<p>I only wish that I had a team of workers - one at the courthouse and one at the steps. My competition has entire teams of paid people driving all the houses, title search, tax search, etc. I have to do everything myself. If I think a house is vacant I have been known to scale fences and try to peer through windows. I usually have to drive the homes at least 3 days before auction and I just pray that the house hasn’t burnt down in the meantime.</p>
<p>Also, on Flip Men I’m not sure how all those homes they buy are vacant. Maybe there are different laws in Utah where the show is based. Here in California about 90% of the homes are occupied when foreclosed and you can’t just go bust the door down and start renovating.</p>
<p>Also, their courthouse auction scenes seem very fake to me. I think those are shot ‘after’ they have purchased the property, might even be actors or something.</p>
<p>Coral, that’s amazing! And I agree - so quick!</p>
<p>May I ask if you are male or female?? Not trying to sound weird, but I’m just really impressed - either way. :)</p>
<p>Coral, those photos look great!!! Nice job!! </p>
<p>I always thought it would be something neat to get in to. I love working on houses.</p>
<p>I would have loved to do a flip as well – in fact, our wonderful contractor looked at a few houses with us but none of them was right. So it never happened. Instead, we wound up investing in a house where my graduate student son is living for the next three years. Hopefully that will turn out to be a good investment, both for us and for him.</p>
<p>My family thinks I should do a flip. Then they look around our house at all of my unfinished projects.</p>
<p>HGTV is constant background noise in my house. The funniest shows (certainly not designed to be) are the quick-reno shows. Really, tile directly onto plywood in a shower? How long will that last??? I also get a chuckle out of the fact that none of the homeowners seem to have a clue how to use power tools.</p>
<p>Per post #95, second paragraph, Coral is a woman. She ought to post on the “Investment Speculation” thread and teach them a thing or two.</p>
<p>Coral, do you have any tips on how to make a scratch in hardwood look any less noticeable?</p>
<p>Fendergirl,
Yes I have experience trying to cover scratches. No matter how careful I am, inevitably we scratch the newly refinished floors while pushing staging furniture around. In the Home Depot or Lowes paint department, or the flooring department, you will find stain pens. Try to find the stain pen (like a Sharpie pen) that matches your floor stain color. Gently use the pen on the scratch and then wipe up quickly. This will at least give the scratch a matching color so it is more pleasing on the eye. If it is a large scratch, your ‘eye’ will see that the sheen of the top coat is missing, but the pen should be good enough.</p>
<p>If you really want to have perfection, get a small thing of wood putty from the paint department - matching as close as possible. Practice taking a small amount of wood putty and rolling it in your hand with the stain pen applied until you think you are matching as much as possible. Then rub it into the scratch and clean up. Sometimes this ends up being even more obvious than the scratch itself, so try to live with just the stain pen application.</p>
<p>Regarding Investment Speculation - boy have I done some crazy things. I really am not making a ‘killing’, just making a living for my family (husband out of work). My biggest problem is that I am a perfectionist and I want my homes to be perfect and gorgeous - which is the #1 rule how to fail at flipping. You should really just do the minimum needed for the price range and the neighborhood and get it back on the market fast. But, what’s the fun in that??? Only saving grace is that my homes fly off the market fast while the other ones linger. My motto = target the wife’s taste, she drives the purchase decision !!</p>
<p>I have been known to re-paint the entire exterior of a house because I just couldn’t stand how the color turned out, repaint bathrooms several times to get just the right shade of steel blue, ripped out new granite once because it just was disgusting color-wise with the new cabinets. Had to make the granite guys drive the granite back to my home garage and I used it on the next project. Bought an expensive refrigerator once for an existing kitchen that was in good condition, to find out that the side by side doors wouldn’t open to the left, cabinet in the way - OOPS!! Back to the home garage and used on the next project.</p>
<p>Thanks, I actually do have three stain pens currently. My wood is very very light though, I’m not sure if my lightest pen would be too dark or not.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I did make a big scratch moving furniture. I’ll try it on a little piece of the scratch with my lightest marker and see if that helps. Do they make them in more colors then just three? My stain marker set has light, medium and dark. I’ve used the light on my oak table before and it matched up well… My floors are pine with a natural satin finish… No stain color.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip</p>
<p>I thought that Coral was probably a female but I didn’t want to make a wrong judgement and I was too lazy to read back!!!</p>
<p>fender, I used the following on a piece of scratched wood furniture–was amazed how scratch “disappeared”. Maybe this would work for you? (recipe makes waaay too much–I’d cut it down; I also wiped excess off after an hour)</p>
<p>Naturally Repair Wood With Vinegar and Canola Oil</p>
<p>Mix 3/4 cup of oil
1/4 cup vinegar - white or apple cider vinegar</p>
<p>Mix it in a jar, then rub it into the wood. No need to wipe it off; the wood just soaks it in.</p>
<p>Will try, what kind of oil did you use</p>
<p>When I move furniture on my wood floors, I slip a towel underneath them first. Then, when you (or your male significant other) are pushing the furniture, you’re really just sliding the towel along the floor. No scratches.</p>
<p>Back to HGTV shows: What does anyone think about the Novogratz couple??</p>
<p>I find them interesting in an interesting way. They are very “New York” to me in person and in design - so sometimes I like it, sometimes not. Every once in a while they will be designing a room that I love and then they put one or two pieces (art or otherwise) in it that I’m like, “huh??!”. For some reason I love when they show them at home with the kids - seems like a cool eclectic bunch. </p>
<p>I actually haven’t seen their show in a while. Must be on at a time I’m not watching.</p>
<p>Fender…there are more shades of the stain pens. If you Google it you can find kits with multiple shades but the basic kits usually have 6 colors:Maple, Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Mahogany and Black . Here is a link for a big kit that has light pine. <a href=“http://www.westnc.com/woodmarkers.html[/url]”>http://www.westnc.com/woodmarkers.html</a></p>
<p>Fender—I used Canola oil…</p>
<p>The oil and vinegar trick sounds great, although I have no idea what the vinegar is for 
I’m guessing that the oil soaks the wood and brings out the natural color - so it would be good for natural wood without a darkening stain.</p>
<p>I have seen ads for the Novogratz show but I have never actually seen it. I wish they would have some more shows that are just purely ‘design a room’ type of shows - love Candice Olson. My dream would be to have Candice come do my living room or office. Although I can tell that she uses very expensive fabrics and furniture to get that incredible style. </p>
<p>One of my favorites was when they would take a very expensive room and then decorate it in similar style on the cheap. Always had great ideas.</p>