Realtor Schenanigans part 2

Oy, my head....look at this stuff I have to deal with ...

Usually I would just delete comments like these from my blog as they serve no legitimate purpose and trying to argue with a crazy person just makes you crazy...so, instead I decided to do an entire post about em!!

OK Here's a comment we got on the blog earlier this week from someone calling themselves pacificalameda.

$650k is jumbo loan. 203k requires 0.9% mortgage insurance, so total > 7% interest rate !? If FHA requires 45 % ratio, will need > $11k monthly income, how many buyers hv that high income nowadays? Wait for 6 months before moving in? Any assurance the "tough" Alameda city will final in 6 months? What if it goes over budget? According to the other houses posted on this blog, seem to cost > $300k in remodeling of so many baths, bedrooms, kitchens etc. $165k doesnt seem to do a good job for the house in this condition, unless using apartment quality cheap linelium. Why other people's houses, according to your opinon, cost so much to remodel but yours doesn't? according to your blog, one kitchen cost $50k. why suddenly estimate on your house so low? the contractor's bid may not be realistic? Radiant heat is very expensive, people said cost >$600/month. What if it breaks, and leaks water in the future? how much for maintenance/repair? A huge & scary project. maybe that's why according to your blog, 3 open houses only 1 offer? what kind of person would make an offer to buy with so much work? someone who is a contractor ?? Sorry dont want to sound offensive, just things $ numbers not adding up right.

I don't even know how to respond to this, It's just nonsense...All the FHA stuff and especially that $600/month to heat the house??? That's all gotta be pulled outta his you-know-what...What can I say about the remodeling cost? We have two legitimate bids from two contractors for a simple finish of the house as a duplex and both numbers where under $150k-including a new roof.

Then my Realtor got an email from a 'Brian' with a lame yahoo email address.

saw your listing, read the very very long blogs, and has some questions: 1. total 2,800 sq. ft. 3 storeys, so each floor only 900 sq. ft.? or is the main floor bigger than the basement or attic? 2. a little confused on the asking price : $650k, including $165k in remodeling of any materials the buyer's choice? does that include all the permit fees and artichtect's drawings? not sure how up to date the old plans are bc this year many new building codes came into effect & Alameda city has the highest permit fee in the bay area. it may cost > $10k for all the architectural & permit cost. 3. what if buyers pick materials that the contractor cannot do within $165k, will the Seller susidize? 2,800 sq.ft. house for $165k seems very cheap, according to the blog commented on other houses, one kitchen average cost $50k to remodel, and one fixer-upper cost $500k to remodel. So not sure if the contractor can do with good quality materials with the house in such a bad shape that has no walls. 3. it says finish work 6 months from COE, does that mean the buyers pay 6 months of mortgage, or the seller pays before possession of house? $650k 203k loan, we are looking at about $6k mortgage, tax & insurance per month, adding 6 months of mortgage, and $10k fees, so total $"696k purchase price", sort of pricey at this market, esp. many unknowns. 4. what if the contractor stops work due to financial disputes or other reason, cannot finish the job in 6 months? Alameda city planning & building depts. are not easy to get approval/finalize. ** Can the escrow close in 8 months (until all work done) before closing since the Seller asks for $650k to buy. I.e. the Seller warrants that the house will be completely done satisfactorily in 6 months with no delay? 5. what is the incentive for buyers to wait for 6 months before moving in, with a high purchase price of $696k? is the seller's price $485k negotiable, since it doesn't seem to be justified with all these risks & unknowns? e.g. If the project goes over time, it's $6k per month! that's why most fixer-uppers are priced low accordingly, But this house does not seem to be taking into consideration of all buyer's work & risks. thank you!

Brian

I think this one as its full of just stupid assertions that you could only have if you where cherry picking individual sentances out of a blog post and not reading it as a whole... notice the exact same reference to my blog and reasoning.

Now read this from a Realtor who has been sending us these bizarre emails intended to do what? Harangue us into dropping the price ridiculously low???

That is reasonable given the circumstances. Having managed many projects in Alameda, that include the after close process of a 203k it is not as simple as you state including pick anything you want. New plans need to be drawn, the entire building will need to be brought up to code, the hud inspector is going to walk the house and have their own list of mandatory items that need to be repaired not including the cosmetics of a build out. One of the items is going to be window replacement and/or paint scraping and lead abatement which was just passes last year and is an added cost. One of my most recent projects was 2143 Alameda Ave which was posted on your blog. You know the rehab cost of that home and it was in much better shape that 1310 Pacific. Given the carrying cost of two mortgages and property taxes my estimate is that you are looking at 14,000 if you wait 4 months. There is also the fact that the buyer you are looking for for a FHA jumbo loan of 620,000 at 5.5% needs to have an income of 13000 to qualify for the loan and anyone with that income is not buying that house. Mull it around. I know the offer is not what you want to hear or see but if you were my client purchasing and you knew what the cost and time is going to be involved for a buyer after the COE it would be easy to see how obscured the numbers you are quoting and ease of of a full renovation are with federal guidelines is.

Now this one is from a Realtor who claims to know all about FHA stuff yet doesn't know that in the SFBay area FHA loans go to uh, $729k as conforming jumbo loans and its not till you go above that number that you get into the real jumbo loan territory. Again with the plans...guess he didn't read that I have the complete digital model of the house and have a set of simple redo plans already done for the house. I love his carrying costs number.... He does imply that he was the buyers realtor for 2143 Alameda Ave....this is the property where the seller was trying to sue based on my review...she claims that my review cost her $15K in selling the house....

Edit 4-14
Okay somethings been bugging me about the above email for a while and I just now put my finger on it. He does seem to be implying that he was the buyers Realtor at 2143 Alameda Ave and that it was bought with a 203k remodel loan right??? Except that the loan limit for single family houses in Alameda County is $729k and the house was purchased for $755k acording to public records???? How is that even possible? Methinks I smell a steaming pile of B.S....

Here's what the Realtor Doesn't Get About Chez Neumansky 2.0
The foundation's already been done!! Unlike 2143 Alameda Ave. That will save you $130k right there.
The electrical is already upgraded with sub panels on each floor. (unlike 2143 Alameda Ave) All you have to do is run branch circuits-which one electrician noted would take him maybe two days per floor.

Having no drywall in the way is actually a good thing. Now when he says there's no walls, what he means is that there is no drywall.  That's a plus in this situation as its super fast and easy to run your utilities inside the walls and then have them drywalled up. Usually in a situation like this you'd end up pulling most of the drywall down to run your utilities and to insulate.

You know really, author seems to of taken a play book from those nut job right wing radio guys...where they take things out of context and then blow stuff all out of proportion laced with a bunch of half truths??

Seriously now...does it not seem that all of these emails are from the same person? It really does to me...Using the exact same incorrect information with the same arguments and phrasing. What's the chance 3 people came up with all this VERY similar nonsense independently? Yes, I know that you are going to say that a bunch of people probably came up with 2+2=4 independently but c'mon three people getting things exactly wrong in the exact same way? What I especially like about the last one is that it was sent directly to me...that's something Realtors are always supposed to do right? bypass the selling Realtor and try to strike a deal with the home owner??

So, what this looks like is a Realtor who has clients who want to buy our house for a ridiculously low price has created not one but two alias' to try to convince us that the house is worth what his clients want to pay for it???

Really, Seriously now....is it just me being paranoid or does it all sound like it came from the same person??

Next Up Realtor Schenanigans Part 3....it gets really reptilian now....

Never Use Willson Bailey Construction!!

A Crook Is A Crook Is A Crook!!

As a public service I feel I need to point out a foundation contractor that everyone should stay away from.

The contractors name is Willson Bailey Construction 2879 Humphrey Avenue Richmond, CA 94804 - (510) 236-7796

The kids down the street at Casa Decrepit have chronicled their huge foundation fiasco as it happened.

They recently settled out of court with the crook and as part of their settlement they are not allowed to mention his name on their blog or go after his contractors license!

But, their settlement does not stop me from saying things like, 'After reading the saga on the Casa website I firmly believe that Scott Bailey of Willson Bailey Construction is a total honorless crook!!!'.

Since the settlement the Casa kids have been meticulously dissecting the fraud, if you have not already you should read those posts here, here and here.

Just so you know how full of crap the BBB is check out their rating of Willson Bailey Construction. Can you believe these guys got an A+!?!??!

D

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Update on Winans Construction Saga

Well, update might be a little bit of an overstatement.....

Still have not heard back from them after many, many attempts at contacting them.

How could such a fancy-pants high end award winning business treat me this way?

To review, signed a contract with Winans Construction for $9k where they were supposed to design our top floor and kitchen and deck and provide us with permit-ready drawings. Half way through the process they realized that they weren't going to get the construction part of the job and basically stopped caring about it. They dropped off the supposedly finished set of permit ready plans and have been pestering me about the final $2500 due. I've shown the plans to 5 general contractors, two architects and one structural engineer who all agree that the plans are far from 'permit ready'. When I went back to Winans with these issues and proposed fixes they basically told me, 'We're the experts you are not we think the plans are fine as is pay us now!'

I spoke to our friend-neighbor-fellow house blogger Ayse from Casa Decrepit about the situation. She is unfortunately an expert in getting screwed around by contractors.

Her take was that they have decided that I will not sue them over the $9000 as its not enough money to bother hiring a lawyer for and all that. And ya know, she's right.

Its going to cost us ~$6k additionally to get someone else to finish their plans.....so I guess I just gotta sit back and take it right?

NOT!

I've left them very non-complimentary reviews on Angie's List, Yelp, and I'm trying to get onto the Berkeley Parents Network to leave a review for them there also.

Can anybody think of anyplace else I leave reviews that'll get read-be influential? They have a myspace and facebook pages but I don't belong and I don't really feel like signing up just to leave my review on their pages? But if other people wanted to leave notes on their pages saying something like, "Stop screwing around the Chez Neumansky folks" or something like that I wouldn't mind.

Several of the local TV stations have a 'on your side' segment. Maybe I'll try them next?

Ayse pointed out that they are a 'Diamond Certified' company.

I contacted the folks that do the 'Diamond Certifying' and they are going to attempt to mediate the dispute. Maybe they'll get someone at Winans to respond. If Winans Construction does not respond they'll get their Diamond Certification pulled which is probably the most I can hope for.

Well, at least now we have someone in our corner working to help solve this impasse.

I told the Diamond folks that I either wanted Winans to finish the contract or return all my money.

Is that fair ya think?