</p>
<p>Yes, if the auction says “do not disturb” and you will get a “quit claim deed”, that is an indication of occupied homes. A vacant home buyer will receive “special warranty deed”</p>
<p>I think there is a way to break the lease, you have to ask lawyers specialize in S. CA. But 99% of the time, the occupant is the prior owner and you have to factor in all the time to evict them or offer cash for key if rejected. My experiences have been that by law you have to give them a MTM lease, once that is rejected, then you give them 60 days notice and so on. It might take 6 to 12 months to evict and you have to factor that in when you bid. There is no free lunch here and you cannot use borrowed money. Its like foreclosure on the steps, you have to do your research and you know how to distinguish between an occupied homes from a vacant even they say it is occupied.</p>
<p>On the u-Haul van conversion idea - the Genera Contractor who did the addition on my house had a similar idea - he bought an old, 1970s Ford Econoline van. Outfitted it with all kinds of storage inside - small bins, large bins etc. with all kinds of supplies and fittings inside. Restocks it every few years. </p>
<p>When he takes a large project - multiple months - he drives the van to the site and parks it for 4 or 5 months. He told me that the van averages less than 1000 miles a year - and is going to last forever. As for passing the cost (he was doing the job on time and materials for me), the deal was simple - $250 bucks paid for any part he needed from the van. </p>
<p>$250 for any part needed in the van??? What if he only needs a 2" screw? </p>
<p>CONSTRUCTION UPDATE</p>
<p>OK, back to business of flipping the little Spanish bungalow. Since there was so much upheaval this week on what we will or will not be doing with the project, the team focused on working on the infrastructure of the house. They crawled every inch under the house and replaced all of the floor joists, base plates and rim joists that had been termite damaged. These were marked with chalk by the termite inspector. Boy, you should have seen that termite report - it was covered with dots and marks!</p>
<p>In addition, we had a major rain storm. I actually consider this lucky when we are in project because it gives us a chance to truly inspect if the roof is OK, check for leaks and check for drainage issues. We discovered that we only have one major roof leak, but it is mysterious and coming down through the walls. We would have never caught it unless we had the entire kitchen corner open. It was open because there was so much rotten wood under that kitchen corner, but we couldn’t figure out why. Now we know why and we can get it fixed.</p>
<p>Also, there was some wind blown rain coming in through the old windows, easily fixable when we get the new windows installed. </p>
<p>To be as diligent as possible we also cut open every corner or area of the house that had an obvious patch from a prior leak. I wanted to make absolutely sure that it wasn’t wet behind the area or rotted from the previous water damage. I am glad we did this because we found a corner of the house where the corner post was completely rotten from prior water damage and termite intrusion. Going to have to carefully pull out that corner post and get a new one in place.</p>
<p>Oh, and did I mention that the garage roof is a joke??? There was six inches of standing water on top of the garage because the flat roof is not draining at all and is sagging in the middle. This poses a huge risk that the old garage ceiling will collapse from the weight and ruin our tools and materials stored inside. My lead guy found a siphon pump and we immediately installed it to try to drain the water off the roof. Unfortunately it is a battery operated pump and we had to turn it off when we left Friday evening because we didn’t want it to dry up and burn out. </p>
<p>BACK TO REALITY - THIS JOB IS NOT GLAMOROUS!
Saturday morning I arrived to the project with 5/8" drywall loaded in truck and it started to downpour. Never mind the drywall which is now ruined in the back of the truck, someone has to get up on that roof and turn on the siphon pump!!! I look around and realize I am the only one on the project for another hour. I had no choice but to get out a giant extension ladder, gently get up to the roof and then I realize… OMG!!! that pump is out in the middle of the roof in the sagging area. I am now soaking wet from the rain … but I have no choice but to crawl through 6" of cold water to the middle of the garage roof, praying that the roof doesn’t collapse. I didn’t dare walk upright, my mind was thinking the weight would surely cause a collapse. Worst part was inching back to the edge of the roof and trying to carefully come back down the ladder. I am scared of ladders. I was soaking wet and freezing cold the entire day in a little house with no heat. Luckily the 2nd shift crew (guys that help on weekends) showed up and helped me unload the soggy ruined materials out of the truck.</p>
<p>I realize that these are the types of things that husbands have to rush out and do in the middle of storms, but I never thought that I would have to do this. They didn’t mention all this #@$#@$ in the fancy glossy brochures about flipping.</p>
<p>I have loaded new photos to the Flickr group. I have added descriptions to the photos which explain what is shown. If you open the photo you can see the detailed descriptions. You don’t want to miss the photo of the new glorious toilet!!</p>
<p>Just want to say that I spent decades financing tax-advantaged real estate so I have no real experience with the “flipping houses” business. From reading this thread, I am very impressed with the entrepreneurial skills of the posters involved in this business. The level of expertise needed and the willingness to work long hours are daunting. Obviously, one can make a good living but only if you know what are you doing. I wouldn’t recommend this for amateurs. </p>
<p>Ok
Now you finished the EC can we start the application? ^_^</p>
<p>Artlover… sorry don’t understand EC/application</p>
<p>Someone painted over solid walnut molding??? People are idiots.</p>
<p>Maybe you can reinstall with the painted side in back and save yourself a lot of stripping. Or get them dipped.</p>
<p>Oh, my, what a handsome toilet!!</p>
<p>^^ Just a joke.</p>
<p>I equate the exercise of purchase, pre-sale and construction to College application process, since this is a college board. You need good grade to win the purchase, EC is equated to dance with customers during pre-sale then the real application equated to the construction. ^_^</p>
<p>Seriously, I am really in deep waters on my property sales, I didn’t want to jink it by posting.</p>
<p>But the buyers have applied to three banks, since October 2013 and could not get a loan, they have excellent credit scores, plenty of equity in other investments and good jobs with high pay, the problem is that they did not report rents from one of the investment property on their tax returns and the banks rejected all of their apps.
However, they are determined to buy this property, refused to sign cancellation notice and now went to hard money lender, they will put up two first mortgages to buy my property in addition to the 30% down, in the mean time they are paying $100/day for that privilege.</p>
<p>I am expecting to sign the papers on Monday, fingers crossed.</p>
<p>±</p>
<p>Wow, you are still trying to sell that property with the low ceilings? That has been one long escrow. So sorry to hear that. If you were trying to do this as a full time job that would be tying up your capital for a very long time.</p>
<p>yes, unfortunately, I had a bad buyer and it came with the territory. I sent them two notices of cancellation and they refused to sign that, what can I do? At least they are paying $100/day for more than one month now.</p>
<p>Monday will be my day…finger crossed.</p>
<p>artloversplus, are you actually collecting the $100 a day, or is this just what you hope to be collecting? Can you get stiffed on that amount??</p>
<p>The escrow will deduct that amount($100 a day) from the deposit and subsequent sales price. It is a formal agreement on the conditions of closing.</p>
<p>They have increased deposit to $40K so there is no problem to collect.</p>
<p>Funny thing is that in earlier Feb., the loan broker emailed everyone on one Thursday says the bank will forward all the loan docs to the escrow on Friday. But Friday came and gone, by Monday, it seems the loan docs will never come and we later found out that the pen broke, the bank found out the problems on the tax returns and pull the plug.</p>
<p>I had all the keys and permits already delivered to the house that weekend and came with the big disappointment. The worst is that I have made several offers to the next project over the three days from Thursday and if any of them sticks I will be in big trouble.</p>
<p>Wow, I would be ballistic by now. There is always something at the last minute. Not sure why anyone bothers to believe a loan pre approval.</p>
<p>Coralbrook - I should have been clearer - $250 was the total charge for the five month job. Anything they needed in that time period was covered by the $250. Thus when they need that 2" screw, it was already paid for - also the 3/4 inch copper elbow, the junction box, and the 8 penny nails - and no one has to make a run to Home Depot (which is 20 minutes away - so would cause at least a one hour delay). </p>
<p>I hate to be a pest, but I only see the old photos. Can someone post a new link? </p>
<p>Unfortunately it accidentally got marked in a way that forces you to have a Yahoo account or register for flickr to see CC Flip Project 2. Link is posted up in the thread somewhere</p>