Inevitable Surprises

Side view of the PA property

Expect the unexpected. Better yet, plan for it.

I can't say that I knew what they'd be, but I knew oversights were inevitable on our PA property flip; which is why I was so adamant about the repair estimate being well under the $20K that we budgeted. Calling the estimate "well under" might be a stretch, but the $2275 margin that we landed should be more than enough to absorb the things that have popped up so far. Here's a run down.

Replace all wall plates.
It's hard to notice whether a wall plate is too ugly to keep when the wall that it's attached to is either (a) covered in crayon doodle, (b) a horrid shade of (fill in color of choice here), or (c) underneath a ceiling with a 1 foot hole in it. In other words, overlooking a few details (albeit important ones) is not a huge surprise on a first time flip. But now that the walls are painted and the carpet replaced, the filthy wall plates are pretty hard to miss [picture an ink stain on a white wedding dress]... so replace them we shall. So that's $2 a box for two boxes, plus a few odds and ends that are sold separately. Let's say $20 and 15 minutes with the drill.

Along those same lines, here's what else came up short during today's inspection of repair progress:

Bathroom Vents / lighting fixtures.
I was focused on plumbing, sinks, flooring and walls. Vent covers? Not on the radar. So that's $72 [$36 x 2] for light/vent combo kits.

Bedroom ceiling fans.
Same story. With the sloped ceilings (about 14 feet high) these barely made it into my photos, so it's not a surprise that I didn't take much notice of them in person. But fresh walls and new carpet have now made replacing these a must. $80 [$40 x 2].

Between the sloped ceilings and funky paint job,
overlooking the ceiling fan wasn't difficult.

[Note... all of these photos are still pre-repair. Give us another 2 weeks for the after photos]

Kitchen light fixtures
Okay, finally something I didn't overlook. Would've been impossible to do that, as ugly as they are. My parents shopped around and gave me a price of $34 for the fan, $14 each for the two matching sconces. $62 total.

More painting (garage, molding, floor heating units)
We went back and forth on this one with the general contractor. My dad and I are 98.875% sure that painting the molding around the house was included on the original contract. But either way you slice it, that's an argument we're not going to win. The lesson learned: Get it in writing! And so tack on another $300 for that, plus $125 for painting the garage and $150 for painting the floor heating units; totaling $575. I still think we're getting ripped on this one... but I'll get over it.

Dirty heating units boards and filthy wall plates.

.

Replace 4th bathroom flooring
Just about every square foot of the flooring (i.e., the remaining 2975 square feet) was replaced except this bathroom. So why in the world stop there? Okay, so I admittedly remember something being mentioned by the GC about not wanting to replace it. But now that all else is done, it's obvious that this flooring has got to go. I'm sure the GC is not going to be thrilled about it since he's under the impression that the flooring is done. But hey, those are the breaks. This addition should cost us a very budget friendly $0, since unlike the painting snafu, I was smart enough to get this one in writing. The line in the contract stating "Replace All Flooring" is going to be hard to argue against. Sorry, pal.

Ditto that sentiment for the cost of adding insulation to the garage ceiling. He demo'ed the ceiling but left the old insulation exposed, which is uncovered, tattered, moldy and just plain ol' nasty looking. While on the phone last night, my mom and I kicked around the idea of me replacing it myself once I get back to PA... but lo and behold, I found on the contract this morning where it states "insulate ceiling". So tally that one up as $0 and a phone call to the GC (yesss!... less work for me).

Finally, tack on a few extra dollars for purchase tax and the installation of all these ceiling fans and whatnot; plus a 3rd party chimney sweep at $90, and we stand at around $1100 for additional repairs. On top of that, tack on the fact I that I totally overlooked that I'd have to get the place cleaned after it's all said and done. For whatever reason, brown toilets and moldy bathtubs just don't seem to fly with perspective buyers. Go figure. This seemed obvious for the rental in SC, but somehow I missed that one when budgeting the flip. So to that end, tack on another $300 for the merry maids crew, $100 for whatever else I forgot, and we're talking roughly $1500 in total additional expenses... For now, anyway. Only thing missing is the cost to check and (if necessary) repair the basement heating unit, and that's still TBD (scheduled for a pro maintenance service on Thursday).

But overall, we can live with that.

That being said, the repairs for this property still appear to be well ahead of schedule. The GC's proclamation of being less than 2 days from done was definitely premature; but not totally far fetched. The initial prospect was 3 - 6 weeks. And after just one week, the bulk of it seems to be wrapped up; which is what spawned this early walk-through.

And last but not least, In case I haven't mentioned it already, it helps to have your fair share of nepotism while flipping a house. My realtor on the front end and back (purchase and listing) is my mom. And my project manager is my dad. And I have to say that their help, time, effort, advice, insight, hard work, and dedication to this project has already been invaluable. But don't tell them that, because then they'll expect a real paycheck (ha ha). But seriously speaking, nobody will work as hard for you as mom as dad when it comes to assuring that you're consistently above water.

And as for cleaning up after me, I guess a parent's job is never done in that respect. They're not picking up my toys anymore, but they did spend the better part of today (6+ hours) inspecting the progress of the repairs in my absence and documenting / pricing the items I overlooked. In all, it sounded like the repairs grade was a B-. What was done appeared to be done well. But the items outstanding and the prospect of increased costs definitely brought the grade down.

And so the beat goes on. I give it another week (two weeks, tops) before my mom and dad make the final exchange (from project manager to realtor again) and smack this house back on the market. Between now and then, lets hope for no more "inevitable surprises". Stay tuned.

On the brighter side of things, the cabinets and
counters were moved so that the fridge and stove are
no longer neighbors (duh), the new appliances arrived,
walls painted, and kitchen floor redone.

And finally, here's the one room in the entire house
that will not be touched throughout the repairs;
the unfinished sun room off the kitchen.