Property Ladder - New show on TLC

[Bearcata]

The second episode was in Pico Rivera, CA about 11 miles south of LA. It is an area were a lot of first time buyers are heading. This was another couple, Demetra, who is a caterer for a corporation and John a waiter. They bought a 920sf 2 bedroom, 1 bath wooden house built in the 1930's for $325,000 and the budget is $25,000 and they hope to finish in 3 weeks. Both are first time flippers and the more you spend watching John you wonder how clueless he is. He hired mainly friends to help and he has no clue as to how to do anything. He can't even demo well. The house does have a one room bonus room in the backyard. Someone did try to some renovations but was not that successful. After demo they find rot and termite damage and half the wood frame needs to be replaced. They are thinking about opening a wall inside to increase flow. By week 6 the siding is going back on, there is a new fence and a new roof, John is trying to get things moving but he is ineffectual and he still knows nothing and has not bothered to research anything and yet he is acting as the gereral contractor. He figures since drywall sheets are big they will only need 20 to do the whole house. Uh, how about measure the rooms and figure out how much square footage you have to cover. His tile guys retile the bathroom without using spacers and the realtor calls him on it What really pisses me off is the kitchen. It is a galley style kitchen that used to have cabinets and counters on both sides. Well, on one side where the stove is there is not counter at all there is about 8 or 9 feet of bare wall. John did not read up on how high things should be. There are standard heights for counters and overhead cabinents so the majorigty of people can use them. That does not apply to John he puts them too high, what and idiot. They did install hardwood flooring throughout the house and that looks great. It was Demetra's idea. They did take down the wall separating the Kitchen, dining area and living room and that does look great. The bathroom also looks great with the new tile, bath, sink and toilet and large wide linen closet. They couple decided not to put in closet doors and used drapes instead. They did put in overhead lights in the bedrooms, Yeah!!, and the masterbedroom has a huge walkin closet. Although they put the light switch of one the bedrooms behind the door. John is Oh, Well, live and learn. Hope the new owner notices and makes them fix it. They did finish the bonus room and the realtor wants to list it as and extra bedroom. They did landscape, put in a sprinkler system and concrete pathway and parking area. They did blow their timeline and took 15 weeks to finish and ther budget went from $40,000 to $80,000. The realtor said to list the house for $479,000 with a potential profit of $74,000.

[Google]

 

[psycobabe007]

What gets me soooo much about some of these people on Property Ladder and other flipping shows is how they think that they can save $300-400 on a home inspection. This is some of the best spent money in any flip and can save you thousands!!!

After watching this show, I am certain that I would almost never buy a home from a flipper unless I had at least 2 home inspections and a "daddy inspection", hahaha!!

[Bearcata]

Originally Posted by psycobabe007

What gets me soooo much about some of these people on Property Ladder and other flipping shows is how they think that they can save $300-400 on a home inspection. This is some of the best spent money in any flip and can save you thousands!!!

After watching this show, I am certain that I would almost never buy a home from a flipper unless I had at least 2 home inspections and a "daddy inspection", hahaha!!

Even some of the experienced flippers have said to becareful of buying a flipped house cause so many folks are trying to cut corners cause they are being greedy and cause of the housing boom in California they can get away from it. Still I wonder if the housing market has slowed on the west coast as it has here on the east coast?

[Bearcata]

Westchester, CA near LAX and 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Real Estate Agent Beverly will be trying flipping for the first time. Her project manager, Mike is an experienced flipper. She bought a 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1,300 sq ft home for $730,000 and plans to have renovated in 30 days for a budget of $40,000.

Beverly, wants to put in all new windows. Which is a good idea in a house this age, She plans combine 2 smaller windows into a huge picture window in the living room. She plans to take down the wall separating the eat in area, living room and kitchen. Of course as a realtor she knows the money is in the kitchen and bathrooms. The previous owners had put in an addition in the back and this is confusing because there is a full bath there but she plans to use it at the master, and it was the family room, making this a 4 bedroom. That was confusing. The addition has a huge slider and a single french door so Beverly wants to take out the slider and put in a smaller window so there is wall space for a dresser. The house has hardwood floors so they will be refinished. But she does not take out the heat registers and does not put in central air, which would have cost about $5,000 to $6,000. For a first time flipper she makes a lot of mistakes which surprises me, cause she is in the housing trade and she does not know how long it takes to do things. She ends up having a lot of problems with contractors not showing up and she ends up with a 60 day timeline and spent $80,000. Still I would like to know on what. It seems for what she did it cost her alot and what we saw I don't see the money in either the bathroom or kitchen. I was also appalled at how hse planted flowers in her garden beds. First of all the beds were full of grass and weeds, none were removed the soil was not prepped, tilled, fertilized anything, she just put the plants in and then no fertilizer and no mulch. That offended me it was a piss poor job. Still the realtor that came in to appraise the property appraised it at $899,000. Subtract the $730,000 purchase price and the $80,000 budget she still made $89,000. For that kind of money she could have afforded central air and heat and could have gotten rid of the heat registers that took up so much wall space. The only thing Bev did that I truly liked in install extra duty glass to deaden the sound from the airport.

[Bearcata]

Flip That House

Pasedena, CA 10 miles outside of LA. First time flipper Montse. She is half Mexican and half Spanish. She bought a one bedroom, one bathroom bungalow for $225,000. It is very rundown and shabby. It is around 960 sf. She had budgeted $75,000 and 6 wks to flip this house.

Montse has an experienced project manager to help her. She wants to knowdown the wall separating the kitchen with the dining/living room cause this is a very small space. Put in laminate floors, gut the bathroom, gut the kitchen, put in french doors off the back wall of the former dining room so it leads onto a deck in the backyard. She also wants to fence in the backyard with a privacy fence and put a picket fence in the front. It is an older neighborhood with an established tree lined street so it has great potential. She also had a small laundry shed on the back of the house demo'ed.

The transformation is incredible. Montse went over budget $80,000 and over the timeline but the results are breathtaking. The living/dining room looks huge and you can see through to the backyard through the new french doors. The floors are a light maple color and the walls a soft yellow. The kitchen has the tumbled travetine looking porceling tiles and that repeats in the bathroom and similiar color tiles on the front porch. The colors really all tie in together. Maple cabinets in the kitchen some with frosted glass fronts and stainless steel appliances. She also put in a laundry closet off the kitchen with a washer and dryer. The bathroom has a pedestal sink, a whirlpool tub and wainscoting. It really finishes the room. The kitchen also has granite counter tops. Montse put in a really nice ceder privacy fence in back with fresh sod and a new deck with some planters. Tne entire house screams 'Homes and Gardens'. The realtor appraised it for $530,000, so Montse has the potential to make a $225,000 profit.

[reality_emily]

The Montse episode was a good one. She made wonderful choices, and I loved the end result! It's amazing that tiny houses like that sell for half a mil$ in California, though. Living in NC where prices are much more down-to-earth, I am constantly flabbergasted by the California real estate prices. The mess of a house she started with would probably have cost no more than $60K here! And the final result, maybe $250 max, if it were in a good neighborhood.

Anyway, I enjoyed the show. She was a great first-time flipper, especially compared to the folks on Property Ladder.

Emily

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

Even some of the experienced flippers have said to becareful of buying a flipped house cause so many folks are trying to cut corners cause they are being greedy and cause of the housing boom in California they can get away from it. Still I wonder if the housing market has slowed on the west coast as it has here on the east coast?

The damage 'flippers' of this type have inflicted on the housing market, especially in Southern California, really irks me. People are cashing in their retirement savings and 401Ks just to have a place to live. Some are going in hock up to their eyebrows. Some are taking out huge adjustable loans (foolish, in my opinion, but apartments are renting for a fortune here too, so if a person has kids and needs a home...).

They're paying an average of half a mil for a basic bungalow usually 60 yrs. old. At the end of all that, they oughta at least have a decent place to live. Yet as you say, many flippers don't care about the people who'll live there. They hide huge problems like termites, leaking pipes, dry rot, etc., under a coat of paint and a new, laminated fake wood floor. The profits are huge, so it's attracted a lot of shady people.

I'm amazed that the original house in Pico Rivera (I haven't heard of it) cost $325,000 in the shape it was in. That's still a fortune even though it later sold for much more. $325,000 for a rotten frame full of termites? Amazing. And some of these 'up and coming' areas never quite pan out, I've seen it happen with other parts in and around L.A. People buy up homes but the area immediately surrounding it stays noisy, dangerous, and the picture of urban decay. Developers expected the market to keep rising at the same pace and there's just no way it could.

What'll happen is all those adjustable loans will be called in and the market will be flooded with foreclosures. There's no other possible explanation for the continued bubble here in SoCal other than panic, greed, and people getting loans who can't really keep paying on them. People got sucked into the dream of owning a home without thinking too far into the future. And the short-term flippers, a lot of them made out like bandits, which some of them, in my opinion, were.

Sounds like I need to watch that Pasadena episode, though. Pasadena is an area where a lot of the bungalows were originally built much better, much sturdier. That city has some bad 'pockets' too but is quickly becoming gentrified throughout. But the developers are tending to maintain original charm and features in the homes and same w/the shopping developers. That's always gonna be a good area to invest in real estate, IMO. Some of these other areas no one's heard of - when the bubble bursts, look out if you find yourself having to sell your home.

Interesting posts though and it makes me want to watch some of the eps. Some of the other eps will just make me angry. (Because some of it's a reminder of how ridiculous the market is, still, and the junk that's for sale.) I mean where are all these people having $500k and up to spend on a tiny home coming from!?

(Edited in to answer your question, Lol: No - it hasn't slowed at all, unless you count minimal price drops in houses over $700k which was always the more limited market. There are no houses in my area for less than $650k and condos are still going for over $500k. Nothing special about them either, construction or decor-wise, in my opinion, by the way. We still go to the occasional Open House. Just your basic bland white walls, square corners, beige shag carpets. Sometimes wood or laminate floors. And often the home belonged to someone prior for 50, 60 yrs., and smells of pet urine or worse.)

[Bearcata]

Brandy, here on the East Coast, in the DC metro area which covers the DC, Virginia and Maryland finally the bubble has broken or at least stopped growing it hit around April/May. Now the prices are going down and it is becoming a buyers market. The interest only mortgage market was booming but now everyone is scared they will lose their homes, but really what did they expect when folks were buying way more house then they can afford and the interest rates go up.

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

but really what did they expect when folks were buying way more house then they can afford and the interest rates go up.

I agree! That was bound to happen - just a matter of time.

I've also been keeping an eye on some other markets...the bubble does seem to have at least stopped growing in many other areas. But here in SoCal, as usual, it's remained inexplicable (I always felt CA is its own planet).

Seriously, it's very frustrating. Apartment rental prices have skyrocketed in the same time frame. I'm only lucky I got into this one when I did. At least our rent's (by comparison here, not elsewhere) fairly affordable. There are many who pay half their monthly salary in rent!

I've even seen articles by realtors online about how it's a buyer's market. But not here in SoCal. Yet. (I think it'll happen here too but not for a few yrs.)

[Bearcata]

Originally Posted by Brandy

Seriously, it's very frustrating. Apartment rental prices have skyrocketed in the same time frame. I'm only lucky I got into this one when I did. At least our rent's (by comparison here, not elsewhere) fairly affordable. There are many who pay half their monthly salary in rent!

You know that old formula where you should spend %25 of your salary on housing. Well, the entire time I have lived in this area I have spent more like %50 of my salary on housing. Even now I think 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments are going for about $1,000 -$1,200 and thats out here in the 'burbs not in Annandale or Alexandria, the older established areas of Virginia. Oh, I just checked the prices are a little less in those areas but the apartments are much older. They do offer discounts to police and teachers. Still if you want a condo or townhouse close to DC you are paying for it. (studios were priced in the $265,000s but now are being priced in the low $200,000s) Just checked a blog site and it looks as if a lot of condo projects have been stopped or left half finished in the area. I personally hate condo units in the US they normally are crappy apartment renos as opposed to the condo units you get up in Toronto, Canada, but the housing market was so tight and there were no rentals available that condos were peoples only option. Looks as if the condo market is definitely bust in the DC area. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the market is effected.