yea good point, i wasn’t thinking about it right.
You’re never escaping this problem.
If the market is low, then you sell low and buy low.
If the market is high, then you sell high and buy high.
I suppose all things being equal, if you’re upgrading, then it’s better when the market is low and if you’re downsizing, then your’re better off when the market is high.
But in both cases one transaction is favorable and the other is unfavorable.
Obviously there may be other property-specific factors that change the calculus.
Edit: Ahh, ponied.
yea, i think i was thinking more like I’d rather sell when the market is high and downsize but you’re right i would still get less for my money than i would when market is low. But i’ll also be able to pocket a large sum right off the bat if downsizing.
Sell now and rent until things return to normal (if they ever do?)
buy if the housing market tanks
???
profit
2 Likes
That sounds about right. It might be closer to half the cost of Hardie, which also has to be painted regularly unlike vinyl. That’s not to say I love vinyl, because I don’t, but it’s a very inexpensive way to do a really good job at protecting your house from the elements. And it can look OK with a little care and effort in how things are trimmed out.
The last home I owned had appreciated like crazy for the 5 years I had it and the 10 years before that and I figured I sold at the top of the market and didn’t want to buy anything right off. Turns out, with a little blip around 2008, houses continued appreciating like crazy for next 20 years.
Location. I bought in 2002 and it barely appreciated at all until the last 5 years. And I wouldn’t be shocked to see it drop right back to 2002 values in the next 12 months.
A different idea: relative prices between city and suburbs are changing because of COVID. If you’re in a suburban location with great schools, it may be profitable to sell soon and move to the relatively lower-priced city. You can also do the same thing if you live in a high cost of living area and move to an equivalent low cost of living area. Kids obviously complicate the calculations in both cases.
Another possible strategy (not necessarily applicable now) is to buy a second/vacation home when prices are depressed, then eventually sell your main house (when prices recover) and move to the second home. In the meantime, you can rent out the vacation home during peak seasons and enjoy it during shoulder seasons.
Either the hardwood or the subfloor came loose at that spot and is bowed up a bit. Probably a fastener that’s been stressed for years finally gave way and the summer heat/humidity has everything expanded to the max. I wouldn’t try to fix it or worry about it at all. It’s probably not even something you can fix without pulling up huge chunks of your floor, and there’s a very good chance it will go away in a couple months just like Covid.
2 Likes
Our glass shower door recently broke. The frame by the hinge was old and busted so it can’t close properly. Not fixable so we need a new one.
I’ve reached out to 6 different companies/contractors. Only one has given me an actual quote and then has ghosted me when I’ve asked for a timeline to install. The others have asked questions about specs and whatnot but have stopped responding. Is it just because they’re only gonna bank a couple hundo on it that it’s not worth their time to get back to me? We just need a simple semi-frameless shower door to buy and install. I could attempt it myself but I’d rather have a professional do it as I don’t want to mess with things water-related and don’t have a way to dispose of the old door.
We just had a frameless shower door installed, and it was pretty easy as far as getting it done. They came over, took some measurements, and gave a quote. All they do is glass (they did our mirrors too), though, so they had the whole process down pat.
Actual time from order to installation was longer than desired because of COVID. But same company did another shower door for us pre-COVID and everything was pretty quick.
1 Like
Glass company is a good suggestion above, although they probably won’t have any low end options if that’s what you’re looking for. They’ll be mid-range and up.
You’re right that a full service contractor isn’t going to want to mess with it. We’re all busy as hell right now and that’s like a half day job.
1 Like
So, the bathroom is done. I made about $1500, which is probably a fair price for labor, but not for labor, overhead, liability etc. But, a LOT went wrong as far as the city delays and there being lots of half days of work that got paid as full days.
We’re doing a second bathroom for the same client. The money is better. The work should go better. I still don’t have a cooperative working. I’m not going to do another bathroom with the same arrangement, but this one is going to happen. The customers expect it, they are super nice, and they are extremely happy with the first bathroom. They put up a facebook page for it and have friends who are interested.
I don’t know that there’s any way this business really goes forward without it just being me doing all or almost all the work by myself, but maybe that’s ok.
Still - I’m open for a bathroom remodeling cooperative!
2 Likes
Any of you pros know how much space is required or desired between either side of an island and the walls? Is 3’ on each side enough?
Shouldn’t be any requirements on clearances and 3’ minimum is code if they somehow tried to say it was a hallway or something. Without knowing the layout it’s kind of hard to say. I like the island to have closer to 4’ clearance around so it doesn’t cramp the kitchen.
The designer planned 4’ but I want the island a little bit longer. It’s 12’ across the room and the island will divide the kitchen from the dining room. I want something like 3’, 6’ island, 3’ while the current plan has 4’, 4’ island, 4’.
I’ll discuss with them at our next meeting. Maybe 3.5’ could be a good compromise. But I want the space on each side big enough so that it doesn’t feel awkward.
Can you sketch it out? If it’s just space to walk through then 3’ is fine. If it’s work space for just 1 person 42" might be OK. If 2 people routinely work in the area you’re really going to want 4’.
Between my island and the fridge/counter space and cabinets I’ve got 5 feet. This is the main standing area while in the kitchen, I would not be happy with 4 feet and 3 feet would be way too tight. From the end of the island to some other cabinets is 3 feet but I never stand in that spot, it’s just used to walk in and out of the area
Requesting plumbing help. This is underneath my kitchen sink. There’s a small leak coming out of the area marked in blue (underneath the screw on collar thing). This is all new installation. Do I just need to add some kind of sealant? Remove/reinstall? Replace everything?
It’s a compression fitting. Tighten it.