<p>There is an underground business I discovered. The $55+ worth of pipes are sold to “middle man” for next to nothing, perhaps $10, which exactly gave them a meal, but that is better than nothing. Homeless ppl does that all the time, they also risk their lives to climb high tension tower to cut down heavy gauge wires and sell for scrap. Contra Costa county lost millions because of that, I-80 near Richmond was dark for a stretch of several miles due to vandalism. Since it was only petty theft, they go to the retention station for over night and they are out. ITS LIKE GOING TO HOTEL, they are rested, fed well and ready to do it again.</p>
<p>Now the rule has been changed, they told me to be caught with stealing copper wires from the utility poles will go directly to jail for three years regardless if it is one wire or bunch of them.</p>
<p>I saw on one of the Flipping San Diego shows that someone came to their little project (the 500sf house) and stole the new windows off the exterior. That one absolutely baffles me also. Although they might have just shown it for drama or something.</p>
<p>The windows are custom sizes - they fit only into those holes. Who in the world are you going to sell windows of a certain size to? It would have to be for new construction (they were new construction windows, not the type with the exterior flange for replacement windows). So, is someone going to build a house that has that exact size and shape of window?</p>
<p>Guessing it was an amateur that thought they would be worth something but I have no idea where you would take them to sell? Swap Meet?? I doubt it.</p>
<p>^^ You apparently did not finished the show, it was two house on the same lot and two partners each took one to be responsible. One of the partner wants to make a joke to the other and hided those windows in his part of the renovation. Of course at the end all is good.</p>
<p>In my last renovation, I bought 12 boxes of Purgo, had some one local to put it in two of the rooms. The night I bought it, someone came and stole 5 boxes and get this: The installer knew he would be responsible and spread the word that he wanted them back. Lo and behold 4 boxes did return and I just lost one box. Those boxes cost $17/ea. and you maybe get $5/box on the market. It is pretty heavy. The house was attended, the plumber lived there.</p>
<p>Not the 2 on 1, I’m talking about the one where they did the really small 500sf house with no yard and no parking that he had to tear off interior and exterior to the studs. They had their exterior thick siding (with manufacturer promo) up and the windows in, but not trimmed out. They had to call manufacturer to get emergency new windows and they got them in one week.</p>
<p>BTW, the little house just sold on market about 8 months after they bought it, long carrying time on that one.</p>
<p>Slightly Used Windows are offered in used construction part stores. We have one in the town next to one of my house. You can buy bunch of moldings for about 50%. Windows and doors are about 50% of HD prices as well.</p>
<p>I have an update on the other house I was considering at the beginning of this thread. If you remember, the other house under consideration was an original craftsman in a really hot neighborhood of San Diego. It finally closed escrow last week:</p>
<p>3/1 1200sf in horrible condition filled with hoarder trash almost 5’ high. Not going to be cleared out by absentee owner.</p>
<p>Listed at $350k and I offered at $425k and that was really tight for profit margin. Just closed after being listed since 6/11/2013 because it was probate and a lot of other title issues about City abatements (clear out trash, clean up hazards). Sold for $457,000, almost $100k over listing price. I am glad that I did not buy it because it was a bidding war and it would have held up my funds for an extra 7 weeks before I could even get started on a project.</p>
<p>Uggh, it’s closing in on Friday and we are still not done with electrical and plumbing. </p>
<p>Cannot put first stucco coat on because all the ‘holes’ are not punched out of the house for outlet boxes, exterior lights, outlet for tankless water heater and gas line.</p>
<p>Cannot close up the floor because we are not done running the ABS drain lines under the house.</p>
<p>I am in a holding pattern for the poor stucco guy and I’m crossing my fingers that dry wallers can start next week sometime. </p>
<p>I would say we are about a week behind, mostly slow on the plumbing completion. And, we haven’t even tested the water lines, drains and especially the gas lines. It’s slightly complex to pressurize the gas line and check for leaks. I won’t let them close up the floors until we have everything tested because it’s just too hard to crawl on their bellies to try to find the one little leak.</p>
<p>Because honestly it was disgusting! And a lot of listing agents in town are playing a game listing low to generate a multiple offer frenzy. However, on this one it clearly stated Professional Investors only and the guy had to pre-qualify you before he would accept an offer. Our market has slowed down, prices dipping slightly for homeowner purchases. But there is still investor frenzy on the distressed,poor condition properties that are priced low. The only reason I got my purchase is because it was a brand new agent (granddaughter of owner) that priced way too high so everyone was ignoring it.</p>
<p>On another note, I watch the foreclosure auctions closely and the over paying at auction has definitely slowed down. Investors were purchasing at just 5% off full market value. That has stopped and they are back to 10%. Most old -timers will never pay more then 20% off value.</p>
<p>Also, banks seem to be caught up with “rising prices” hype and most opening bids are coming out high now with Boone buying the properties, although the opening bid is still below the mortgage amount.</p>
<p>What this means in our market area is there is s larger percent of foreclosures going back to banks then over the last year when anything and everything was getting purchased at auction. Which will result in more REO (bank owned) properties coming onto the market in the near future.</p>
<p>In HI, housing prices are also quite always crazy high for small, old properties (world market and limited land). That would be CHEAP for a 1200 square foot house in an OK neighborhood here; way too low for a “hot” neighborhood.</p>
<p>One of my coworkers bought a house about a year ago. His neighbor just sold their house (same style and very similar condition) for about $220k more than they had paid for theirs. Apparently in our area a lot of the houses are being snatched up by hedge funds.</p>
<p>Yes you are seeing a lot of investment buyers on anything priced low. Regular homebuyers are drying up because interest rates went up ( although still historically low) but also because August is always a slow month. Maybe Art Lover can share real estate action in his/ her market. Sorry don’t know gender which means a good job on anonymity!</p>
<p>Unfortunately this slow down is not good for me, just hoping it picks up a bit by late October. Maybe pushing schedule will be a blessing</p>
<p>Happened to have a conversation about PEX today with the head of the building department in a nearby town. He loves PEX, but thinks the sharkbite fittings are garbage.</p>
<p>Does “August is slow” extend across the country? Because I’m oh so close to sticking the For Rent sign up next to the For Sale sign. The house rents quickly but I put so much effort into repainting and fixing. It’s going to be painful to watch renters ruin all my effort and time. However, paying the heat bill all winter will be equally painful.</p>
<p>I watch all the media and nightly news hype about the housing market recovering and I wonder if they failed to take note of large segments of the country.</p>
<p>There is not much inventory but the absorption rate is very slow where my listing is located. Now I did not over priced my listing. Here is why. A smaller duplex 400 feet away from my duplex, also a flipper, is sold(closed) two weeks ago for $295K(asking 300). That house had a lot size of 3500sf. My house is 200sf larger AND is on 24000sf lot(The lot can easily be subdivided into two). I used that house as a model to renovate mine and I did much more than they did. I am asking 369K, now, am I over priced?</p>