<p>Did the flickr group change? The most recent picture I see is from May 7.</p>
<p>Don’t clean up the weeds. You don’t work for the agents, you work for the buyer. </p>
<p>ETA: Vinyl floors in the kitchen? Wow. I didn’t think anyone with more than a nickel in their pocket did that anymore. Seems very retro. </p>
<p>This should be the location, but it got locked private by accident. Maybe not private any more because I had to change my Yahoo Account</p>
<p><a href=“Flickr Login”>https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/groups/2560169@N22/</a></p>
<p>I have no idea why the Buyer insisted on vinyl flooring but she likes the ‘cushy’ feel of this type of vinyl. It was very hard to find a pattern that would even go with the kitchen, all of the vinyl patterns are so ugly. Unfortunately, the only vinyl that even had the right coloring is more of a 50s style than a 1920s style. </p>
<p>Believe me, this lady spends weird money. She purchased her kitchen faucet and had it delivered. Grohe faucet, OK good quality. But the thing is just so plain looking I cannot believe that she paid $700 for that dang faucet. And then the Kenmore microwave shows up with a price tag of $879. What the hey?? I cannot imagine what she paid for the shower fixtures, special order German manufacture. They look just like anything from Home Depot.</p>
<p>Ok, I can see them now…</p>
<p>I think the bathroom light fixtures are pretty ugly, but what do I know.</p>
<p>
What kind of return did the owner get on their $75K investment?</p>
<p>Notrichenough, that is a very good question. Here’s the background</p>
<p>The owners and the listing agent hired an independent appraiser to give a value opinion in it’s prior condition. The home is actually a ‘condo’ because there are two homes on the lot and a shared common wall. The appraiser had to do comparable sale evaluation based on condos sold. The home does not feel like a condo and faces a different street than the other home. Appraiser came up with value of $840,000. My listing agent thought they could push to $900,000 because it has an excellent location.</p>
<p>There are new homes being built on lots where developers have scraped old homes. These new homes are stunning and selling for about $1.1 to $1.2 million. That was their competition so I think they realized they needed to update their home to get that type of pricing.</p>
<p>So, on paper, their $75,000 remodel gained them another $200,000 to $250,000 in sale price. That is an excellent return. </p>
<p>I think it all depends on the neighborhood and the other homes on the market. Obviously, a $75,000 remodel isn’t going to squeeze another $200,000 out of a $300,000 house.</p>
<p>I actually came in $7,200 under my estimate that I gave them at the beginning of the project, which made them very happy. But they added about $5,000 work that was not in the original estimate and the agreement was that they would purchase the flooring, kitchen sink and some other items themselves. I would not want to do this type of thing on a fixed bid because there was so many changes and additions to the work.</p>
<p>
I think some of the contractors I’ve worked with use change orders to significantly increase their profits. Sometimes I think they quote a low price knowing that something will inevitably be changed that they can charge 5x a fair price for, because they are locked in.</p>
<p>You are absolutely correct. They use change orders to gain a lot of profit because you are stuck just standing there and everything is $500 or $1,000 
Nothing you can do at that point</p>
<p>coralbrook, when the dust settles (literally as well as figuratively) on both of these projects, I am interested in your Lessons Learned from them. I’m also eager to accompany you on your next project. I am learning a lot from this.</p>
<p>Love the soapstone counter. I also love the tile in the bathroom. </p>
<p>Today is appraisal inspection day and we might make it! Yesterday we needed to get the plumbing installed underneath the kitchen sink. The Buyer just last week insisted she wanted some special type of garbage disposal - Batch Feed. It is not sold anywhere in our area. She ordered it online and had it shipped to the project. It only arrived Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Open up the box yesterday and this is the largest thing you’ve ever seen. At least 6" larger in diameter than a normal garbage disposal. Takes up the whole area in the 33" sink cabinet. But, the biggest problem is that between the large diameter and the fact that the kitchen sink has a drain in the back of the sink (instead of center) means that there was absolutely no room for a p trap under the sink in the normal place behind garbage disposal. We had already plumbed in the ABS drain and p trap and we were just waiting for the garbage disposal.</p>
<p>I had to call my poor lead (with bandaged hand) and ask him if he could please just come and sit in a chair and lead us through the plumbing. So, myself and our regular laborer were crawling around on the floor and under the sink while he talked us through. We had to rip out all the plumbing and start over again. Another record-setting day of driving back/forth to the local hardware store to get one more plumbing part. We had to go back inside the wall and come out with a 22 degree sweep, pull the plumbing to the side of the garbage disposal to get a p trap set. </p>
<p>And then of course we go to connect the faucet and her fancy Grohe faucet hoses were too short and didn’t make it down to the angle valve water supply coming out of the wall. We had purposely set the angle valves down the wall because the sink is 10" deep and we didn’t want them up behind the sink. OK, another trip to hardware store to get little unions to connect up Grohe hoses to standard faucet hoses. Oh no, then we discover that to do the connection we cannot use standard faucet hoses because we are now connecting 3/8" to 3/8" compression, another trip to Home Depot last night to get special faucet hoses.</p>
<p>All said and done, we still don’t have running water in the kitchen sink and appraiser is coming at 9:30am this morning. I’m just hoping he doesn’t turn on the kitchen faucet :)</p>
<p>I was so frustrated by 6pm last night that I shared the ordeal with my listing agent. She went to bat for me and sent out an email charging an extra $100 for all the rework required to get in the special garbage disposal.</p>
<p>So appraiser shows up half hour early yesterday and we were just clearing out tons of tools, materials, etc from back yard and garage. Had to pull truck out of driveway and park it down the street so it wasn’t in the pictures. After 2 weeks of panicking about the appraiser, he walked in and took pictures and measured the house. Asked one question about how much the improvements cost for the remodel and then left.</p>
<p>10 minutes in the house. Didn’t even turn one light on or any faucets. Geez, we killed ourselves for nothing </p>
<p>Our next challenge is trying to make the ‘agent inspection’ next Wednesday afternoon. Because the Buyer is in Pennsylvania she is sending her agent for the final walkthrough. This is where we have to show that everything in the original scope of work got completed and everything’s working. We have a million small things to get done, unfortunately involving cutting a lot of trim wood and we are staying away from the saws right now. I may have to pull in an expensive finish carpenter to get the trim done. </p>
<p>We have a two page list of things that still need to get done. The one task that is going to take days is that we have to put on two coats of expensive urethane on all the wood work. I have been desperately waiting until we were totally ‘dust free’ without any more sanding or mess. That didn’t happen until one minute before the appraiser walked in yesterday. I have one guy working through the weekend trying to get the coats of varnish on when no one else is there making a mess. But, he’s got to wait at least 8 hrs between coats to do the fine sanding and reapply.</p>
<p>Hi Coral,
How did you end up framing the window in the kitchen with the cabinets coming so close to the window? And what happened with the buyer’s request to dig out the basement?
Thx</p>
<p>I’m glad the agent decided to charge the buyer additional for all the kitchen sink plumbing brouhaha, but really – only $100??</p>
<p>We would have plumbed the kitchen sink anyways, it just took 2 extra hours x 2 guys plus $20 in new parts, not to mention a million trips to hardware store.</p>
<p>Regarding crawlspace entry, I walked around with my lead and we reviewed where in the world we could create a large crawlspace entry. She had asked for north side of house but it is a concrete walkway there and it is the furthest point from where the plumbing is under the house. So, I explained to her that it requires jack hammering the concrete, probably causing a drainage issue when it rains and that the crawlspace entry is really meant to get access to plumbing under the house. It is the furthest point from the kitchen plumbing.</p>
<p>So, we recommended creating an access on the south side of the house by the driveway. At that point she decided she would wait to make a decision on the crawlspace until she moves in. Thank God, I just didn’t want to be responsible for that large job.</p>
<p>One of the reasons this crawlspace becomes an issue is that the current crawlspace is built to 1926 standards, very small little entry hole. It is located in back of house, right under the dining room window area. She has this dream that she is going to dismantle the gorgeous original cabinetry in that dining room, open up the wall and put in a French door. I keep pointing out that not only is the crawlspace there, but the Gas Meter is located right under that window outside and it is a giant ordeal to get SDGE to move that gas meter. Not to mention that it is grandfathered because you cannot have gas meters under windows anymore. I just want to stay away from the whole mess. That is why the original window still remains in that dining room area, because she didn’t want me to waste money and time replacing a window that she is going to change into a French door. </p>
<p>My new dilemma is that I just read in my scope of work that we were going to provide screens for all the new windows. When you order new custom wood windows, the manufacturer will not provide screens. So, we now have to make some kind of screen for all the new windows. AND… I cannot find the new screen that came with the one vinyl window in the bathroom. That got lost somewhere in the mess. </p>
<p>What an ordeal, maybe I can find some new fangled pull down screen thing for these windows otherwise we are going to be spending days trying to make new bronze aluminum window screens from scratch.</p>
<p>CB, that sucks. Just when you thought you were almost done . . . .</p>
<p>Yikes! The appraisal came in for less than the agreed upon selling price! Both realtors think that we are going to roll over and accept the appraised price as the selling price. We are stunned! This does not seem quite right. The only thing we can think of to meet part way is that the new deal will be that we will do none of the agreed upon check list they came up with and that the house is now “as is.” Doesn’t it seem like everything is stacked in favor of the buyer these days?</p>
<p>^ Doesn’t matter what the agents think… what are the buyers saying? Are they unwilling to go forward at the agreed price? </p>
<p>Sometimes you can request a second appraisal.</p>
<p>If your contract has an appraisal contingency then that means they can cancel the contract with no liability. The main issue is that buyers can only get a loan for 80% of the appraised value. Some buyers do not have enough cash to make up the difference.</p>
<p>I believe that your approach is very smart. Obviously the appraiser valued the property in its current condition before your repairs. If they expect you to lower your price to that appraised value then they must want to purchase it in that same condition as the appraiser used for his valuation. Voila, case made.</p>
<p>In my area it is a seller’s market. Sellers are getting multiple offers and buyers are working hard to get their recross closed.</p>