i am really tempted to get my commercial contractor's license... that's where the real money is...
Yet another boring house building thread
- Thread starter N8 v2.0
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WTF? What's the point in doing them if you lose money?
you either have to do a huge amount of volume or be a small one man operation to make money.
those huge custom builds like y'all do are not profitable nor easy and very time consuming.
Ha thats why we don't typically do them. In this business sometimes you take jobs to stay busy rather than to make tons of money.
It's hard to tell from the get go if you are going to make money since we don't always know the clients. As a service business most homeowner don't understand the value of our work since they see Joe Homeowner on HGTV renovating his own house.
good general rule of thumb too:
the wealthier the client the worse the building is going to be.
that's why i like first-time/move-up buyers. which here is the $180k-$250K market. The larger house i did in the pix was a PITA.
Oh fawk, WOMEN are the worst especially when they are home all day peering out the windows. OMG this one woman would call the Project Manager and tell him that there was only 3 carpenters working when the day before there was 4.
stickin these pix in here for continuity:
N8 said:Well finally after 3 and a half years he got off his lazy ass and replaced it with a cool new one that we bought on a recent (Sept) trip to Dallas. Finally the room is finished!
Old boring light:
..and the new cool one:
yes.. and they see ever little thing during construction.. like holes in the wall where the elec installed the switch box in the wrong place etc.. stuff that will be fixed/repaired when the house is finished but they just cant grasp that.
She switched contractors mid build due to financial inconsistencies....money was being skimmed...I didn't want to stick around for the second contractor.
I hear you there. I've got two crews doing painting and carpentry. HGTV has everyone thinking they can renovate their house with $2k and a spunky designer.
As much as I enjoy watching Flip this House people flounder, the pain their ignorance inflicts on the poor contractors makes me
Right now we're dealing with that and the best part is her husband is the owner of a Mech. Contracting company and he listens to everything she says. Ha!
They pulled us off the job because they didn't want to pay $2k a month.
Then they went with Anderson windows instead of Marvin like we spec'ed and designed for. We told them we should review the sizes to make sure they fit they said they didn't want to pay us and now none of the windows fit.
Yes, about 1/4 of the houses on "Flip that house" actually get re-sold. Most people seem to move into them or they just sit unsold for years. Hopefully that will all end as the market slows/crashes.I hear you there. I've got two crews doing painting and carpentry. HGTV has everyone thinking they can renovate their house with $2k and a spunky designer.
As much as I enjoy watching Flip this House people flounder, the pain their ignorance inflicts on the poor contractors makes me
I love Flip This House... some 20 something slacker buys a $500,000 delapitated crack house and has a $10k budget and (even funnier) a 4 week work schedule...
hahahahahahahahahhaha!!!
hahahahahahahahahhaha!!!
funniest part about Flip shows is that the county officials and inspectors just "show up" anytime they need 'em.
"Oh look...we'll move this stairwell and build a deck in a week and get the county inspector to review plans and sign off on them and then come out and approve them...in 48 hours."
That is the comical part of those shows. Anyone in housing knows you have leads time of weeks and months for anyone to come by with an email ending in .gov .
Pennington's show is the worst. Everybody just shows up and hucks a 4500 square foot monster on a lot in 1 week. Still scratching my head to figure out how the foundation is even done in a week.
"Oh look...we'll move this stairwell and build a deck in a week and get the county inspector to review plans and sign off on them and then come out and approve them...in 48 hours."
That is the comical part of those shows. Anyone in housing knows you have leads time of weeks and months for anyone to come by with an email ending in .gov .
Pennington's show is the worst. Everybody just shows up and hucks a 4500 square foot monster on a lot in 1 week. Still scratching my head to figure out how the foundation is even done in a week.
Yes I love how Pennington knocks on someones door, surprises them and THE NEXT DAY they are taking the house down. It has to be a lie because a demo permit takes a few days to get let alone the time for an inspector to review plans. If you are building a bigger home sometimes a planning board needs to be involved and that can literally take years depending on the part of the country the project is in.
I noticed the other day there is now a disclaimer stating:
The people on this show are incurring real risks with real money. Flip at your own risk.
Maybe I'm just a dick sometimes, but it's funny when people price themselves way out of the neighborhood and the house sits for 4 months on the market.
The people on this show are incurring real risks with real money. Flip at your own risk.
Maybe I'm just a dick sometimes, but it's funny when people price themselves way out of the neighborhood and the house sits for 4 months on the market.
I'm working for a developer right now selling lots and this is the model home on their man-made lake. 4500 sq. feet, 3 stories, elevator to all 3, speakers in all rooms, two digitally controlled glass wine coolers, wine cellar, massive theatre room with leather rumble seats, walnut floors, blah, blah, blah...if we were to sell it, price would be around $1.4 mill. Looks great...but I haven't made a dime yet. 
I'm working for a developer right now selling lots and this is the model home on their man-made lake. 4500 sq. feet, 3 stories, elevator to all 3, speakers in all rooms, two digitally controlled glass wine coolers, wine cellar, massive theatre room with leather rumble seats, walnut floors, blah, blah, blah...if we were to sell it, price would be around $1.4 mill. Looks great...but I haven't made a dime yet.
That is a nice house for a spec house.
What area of the country are these houses in?
Not sure I'd call a model home a spec ...
all i know is the financing, insurance and taxes all work differently on a spec vs model home.
sure.. if i build a spec then all i have to do is secure a construction loan, call in for my builder's risk insurance, and pay taxes (maybe) on the lot only...
if i want to build a model home, then i have to trun the construction loan into a mortgage (usually 7-8 years) at the end of construction, carry the builder's risk but then insure it as a 'model home' (cost varies if it is furnished), and pay taxes on the lot + the house.
Model homes are great if you are the only builder in a large subdiv but not worth it if you are not. Too expensive to carry a house on the books unless you are doing a lot of volume.
A model is a spec I suppose since you will eventually sell it... but it's usually carried on the books as a model.
meh..
I don't think we financed this one. The community has 350+ homes in it over the last 15 years and the lake was added to the community only recently. The furnishings inside may cost about as much as the house itself. Oh..and Walnut flooring...sucks! Soft as crap! Upstairs is even more comical. It has a leather floor insert in the crow's nest. But the entertainment room...oh yeah! Bullnosed corners everywhere, 12 inch high crown molding, 8 ft doors, Viking and JennAir appliances.
What's funny is people from up north come down and think cost per sq ft is gonna be $200+ per and when we tell them $150-180 per, out comes the checkbook.
That is...if they haven't pissed themselves when they get near the edge of the cliff we are on!!!
Oh..and N 8...you can appreciate this cost...over $250k in foundation and pillars for a 2800 sq. ft footprint on one homeowners house!
Here's a few pics from above...wish I could get down below to show you the columns!
Here's a few pics from above...wish I could get down below to show you the columns!
yup. Mortgages...and now land!...next up Insurance.
Butch I need to borrow a million - ok?
If you qualify for the loan, I'll give you the million without hesitation. I wish it was my money instead of just brokering. My side of the mortgage biz is in the tank. So many of the programs I had that were better than anybody else went kaput.
www.mortgageimplode.comI have made a whopping $15k all year in '07. Hence me working for a developer...
from what i understand i hear that 80/20 loans are a thing of the past... never to return again possibly... i also heard you can get 100% loans or whatever you need if you have a credit score of 700-ish..If you qualify for the loan, I'll give you the million without hesitation. I wish it was my money instead of just brokering. My side of the mortgage biz is in the tank. So many of the programs I had that were better than anybody else went kaput.
I have made a whopping $15k all year in '07. Hence me working for a developer...
is this true?
true..and true. 80/20's will be back but not until the US market in general stabilizes and all this foreclosure crap ends. Loans for a while made it a piece of cake for speculators to buy multiple properties on only 1 premise...land and homes appreciate because they're not making anymore land..so if I give you a loan for 100%...if you don't pay me a year from now, I (big bank w/ lots of money) can just foreclose and sell it at whatever the appreciated value is. Dumb.
Arizona is hurting b/c they overbuilt b/c there were no foundation costs. Florida overvalued themselves and insurance carriers all got hosed when they had to rebuild areas...so they now charge insurance rates in FL that make it a dumb investment for retirees from the Northeast to buy there (b/c homeowners insurance is virtually a house payment in FL)....and well...everybody knows about Cali.
As for 100%, it's still very much available. In 2 very secure forms, 30 Year Fixed Principal & Interest...and 30 Yr Fixed Principal & Interest...heh.
Some preliminary pix of the latest spec house build... tying up loose ends this week (ergo the colored dot sticky tabs on stuff):
3 cm bull nose New Caledonia granite just for narlus...
3 cm bull nose New Caledonia granite just for narlus...