Home buying thread
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Probably because that means its a flip. I'm not sure what his objection to buying a flip would be necessarily. You're basically just paying for someone else to project manage your renovation if you don't have time or don't want to deal with living in a construction area.
Khane
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Flipping is a business and like any other business people who flip are trying to turn a profit. I have no data of course but I think it's reasonable to be wary of a flip because there is a good chance corners were cut.
I think you could make the same argument for new construction. But I do agree of being nervous about a flip because you don't know how competent a contractor they hired or if anyone knew what they were doing.
And a hefty warranty if some shit was done incorrectly. I'm not sure if it is common for flipped houses to come with a warranty or not.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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On the other hand, some hipster might have totally overspent fixing up some old rambling house and now you can get his renovations at 1/2 price. There's always that aspect you just have to know the market value of what you're looking at.
Most people could hire their own renovators, watch them work, and still not realize corners were being cut. My understanding of staging is that it is to sucker fucktards with no vision who buy houses based on paint colors. But anyone with a clue is unaffected
With 100 year old houses flipping yourself could be a pretty big liability as well, especially if you don't know shit, which no one does besides me.
With 100 year old houses flipping yourself could be a pretty big liability as well, especially if you don't know shit, which no one does besides me.
Staging also grants perspective on room size. Like "how would this bedroom look with a king bed in it?" is pretty easily answered if a king bed is in there.
Frenzied Wombat
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The warranty means jack shit; I made the same error when buying new construction. If you look at the actual terms of the warranty the coverage sucks, and the standards the builder has to adhere to for repairs is practically non-existent. Then, when the builder doesn't do repairs properly (or ignores you entirely), you MUST go to some bullshit warranty mediation, and then when that inevitably fails your only recourse is litigation.
I had a 1/8" wide 20 ft long crack open up on my polished cement floor six months after buying, and he was never obliged to actually repair it to original cosmetic appearance. All he did was inject epoxy into the crack (which looked like shit) and call it a day. All our windows fucking leaked from day 1 because of improper installation, but all he was willing to do was layer on more sealant, and the warranty company backed him up. Two years later after the warranty expired they started leaking again. All the builder cares about is implementing the cheapest repair possible that will allow him to escape the measly two year warranty period.
A home warranty is NOTHING like a car warranty, be warned..
If I HAD to buy new construction again I would involve a lawyer from the start to make a bulletproof contract/warranty, and most importantly hire a 3rd party inspector to monitor the construction and make the builder beholden to any deficiencies he finds along the way.
Frenzied Wombat
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Nothing makes me rage more these days than talk of homes and construction. Eight months after my ceiling caved in I'm still living in a construction zone dealing with retarded construction workers, GC's, and lawyers. No other industry but construction makes you pay so much in return for endless frustration and incompetence.
Yeah, that's definitely a good start, and in my case he had built three great properties previous to mine. We're still wondering to this day why he cut corners on this specific project, but we assume because it was built in 2008 and he was feeling the crunch.Picasso_sl said:
The smaller builders all use the same 3rd party warranty "Ace's home warranty" which isn't worth the paper its written on.
My builder was pretty upfront and honest with what the warranty covered and did not cover. Such as the crack in the cement I knew wouldn't be covered because it has to be wider than 1/8". I forget the actual amount but it needed to be wider. Luckily my garage cement has only cracked where it is supposed to crack.
My stamped back patio, however, is beyond fucked up and my builder is refusing to warranty it. But I kind of expected that and was just taking a shot in the dark trying to get them to pony up some cash to repair it.
Frenzied Wombat
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The thing is, if that crack was greater than 1/8" (which it was by a tiny margin for me) how would he have fixed it? Jackhammer/skim the upper layer and redo, or send over Random_Mexican_2987 with an epoxy gun to fill it in? Most likely the latter, and if it was your indoor polished cement floor and not the garage, you'd be pretty pissed.
I was under the mistaken impression when I bought my first home that the warranty would be like my car-- throw them the keys and it gets fixed. If they don't do it right, they keep doing it until it's fixed. Instead, they argue/ignore, and if they do fix 99% of the time it's half assed and looks like shit. They know your only alternative is crappy mediation or super expensive litigation.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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And if they're smart they create LLC's just for that project so when they totally fuck you you sue the LLC and get... hmm.. nothing. My house was built by a park cities/preston hollow small volume custom builder but the official builder is "(number) (street) LLC". Would have to pierce the veil of the LLC to sue the builder personally, which if they're not stupid would be pretty hard.
Can you explain how stuff like that is even legal? It seems like just purposefully exploiting a system.
Frenzied Wombat
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That's exactly what my builder did, shutter his LLC after he finished the house. To add insult to injury, I was going to create a website documenting all the ridiculous lies the builder fed us over the years, as well as the pictures of our property and repairs in order to shame him into paying for some of the repairs (he builds on spec) and he threatened to sue for slander because "he" wasn't the builder, 123553 LLC corp was.. It's a toothless threat, but just goes to show what a slimeball he is.
Our lawyers are going after him both through the LLC and personally. Many windows/doors had NO flashing installed under the siding which amounts to gross negligence, and he made statements in his emails regarding how things were built which were outright lies, which is a potential fraud claim. For instance, he said there was a drip pan under our patio and hence it couldn't be a source of our leaks, but when we dug it up a few months back all there was was a layer of rubber, no drip pan..
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Without launching into a treatise on corporate law, when Apple fucks up your phone do you sue Apple or do you sue the CEO personally?
In this case, they formed a company with the specific intent of building 1-4 houses. The company was funded and borrowed money (probably with guarantees on the note by the builder) and built the houses. The company then paid dividends on the capital gains once the properties sold to the shareholders, so the company now has zero assets.
To go after the principals of the company instead of the company itself, you'd have to pierce the corporate veil. If you want to read about that, start here:
Piercing the corporate veil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia