Property Ladder - New show on TLC

[Chorita KaBoom]

Starting a flip with property that has structural damage is quite the risk. At least she was smart enough to get a survey done before the purchase so that these were not surprises. Unfortunately, it was work on some of these changes (replacing the water heater) that produced the leak that again added to her budget busting. This was something that should have been fixed immediately, as even a teeny tiny water leak can do massive damage.

Eleanora also kind of lost it on the kitchen. Her cost quotes seem unreal, I guessing she paid $2000 for her slab of granite, but that would not include installation. I don't know if I would have left those original cabinets in myself, but perhaps I would have bargain shopped a little harder for them. A simpler backslash would have also been just as effective. Also, her insistence on top of the line appliances didn't help.

The bathrooms really didn't match the level of the rest of the house. Unfortunately, enlarging the master bedroom shower probably would have been cost prohibitive, but at the least I would have used a good tile paint on that pink. I actually liked the blue tile in the main bathroom, but the replacement vanity she picked looked too cheap, compared to the case goods she used in the kitchen. Kristen's advice about using a piece of furniture from a second hand store would have given her an opportunity to do something that satified her creativity, looked expensive, yet was cheap.

I have to say that I like the shows that are not from California better. They give a more realistic portrayal of real estate development, because there all you pretty much have to do is replace carpet and paint the walls and you make a profit.

[Bearcata]

How come nobody does cabinet refacing. Leaving the base cabinets but replacing the fronts. I mean Sears advertises it all the time and the one female grad student did it in her condo and it looked great. This house that was built in the 50's and is obviously 50 yrs old it does make sense to replace the the cabinets cause the originals did not look that great.

Also reglazing the bathtub in the the blue bathroom made sense. It would have refreshed it. Possible newer fixtures as far as shower head and faucet would have been inexpensive fixes. A new toilet does not cost that much I have priced them at Home Depot.

It would have been nice to see what Eleanora could have done with a piece of furniture from a thrift store and used as a vanity. Paint it white and voila bathroom looks great.

I kinda liked the blue tile too; cause it was a deep blue and not powder blue.

[H2O]

Eleanora from Austin Texas is doing her first property flip....I was surprised that she actually did manual labor. At least she had a very good general contractor. She had a realistic timeline, 12 weeks and met the deadline, but what really hurt her was imposing her taste on the the house and boy does she have expensive tastes.

I liked this episode because she really didn't do the work and hired pros to handle everything but the painting, decorating and being the general contractor. I had wondered if you could make money hiring the work out. It looks like the answer is yes.

Her expensive tastes did get her in trouble with her budget. Plus people correctly saw how nice the kitchen, living room, curb appeal was but those bathrooms stood out as not up to the standard as the rest of the house. In the end that probably contributed to the lower selling price.

When the show calculates how much $$ the flipper makes do they take into account the mortgage payments the person is making before selling?

[Bearcata]

When the show calculates how much $$ the flipper makes do they take into account the mortgage payments the person is making before selling?

The narrator always makes a comment to the effect before costs the 'insert flipper name' made a profit of 'insert amount'.

[Broadway]

How come nobody does cabinet refacing. Leaving the base cabinets but replacing the fronts. I mean Sears advertises it all the time and the one female grad student did it in her condo and it looked great. This house that was built in the 50's and is obviously 50 yrs old it does make sense to replace the the cabinets cause the originals did not look that great.

Have you ever seen cabinets that have been refaced? Ick. I'm not a fan, and I don't think they'd truly add any significant value to the home.

I missed this week's episode... hopefully I'll catch it at some point this week. Thanks for the recap, Bearcata.

[Bearcata]

Have you ever seen cabinets that have been refaced? Ick. I'm not a fan, and I don't think they'd truly add any significant value to the home.

I missed this week's episode... hopefully I'll catch it at some point this week. Thanks for the recap, Bearcata.

I thought the concept of refacing cabinets was to leave the frames and put new fronts on?? As the one girl in the California condo did?? I take it that refacing is a different prodcedure??? Just asking.

[Broadway]

Yeah... refacing is when they actually put a laminate-type of surface overlay on top of the old wood.

I agree with you... if the cabinets are structurally sound (and especially if they're just looking to paint the cabinets anyways)... replacing the doors would be a nice, relatively inexpensive option.

[Bearcata]

Thanks, Broadway

[Bearcata]

I am already not liking Alan the husband and so called project manager. When an expert gives you advice take it. He is already blowing off Kristen's advice about the master bathroom. [mod edit].

[Bearcata]

I must say I wanted to call this episode Idiots are Us, mainly in reference to Alan, aka Project Manager, aka husband.

First of all I was floored with the price of the house, a 4 bedroom for 117,000. If only they had transporter technology, cause I would live in Texas just for the prices of the homes and beam in to the east coast for work every morning.

Second, what in the world was the husband thinking that the wife would do all the work while trying to look after a 3 yr old and clean her own home, cook the meals and probably wash the husbands laundry too. He was such a blow hard especially constantly calling her interrupting her work, harranging her with the schedule and constantly pulling her off jobs.

He really killed me when he and the ex husband left the wife alone to work on the house while they went to go to a football game.

Third, who in the world textures walls, you know how hard that stuff is to take off and you paid someone to put it on. If you had not textured the walls maybe you could have put in the pedestal sinks in the master bath and bought a nice chest to use as storage. I certainly hope they did not leave the mirror and medicine cabinet in the contition they did.

Fourth, you have the situation of the stubborn,idiot husband who just can't lower the price of the house because it is set too high and as a result no one puts an offer on it. Listening to all their advice on how to prepare for flipping and to be careful is almost a joke, because to me Alan was so determined to make a huge profit that he didn't realize they should have just taken the lost and possibly broken even. Instead they are just adding to their debt by adding child care and the wife's car care to their overdrawn budget. I feel for the poor wife working 40 hours a week paying for daycare and having a small bit left over to pay the credit card bills. On top of that hubby will expect her to take care of the house when she was not working. That poor woman. Definitely needs counseling in picking better helpmates.