<p>auction.com hide their price realized because they had a bad experience in the past and forced them to close down the operation. Prior to auction.com, as discussed before, they were ballroom land auction house and was sued by number of misrepresentations. Until today, they try to avoid land auctions in their portfolio and keep the public from the prize realized until closing.</p>
<p>wow
foreclosure radar $50/mo…</p>
<p>VH said</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes when the buyer went to sign the paper, they were “SHOCKED” that those $100/day added up to $3400 and want to RENEGOTIATE? I said I won’t budge on that and this morning they came to offer 50% of the charge. I told my agent to start writing cancellation notice and tell them they are going to be assessed from the deposit for that $3400 anyway and they have to pay Escrow fees. Here is the situation:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>the $100/day assessment is hinged upon their release of loan contingency, so if they sign the cancellation the loan contingency requirement will not be released so they will be charged the $3400 from the deposit in Escrow.</p></li>
<li><p>If they sign the loan contingency release today that will stop the 100/day charges and if they still refuse to be assessed, they can sign a cancellation, then the whole 40K deposit is at stake.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So at 11am the buyer called that they will go through the closing.</p>
<p>Its a real tough market out there.</p>
<p>A few of the short sale listings have increased listing price by 50K or more after 30-70 days on the market.</p>
<p>Artloversplus, glad it worked out for you! I had a feeling they wouldn’t roll over easily. $100 a day will do that.</p>
<p>Based on market condition, I’d rather cancel the deal, I will increase my asking price by 40K at the minimum.</p>
<p>Well, this must be a house for you CB, come up and I will show it to you.</p>
<p>Class A location, 3200 sqft living space, year 2000 construction on 1.6 acres. Estimated value 1.4 Million. Price $600K!</p>
<p>With only one problem! No roof and all the walls need to be demolished except the foundation.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, why do the walls have to come down? Is it because roof has been open a long time and the wood studs are ruined? There’s one of those in my home neighborhood and the bank foreclosed 2 yrs ago and Ive been wondering when they are going to do anything about it.</p>
<p>I believe it might be fire related ;
</p>
<p>Week 1 of trying to manage two projects at the same time.</p>
<p>Well, I’m now convinced that I cannot manage two projects at once.</p>
<p>First, its Saturday night and I’m just getting home at 6pm after starting at Project #2 at 7am. Beyond bone tired after this long week.</p>
<p>Major mistakes this week. At the Spanish bungalow my lead was just working along to my original plan and then the buyer came into the mix. I told him to stop with the wall/layout changes and focus on infrastructure repairs under the house. Then I realized that we needed to get our dumpster filled before it got hauled away. So, we started pulling out the heavy old windows.</p>
<p>But, she changed the scope and is keeping some of the old windows until she decides what she wants to do in the back of the house. Meanwhile we come to final agreement and I’m typing up the new work list. I arrive to project and he has completely ripped out kitchen window, window sill and frame from stucco. Framed it in and Drywall going up. OMG, she wanted window to stay as is. He has to open it back up, build new window sill and frame.</p>
<p>Then I go to back of house and the back window is pulled out, but at least frame and sill are still intact. It took the laborer 3 hours to dumpster dive under all the old garage siding and plaster to rescue the old window sashes. All the glass is broken and we’ll need to replace.</p>
<p>At least on the Spanish bungalow the buyer isn’t around and I can just fix the mistakes and move on.</p>
<p>But, here’s the worst!!! Walked into Project #2 this morning to find that the crew has demolished all the slab granite off the den fireplace surround and pulled out the hearth ledge and granite. OMG!!! Owners are coming in one hour for a meeting and I cannot hide this. It was just horrible. I checked my work list and it clearly stated fireplace stays. Our first progress meeting did not go well. I had to promise to pay to put granite back up and rebuild hearth. Luckily the slab is completely intact as one piece against the wall.</p>
<p>This is not going well. I need to be in both places at once.</p>
<p>coralbrook: Do you have someone you trust who can be a helper and be in the other place for you?</p>
<p>Yes, I have called a girlfriend who spent years as a Project Manager renovating old farmhouses in Tuscany (how cool is that!). Unfortunately she lives in Florida and is married to a Mega Yacht captain. Yacht is in Caribbean for the winter and owners (some Lord from England) are off the yacht for a month. Her husband called her to come down and join him for 2 weeks. </p>
<p>Gee, what would you choose?? Come to San Diego to help your friend clean toilets or hang on the Mega Yacht in the Caribbean?? </p>
<p>Believe it or not she is very excited and wants to come help. I just have to wait patiently until her little jaunt is over about March 16th. And, I have to pay her something to come help so it definitely reduces the income I was going to get from Project #2.</p>
<p>Progress Update</p>
<p>I think garages are going to be the death of me. </p>
<p>I need to get the dumpster out of the driveway so we are focusing on tearing out everything that is heavy and needs to get into the dumpster. This means that we have to get all of the old termite-ridden original siding off the garage and into the dumpster. Because we are zero lot line with the neighbors, our garage walls are their fences/patio walls. So, because of security and neighbor friendliness we have to immediately install the new siding on the same day.</p>
<p>This requires coordination with the neighbors because we literally have to climb the fence and stand in their back yard demolishing and building. I have run around and discussed this with the side neighbor and the back neighbor. So, here we go… </p>
<p>First thing we find out is that this garage was never anchored to the concrete slab. If we were in tornado country this stupid garage would have just lifted right off and flown somewhere, not to mention that we DO live in earthquake country and I cannot figure out why this thing just hasn’t fallen over in 90 years. So, drilled into the concrete and set anchor bolts. Wrapped metal flashing around the bottom of exterior to prevent moisture and bugs from coming up into the base plates and siding.</p>
<p>Discovered that the SW corner of garage was over 2" out of square and it was actually built that way. Took off the siding, braced the corner back to square and quickly screwed on new siding which pulled the building back to square.</p>
<p>Have ripped off the roof to go into dumpster and we have decided to ‘embrace’ the roof’s natural low spot. Installing an expensive copper roof drain in that low spot which will connect to ABS drain pipe running along roof of garage to new hole going out to driveway with a gutter downspout. It was either this, or build a whole new structure on top of the garage with wood and heavy plywood to slope it completely towards driveway. Kind of like building a mini skate ramp on top of the garage. Roofer says that the weight of ramping might be too much for original garage. </p>
<p>And of course, I have to write up all these decisions and pass them by the new buyer every day… just shoot me!</p>
<p>Stripped years and years of paint off the original window trim and window sills. Discovered that there is serious termite damage in the front window sills and I have to wait for buyer to tell me which alternative they want to try to fix this situation. There is going to be a LOT of wood putty in the sills that will never exactly match original wood color for stain and finish. It will look very spotty.</p>
<p>Lots of new photos. Open the photos to see detailed descriptions</p>
<p>Now I see why selling the house before the renovation entails a lot more trouble than selling it “as is” after the renovation.</p>
<p>HVAC installed</p>
<p>The HVAC system arrived, installed in attic, new ducting run through attic, vents in room installed, electrical hooked up, gas line still TBD. But, of course, the new buyer wanted to change location of the AC unit. Original plan was to have it installed on the roof above the heating unit, short runs of electrical and pipe.</p>
<p>She wants it as far away from the house as possible - in the back corner of patio. This requires about 12 feet of trench to be built to bury lines and some extra ‘things’ (which I don’t understand) to be installed with the AC unit. When I contacted my HVAC contractor he said it was absolutely nuts, he installs on roofs every day. That AC unit could’ve been out of sight and on roof. Instead this monstrosity is sitting in the corner of the small little patio and an eyesore. She was adamant, her reasons 1) weight of unit on roof, 2) potential roof leaks, 3) potential vibrating</p>
<p>So, I have to go through three way emails, texts and negotiations with HVAC. I asked him addition cost… he comes back with $400 for the additional parts. He neglected to mention additional cost for concrete cutting, digging trench and long pipe material costs. So, I figured our crew would cut the concrete and do the trench. I quoted new buyer $550 to put the AC unit in corner. She agreed.</p>
<p>Of course the HVAC contractor shows up this week and before I know it (at Home Depot making a run) he has cut the concrete himself and dug the trench… he couldn’t wait for someone else to do it. Then he starts babbling about a bunch of stuff that has to get done and shows me his invoice for installing on back patio - $882!!! I am now in the position of eating $330 to move the AC unit because I already signed off on only $550 additional cost.</p>
<p>And did I mention that the back side of the house looks like a nuclear reactor installation?? - very similar to the tankless water heater on the last project.</p>
<p>Very aggravating. I’m going downhill fast here. Photos loaded for the HVAC install</p>
<p>Ouch. Hang in there. Interesting – it’s another example of why selling after completion is better than selling before completion. It’s becoming clearer with each one of these tales.</p>
<p>Yes, one good example would be that she wants to pick her own tile. I had to set a ‘budget’ of $3/sf for bathroom floor tile. She will probably find something she loves that uses every penny of that $3.00/sf. Meanwhile, I would have shopped hard and found something gorgeous on sale for about $2.25/sf. and on and on</p>
<p>You should give her a labor and management cost only quote. She can pick and choose whatever she wanted. Of course, wall boards are nails etc you can give her the invoice.</p>
<p>You also can say, I will sell you the house for X, material is extra and here is my material budget for basics, tiles appliances, lighting etc etc are her responsibility</p>
<p>Most of the personal choices have been removed from the contract and she is buying what she wants. But tile is still in contract because I need to buy it, haul it and get it installed. She’s buying all fixtures lighting, appliances, etc.</p>