All Forum Posts by: Lynnette E.

SOOOOOO, what happened?

I am in escrow for 2 properties that I bought off auction.com.  With that website you just have to wait until they really want to sell, so bid each time, even if you are the only bidder, then eventually they 'let' you win.  (They bid against you, but they seem to know where you will stop eventually after a few rounds.)  

One auction ended Sept 10 and we will close next week Sept 29.  The other will be a little less than 30 days to close, the exact closing date is not set.

After hearing horror stories about closing taking months, I was quite surprised.  The sellers, each a major bank, signed the sales contract within 2 days and signed the deeds within a week.  We are waiting for title to finish.

I have looked and bid on other auction sites, but have not won on them yet.

I'd recommend you set your price and just hold firm.  They will bid against you so it does no good to hold back unless you are over their generally way too high hidden minimum bid.

And if someone else overbids and gets it, so what, just look for another house!  With these houses you have to leave a lot of room for a disaster inside since all you can do is look in a window.

I can not answer your question but when looking at property to buy in TN I came upon a situation that may help your situation, depending on where the bodies are.

One piece of property had an area that was being divided from the rest of the property at the time I was looking at it.  It was a maybe ten foot wide pathway from the street  to a 30 by 30 foot area with the graves.  The owner was doing that to separate out the graves from the land he had so he could sell it without the graves on it.  He was hoping to deed the graves to the relatives, or maybe a church with an endowment fund, but that was not worked out when I looked at the property.  He was putting in a 4 foot tall fence with climbing roses to block the view of the graves and pathway.

The folks are not likely to want to pay the expenses to move the bodies--that is likely why they are in the yard to start with.  Plus if they could not afford to pay for the house, they will not have extra money to move bodies around.

You will only get out of college what you put into it.  Sounds to me like college for you at this point in your life, maturity development, value system is just a waste of time as you are not putting anything into it.  

College should not be viewed as a barrier to achieving your goals, but should be a pathway to better achieve your goals.  You could change your major so it better focuses on what you want to learn or need to learn to achieve your goals.  You could start working on your business plans, business models and start investing, developing, designing homes, whatever, while in college or learn taxes and accounting skills, etc. will help you on your pathway in life.

Also, you should understand that college is not just a 'learn the facts' education, but learning things to help you be a well balanced person.  If you are just desiring to learn only the facts you need for a specific job, that is called trade school.  

That is also why math and science majors have to take philosophy or sociology or art classes, and why the poor art major has to take science and math classes.  

Part of the college education is how to get along with people who are different from you, have different values and lifestyles, work under pressure and deadlines, be responsible to show up, do the work, turn it in on time, personal responsibility. 

With the career you are seeking, college is not necessary, you could learn everything from the school of hard knocks!

Be sure to look at how often they fine their members.  That should be in the budget.  HOAs that are fine happy or that depend on fines to stay solvent should be avoided at all costs!

A long time GC company in my local area just filed for bankruptcy.  According to the newspaper they had taken five new contracts out within a week of filing--1/3 of the cost of the contract upfront.  Plus they had a 3 month wait to start a new job.  So they have been taking these large deposits for 3 months and are now out of business.  The police said nothing can be done.  Bankruptcy court has said they have no assets for unsecured claims.

And they got another 1/3 when the project started, first day.

This was an old established company but a few years ago the owner retired and sold it to a man that has a sales, but not a construction, background.  He put his wife on payroll as the CEO, his one son as media manager and the other as office director.  All at high salaries and the company does not generate enough to cover this level of overhead--and none of them work enough to justify their so called full time positions.

I know about them as I had hired them to build my boat dock and they did not follow the engineering drawings/approved permit, used number 2 lumber for supports, etc.  I had to fire them!  The owner did not know why the number 2 lumber was not as good as the number 1, did not know how to even read an engineering drawing to see what was to be built.  The builder just used the material he was given and did the best he could, but with 36 supports on the drawing and only 6 support posts delivered, and 3 of them number 2 lumber, he was not able to do the job.  The builder explained the financial situation at the company--no money for wood, salaries, etc.  I fired them, but lost on that situation with too much money upfront.  

The company continued to collect deposits with no ability to do the work.  Should have been fraud instead of bankruptcy.

Don't pay hugh amounts up front with out knowing the company's bottom line.

I am doing about $20 k work on my house (siding and new doors and rain gutters) with another contractor and he wanted a handshake upfront.  He asked for a $5k draw to pick up some custom doors when they were ordered.  That is it, and he has a lot of money in materials.  He will be done next week and I'll give him a check for everything then.  He likes to be paid that way on fixed cost jobs.

This company will be building a garage for me and a room addition on another house as cost plus.  They will give me the costs as they come up and each month and I add 17% to the costs and give them their payment.  

Old company, good business.  Honest folks!

I'd say they should make it on the $100 a day from the prorated rent and you will pay for the rental of a U-Haul and maybe 4 hours for a two man crew.  They can Motel 6 it so that will encourage them to find a new place.

No food cost--they can microwave in hotel or rent one with a kitchen.  Do not make it nice--you want them to move to a new house not a paid vacation.  That is my two cents.

It would be different if you wanted them to return:)

Patty,  why do you avoid 100 year old homes?  I like old homes if they are in the right area...and the electrical and air and water have been updated! 

See if Washington still has a transfer on death deed.  If so have them both sign and file it now and when they pass you file an affidavit of death with a death certificate, and the property is yours.    Each state has a different process, so it might vary a little from what I posted, but its similar.  The TOD deeds are a poor man's trust:)