All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Petrillo

We are currently finishing up the rehab on a beautiful 1830 Colonial flip house which we already have under contract. Last thing to be done...the septic. We knew when we bought it that the septic was shot, it was a "seepage pit" that had been condemned, so no surprises there. We have done septic work, including full installations, on other flip houses so we weren't concerned about being able to get the job done. Now the County Board of Health has denied the plan as presented by the septic engineer at their once a month meeting last night. They say the septic field is too small for the 3BR house. The house is on a very tiny lot in a small village, just like all the other houses on tiny lots that surround it. In fact, the village is a Historic District that is the oldest known settlement in the County and was the site of the local Sons of Liberty chapter in 1766! Anyway...the BOH felt the lot was too small for the new septic field and suggested...knocking down the garage to accommodate the new leach field, which we told them we would not do b/c it would remove value from our asset and also the house is already under contract to be sold with a garage. Then they suggested "losing" a bedroom and having the house rezoned as a 2BR instead of 3 BR...again, decreasing the value of the asset, which we refused. Then they suggested buying land from an adjacent property, which is crazy b/c that 1. costs us money 2. unlikely that an adjacent property would be willing to sell off part of their land 3. would require redrawing the lot lines and reassessment of taxes, etc. One BOH member told our septic engineer that they are allowed to refuse any septic plans, he told them that the state DEP requires that they make reasonable accommodations to allow the continued use of the property. What disgusts me is that we took a vacant ramshackle foreclosure and made it beautiful and useful again inside and out, improving the community and giving someone the opportunity to have an attractive, comfortable, newly rehabbed home and they are making it nearly impossible for us to sell it! And the system that is going in is brand new, state of the art engineering, 1000% improvement over an old seepage pit!! Any thoughts? I plan to go the next BOH mtg (not until end of April, of course) to plead our case. 

We provide Netflix and Amazon Prime. As @Julie McCoy says above, if they want to make a purchase on Prime, they have to input a pin number, which we do not provide (they can use their own pin if they have a Prime account), otherwise they can watch the free stuff. We also have a Roku box, they are cheap and there is a ton of free content like documentaries, cooking shows, exercise shows, etc. 

Move out of New Jersey! Geographic arbitrage...come back in a few years when you can afford what you want.

Don't add anything if you cannot recover the costs. What do your numbers look like? Would you really make back the expense of adding a shed dormer? I think the home is adorable as is, I would spend my rehab dollars on making the inside really great, plus add some landscaping to the outside to cover the foundation.

Why shouldn't they? We haven't been to an actual closing in a long time...we sign over POA to our lawyer and they do it all, we have bought many houses in NJ and also in NY this way (in fact, we have never met in person the attorney who handles our NY state closings!) Your attorney should be able to handle it all.

Everything from Union Beach down to Highlands is pretty blue collar working class, might work for small rental properties if you can buy them and fix them up cheaply. In general, the people who have money to live well at the shore live in other communities with larger houses, larger lots, more amenities (Atlantic Highlands, Deal, Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove--all east of the RR tracks, of course). We considered investing in the area but, at the end of the day, you are still trying to sell a small house that is packed in with a bunch of other small houses in a ho hum neighborhood that, unless you are standing across the street from the beach, you wouldn't know is near the ocean. No idea what the flood issues out there are either. I know that some houses in Union Beach, Port Monmouth, etc. have been sitting vacant since Sandy and have yet to be raised.

You say it needs a lot of work and then you say estimated rehab is $50,000. I would double that. Make a very detailed scope of work and nail down the costs as best you can, you will see your rehab number rise.

Welcome to Phillipsburg. What does the lease say?

Agree with @Patrick M., you need to prepare a solid seating for the shower base or it will feel hollow. Also, our GC adds extra framing to the walls so if you bump into the shower wall it doesn't give or feel flimsy at all. The Sterling surrounds are much thicker than a Bathfitters type product, which is really just a thin layer of plastic meant to go over existing surfaces. Good surrounds get attached directly to the framing members, they are not just a cover up.

We have used Sterling shower inserts three times and loved them. First time was in the finished basement bathroom of a split level house that already had a nice tub with tile surround on the main floor, so we figured the buyers would like a walk in shower as well (great for elderly or disabled people or washing pets). The insert looked amazing and comes with little shelves and even foot rests to put your leg up on if you are shaving your legs. The second time we used it was in a house that had no tub, only an old tiled walk in shower that was an irregular size. We replaced the old tiled shower with a slightly smaller Sterling walk in shower and it actually made the shower space look larger and brighter. The tile made it look too busy and shrank the space. Both times we hung a nice fabric shower curtain with a thick liner and didn't even spend the money on glass doors. In a third house we ripped out an old walk in tiled shower and used a 3/4 size Sterling surround and replaced the glass doors that were already there. We have been very happy with this product and so have the buyers, no one ever complained that it was not tile. Overall way more economical than tile!