Handyman Costs and Trash

I just heard back from my handyman with an estimate - $1,800 plus material. (I'll need paint, a sink, and a roll of screen material plus some other miscellaneous stuff.) And he thinks he can get the work done by next Friday. Not bad.

I've been wondering what to do about the trash situation. There is a refrigerator and desk that need to be disposed of, plus other miscellaneous trash. I called around yesterday and a small roll-off dumpster will run about $350. I called a company that will haul away stuff and their price was about the same - mainly due to a $100 charge for the fridge. Since it has coolant, a hazardous material, in it, it cannot go to the city dump as-is and so they charge an extra fee for it. But the plus for these guys is you just pile everything up in the driveway and they will show up with the dumpster and load it up and haul it away.

One thing I have used before is the city's bulk collection service. Once a month, the city will come around and collect any large items. The drawbacks are the items have to be placed within 4 feet of the curb and the pick up day is not specified - they just come sometime during the week. The stuff needs to be set out by the weekend before. The plus is it is free (well, it's included in the city's monthly garbage collection bill). As it happens, next week is the pick up week for this month.

This is obviously the way to go, but I was having problems with the logistics. The city requires the door be taken off the fridge, so I'd need to do that. There is also, for some reason, a huge concrete bump in the driveway - it's about the size of a large, wide speed bump. This will make moving stuff to the curb difficult. In addition, since I need to have the stuff out the weekend before, I'd need to go there this weekend and put it out. My wife is busy this weekend and I was supposed to watch my 1 year old daughter. Hmm. Hard to do all this while keeping an eye on her.

Then my handyman called and said he was planning on starting to work on Friday. I told him about the pickup service and he said he'd move all the stuff out to the curb for me. Yay! Problem solved!

Going Over Work To Be Done

I met the handyman at the property this morning to go over what needs to be done. I've got a one and a half page list of stuff. I was pleased to see the previous owners are indeed moved out, although they still left a bunch of junk, including a key ring with about 20 keys on it. I hope he doesn't need any of them! There was some trash piled up in the front yard and I guess what happened was the trash can got full, so they piled some stuff there, and left more stuff inside. There's a computer desk to haul away, a bunch of little stuff in the storage sheds, and miscellaneous crap inside. They left the refrigerator, which I thought they were taking, and took the freezer, which I thought they were leaving. Oh well. I wasn't planning on keeping either one. So I need to get a dumpster over there when my handyman is there, so the stuff can be thrown out.

My handyman will be calling me back tonight with an estimate. He thinks he can start work on the place on Friday. I asked him about the dirt on the popcorn ceiling and, as we discovered, the popcorn was already painted over once, so we'll paint over it again. Dirt problem solved! In addition, I need to swing by Goodwill and pick up a chandelier to replace the Death Star that is hanging in the dining room now.

The plan is as follows: Thursday / Friday the electrician will be there working. Friday / Saturday the handyman will start his work. I expect he'll take 2 - 3 weeks, but we'll see what he says when he gives me his quote. Next Tuesday, new appliances are being delivered. After the handyman is done, I'll get new carpet installed. Once that is in, I'll have some people in to clean the place and then I'll list it. I still haven't decided if I will be using a Realtor or going the FSBO route yet.

A Visit To House 11

My wife and I went out to the house on Sunday. The sellers were supposed to be out by the end of the day Saturday, but they were still there, packing stuff up to move. I spoke with them and the guy was really nice. He's an older guy, maybe 60 or so, and he told me all about the house and the "improvements" he's made. He obviously has great pride in the house and I'm glad he was very friendly and not upset that he had to move out. They say they will be out for good on Monday (today). Almost all of the furniture was moved out and they were staying in a trailer parked in front of the house. The seller told me someone was coming to pull the trailer away Monday morning.

I made some measurements of the rooms (for carpet cost estimates) and walked around, making notes of what needs to be fixed and checking out the things mentioned in the inspection report. I know now I will be over my $2,500 budget for repairs. These people have lived in the house a long time and I don't think they ever replaced any appliances. The dishwasher and stove look like they were built sometime around the Pleistocene era. The garbage disposal is the size of an outboard motor. There was a refrigerator that I think is going to go with the sellers and a deep freeze freezer in the enclosed patio area that the guy said he would leave. He says it still works, but I'm going to get rid of it. The kitchen sink probably should be replaced as well, since there is some serious staining in it. The carpet will have to be replaced, not just cleaned. It's too old. Strangely enough, he had a modern computer and DSL.

A bit of good news is that the kitchen and two bathrooms had new flooring installed recently. I guess the seller's neighbor does that for a living, so he put it in for them.

The seller said he spoke with the inspector when he was out here and doesn't understand why the inspector said there was aluminum wiring. He claims the house has copper wiring. In fact, he has been in the Valley since 1959 and worked as an electrician who used to wire new homes. He believes he actually wired the tract of homes where this one is located. Anyway, the electrician I have coming out there Thursday will get to the bottom of this. Maybe the seller is right and there won't be a lot of wiring work that needs to be done. I could save some money. I'm not counting on it though..

There are two big storage sheds - one on the side of the house and one in the back. The house is on a corner lot, which is nice because it has a big side yard. The patio enclosure needs some new screening put up and the screen on the master bedroom window has a hole in it and needs to be re-screened as well.

The doors to the all the bedrooms will either need to be repainted or replaced. They are a natural wood color with what looks like a good coat of varnish. They really don't match the white walls at all. I don't know if paint will cover them well or not, so I might just replace them. The door handles need to be replaced too since they are all mismatched. The seller did buy a new front door, but he never installed it. He will leave it there for me.

There are working ceilings fans in all the rooms. The dining room has a horrendous 1960's style metal orb chandelier that looks like a welding school student's rendition of the Death Star. That needs to go. The A/C vents need to be cleaned. The family room has a "popcorn" acoustical ceiling and there are streaks of dirt on it from where the air blows out of the A/C vents. I don't know if that can be cleaned or not. The house has A/C and evap cooling. It also has two new attic fans to help keep the attic cool. The outside of the house has been recently painted, but the inside will need to have a new coat applied.

After we left the house, we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. We passed a Home Depot on the way, so we stopped in and ordered a new stove, range hood, dishwasher, and garbage disposal to be delivered and installed on 3/22. That and the required new power cord and dishwasher install kit, plus delivery fees and installation charges, came to about $700 (less a $50 delivery charge rebate I have to mail in for). While I was there, I checked out prices of some other things I know I'll be needing. It seems $35 is the standard cost for just about everything! New door - $35! New stainless steel sink - $35. New kitchen faucet - $35. New range hood - $35. New screen door - $35. These are for pretty much the cheapest ones Home Depot sells, but still, new is new.

Today I need to contact my handyman and see what his schedule is. Before I do that, I need to write up a list of all the things I want him to do. That really helps in making sure everything gets done and that there are no surprise costs later.

House 11 Escrow Closed!

Escrow closed yesterday and I am now the official owner! The sellers have two days to move out, per our contract, and I will have the keys on Sunday. I'm still working with their agent to figure out the logistical details of me getting the keys, but that should be done today. There were a couple interesting things I had to sign for this escrow: The title company needed copies of the Articles of Incorporation of my LLC and then I had to sign a statement confirming the LLC was still in existence and had not been amended in any way. Then the listing agent needed me to sign some disclosures releasing them from liability for the condition of the property, that I elected not to purchase a home warranty, and that I waived my final walkthrough inspection. The nice part about this was that nothing I signed had to be notarized, so I never had to go in to the title company to sign anything. They had a courier bring stuff to my office, I signed it, and they had a courier come back and pick it up and return it to them. Sweet!

I called the electrician back and re-scheduled the appointment for next Thursday and Friday. I also called the electric company and city to get the power, water, sewer, and trash put into my name, effective Monday. Interestingly, the city needed the name of the escrow company and escrow number for this. On the plus side, they allowed me to put the service in the name of the LLC, since that is who is on the deed. With the electric company, if I did that, I would be required to pay a deposit since the LLC hasn't had service with them before.

On Sunday, I am planning on heading out to the property and going over it to make a list of all the fixes I need my handyman to make. I'll base this on the inspector's report and other cosmetic things I find. I'm also going to need to buy a dishwasher and garbage disposal and get those installed. If the store I buy them from offers free or cheap installation, I'll take it. Otherwise, I'll probably have my handyman install them. One thing I learned from my last property is to never have the appliances delivered and installed on a Saturday. If something goes wrong, as it did last time, there is no one to contact so the problem can be fixed that day because the main office will be closed. I'll save a lot of time and headache if I just take a couple hours off work and wait for them to show up on a weekday.

Budget-wise, I'm close to on track. I budgeted $750 for escrow fees for both the buying and selling of the property. The fees for buying only ran $222, so I've got more than half of that left for the selling costs. My repair costs may be a bit over the $2,500 I budgeted, mainly because of the electrical work that needs to be done. The estimate for that was $1,500, but that was just a guess. I'll have a definitive figure once the guy gets in there and starts working. That leaves $1,000 for my handyman and appliances. The dishwasher and garbage disposal will probably run about $300 total, leaving $700 for the handyman. This may be within reason, but I'm not sure. Again, once I get in there and make a list of what needs to be done, I'll have a better idea.

House 11 Closing Today?

Just got a call from the title company asking me to come in and sign the paperwork and bring my funds. The only thing they have given me so far to show my costs has "pre-audit" and "estimate" written all over it, so I asked for a final version so I wouldn't bring the wrong amount and have to make two trips. Apparently, this is an unusual request, since the woman I was speaking to was a bit flustered by it. She said they have the final figures after everything is signed. Since it's an all-cash sale with no home warranties, loans, etc., she says the odds are very tiny that my figures would change. The only changes would likely be on the seller's side. I told her the rest of my week is very busy (which it is - I'm getting two cavities filled tomorrow and I'm meeting with my CPA to go over my taxes on Friday), and I won't have time to make two trips to their office this week. She said none of the paperwork I have to sign needs to be notarized, so she is sending the stuff by courier today for me to sign. I'll go out at lunch to get the cashier's check and then call her, at which point she will send a courier back to pick up the docs and my check. And then we will be done!

The sellers are coming in today to sign their paperwork. Two days after we close, I get the keys, so this should work out good - if we can get this all done today, I should have the house by the weekend!