Renovations are well underway on both The Mini House and The Sunglasses House, and I’m happy to report that a week in, both projects are still on-schedule and on-budget.
We actually had an interesting experience today over at The Sunglasses House…a county code enforcement inspector (the same inspector we had for The Second Chance House, coincidentally) was apparently driving by the property and noticed the big 30-yard dumpster in the driveway that we were using for demo. He pulled into the driveway right as our GC was pulling up, and they had a chance to speak. The inspector wanted to verify that our GC was licensed and that we had all our permits for the rehab.
Of course, as I’ve explained before, we only hire licensed and insured contractors, and we pull permits whenever necessary, so this wasn’t a big deal. In this case, we were missing one permit, so my GC needs to head down to the permit office tomorrow or Monday; but, had we been stupid and tried to cut corners by using unlicensed contractors or by not pulling permits, today’s experience could easily have derailed the project and thrown us over-schedule and over budget.
So, for all you house flippers out there, consider this a reminder — always use licensed and insured contractors, and always pull permits when your municipality requires it.
I showed up a few minutes later and had a chance to chat with the inspector (which is good, as he’ll probably be the one doing the inspections on this house throughout the rehab). Before he left, the inspector asked if we had any other properties we were working on. I told him about The Mini House, and he apparently headed down there next to check that one out. That one is a basic paint and carpet renovation, so we didn’t pull any permits, and according our contractors down there, he stopped in, looked around for about 2 minutes and left.
When I got down to The Mini House a while later, I was quite pleased with the progress. The interior paint was completed, all exterior work was done, and the fixtures and vinyl flooring were set to go in. We expect the house to be pretty much complete tomorrow, with just a few detailed saved for next week. Specifically, next week we’ll be getting the carpets cleaned, putting in the appliances, and getting a new garage door.
We expect to have this one on the market next weekend. Time to go order the staging furniture and another alarm system, as the other two sets are currently being used…
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