You would not believe how often we uncover a patch that
completely shocks us; and I don’t know why it still shocks us. In so many
cases, a floor is just one bounce from falling through, a wire is just one
jiggle away from burning down the house, a wall is just one good push away from
falling in or out and this list goes on forever.
Some real examples:
1. 1. In one house, the add-on laundry room was
leaking and the drywall had fallen in, and the renter was behind on rent so
they did not even call the landlord; instead, they tried to patch the ceiling
from the inside. I kid you not. They took a bucket of tar and slathered it to
the exposed decking; INSIDE THE LAUNDRY ROOM. This probably would not have even
worked if they’d gotten a ladder and tried to patch it from the roof side, but
the odds would have been significantly better.
2. 2. On one house, some siding had rotted and fallen
away from the house. No problem: the homeowner found some decent cardboard, cut
it out bigger than the hole, attached it with duct tape, and actually painted
his patch to match the house. I swear, someone should make videos of repairs
like that. It is sad and funny. The sad part is that the person who makes such
repairs spends a lot of time doing so and they actually think it will work.
3. 3. We bought one house and it was actually a decent
house; except the homeowner was a “handyman”. He had a lot of silicone and
several boxes of drywall screws in assorted sizes. This demo was the hardest
one we’ve done. For decades, the homeowner had been squeezing silicone and
screwing anything he added or repaired. Nothing was level or cut properly, but
it was securely in place; FOREVER. Pipes were literally all coated in a
half-inch layer of silicone. I’m still not clear on what he was thinking here.
It may be that he was thinking the silicone would insulate the pipes, or maybe
he thought the outer-layer of silicone would prevent leaks? I am not sure, but
the pipes had to be rescued from the silicone before they could be removed.
I could go on. But don’t get me wrong; this is why I have a
job and I love it.
During the boom we’ve been experiencing, we’ve been watching
our competition. There are some flippers out there who know what they are
doing. I usually go and check out their work whenever I can. Some people just
go in and renew everything. Those are usually the best examples of a
renovation, but they often cover up beautiful hardwoods and they’ll just throw
old, wavy-glass windows in the dumpster and replace them with off-the-shelf,
vinyl windows. While I agree that the house will often function even better, giving
up the charm to achieve that goal is not always the best idea.
There was one house we really wanted. We made an offer but
were outbid by another company. The house was absolutely gorgeous. It was old
and neglected and it needed a lot of work, but we dreamed of bringing it back
the way it was designed. It was filled with old-world character you just cannot
find anymore. Naturally, we watched the renovation. We were hoping the flippers
would have the same vision we had and that they’d bring it back to its
original, stunning character. Everyone was talking about this particular house;
and they still are. It’s all done now, and if you like the modern version of an
old, farmhouse, you’d like this renovation. But it’s as if the old, Victorian charmer
was never even there. So far, everyone I’ve talked to wishes that we’d gotten
it. In my opinion, taking an antebellum-style home and making it look like the
houses you’ll find in every new subdivision is kind of backwards.
Bill and I are presently renovating a village home in The
Goodyear Village in Rockmart. We are basing everything we do on maintaining the
character of the old village. Sure, we could make the cottage stand out by
creating a farm-house there on the corner; but it would be as out of place as I
was, when I wore a brown suit to a Harry Norman Christmas party.
The last house we did was one that our aunt built in 1955. So what did we do? We found pictures of homes built in 1955 and we redesigned it to fit the original style. Bill furnished it with midcentury-modern furniture. If you go there now, it’s like stepping back in time, to 1955, and walking around in a new house from that period. Where the floor needed patching, we found old wood. Everything we did, we tried to keep the original charm in mind.
Flipping is hard work sometimes. This is why you’ll find
plenty of houses where the demo is either underway or complete. I can almost
understand why these houses are often offered for sale at that point. This is
when we look around and feel overwhelmed. To be honest, this stage can be
difficult for anyone. You’ll always find something you weren’t expecting. This
is the only thing we seem to have in common with the popular HGTV shows;
someone is always going to say, “You may want to come in here and have a look
at this.”
Only we don’t get to cut to a commercial. And this will
happen almost daily. We’ve learned to deal with it. You cannot let these things
get to you; putting a sign up at this point will result in a loss.
Speaking of dealing with it, Bill has learned how to
estimate any job and his method is the most accurate method there is. We’ll
look at a project and Bill will ask me to come in and give him my estimate on
the total costs. He nods and says, “Okay, I got it.” He doubles my guestimate
and that has proven to be almost exact in every case. This is where having a
good ol’ boy and a business major from UGA works out great.
I wish I had known to do this when Susan and I built our own
home. It ended up costing almost exactly twice what I said it would; I didn’t
know to double it back then.
