Iamthefallen's Journal: House offer accpected at $85.000

Blah.

Those who have a decent memory may remember me talking about working on a house for the majority of last year. The in laws bought a house as an investment and were planning to fit up and resell it, aka, flip it.

This is kinda ranty against Tammy's parents, but well, it concerns me, and us, as well. So I'll vent here just as I have to her. She's not very happy either since I was away from home a lot during the project.

This weekend they got an offer for $81.000, countered with $85, and the buyer accepted.

All in all, they're in about $70.000, so $85.000 - 7% Agent fees - $70000 debt = $9050 (Before tax).

Blah.

$9000 wouldn't be a bad thing if it weren't for the fact that from purchase to closing will be nearly 18 months. I hate to think how many hundered hours I spent working on it with them/for them.

I'm not annoyed because I won't make big bucks, I never expected to. I worked to help them get started and would've done it for free (Which I may end up having done in the end).

My annoyance is that they could've done so much better, and could've made a much larger profit had they not continously made piss poor decisions against common sense and good advice.

As it is, the profit would probably be bigger had we just worked part time flipping burgers for 18 months.

You could say that the experience, and the tools, and the people that they've gotten to know would make it worth it since they can use this again for the next project.

Except...without me I doubt there'll be a next project. And the experience probably isn't worth much, since they absoloutely refuse to learn. I think out of sheer principle they continue to make the same poor decisions over and over again.

The tools they bought are generally not good enough to stand up for "pro" use. See previous paragraph, they'll buy tools at the dollar store first, harbor freight second, and finally buy it again at Lowes after the first two sets broke (Not kidding). Over and over and over again.

And thirdly, most of the people they've gotten to know aren't people I'd want to see around again.

You get what you pay for.

So when you pay some guy that some other guy knows $10 an hour to play carpenter, well, you get a guy who plays carpenter and may or may not show up.

Blah.

$9000 for all that? They should flip burgers...

[TopShelf]

The whole "flipping" trend is truly the signal that the housing market has peaked in what have previously been hot markets around the country. When you've got everyday folks thinking they can half-ass their way to real money by taking shortcuts like you're describing, the mania has truly set in.

I think it would be an interesting thing to do at some point, but it would have to be approached as a full-time occupation, not a hobby. And the focus should be on making quick flips that make small to moderate pro

Re:

[Iamthefallen]

Yeah, I'd like to do it again at some point as I do enjoy the work, and it's a good income. But the whole idea is to do it quickly and not turn it into a major project lasting years.

The cost of labour (especially non-skilled labour) is very cheap all things considered.

I'd rather

[Mantorp]

watch people get burned on HGTV than people I "sort of" know