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Jealous Cow posted:Earlier this year I was being quoted similar high five digit estimates for basically the same thing. Demo a tile 3x3 stall shower and replace with a fiberglass unit. The economy is good now, builders are the busiest they've been since 2007, so a lot of contractors who already have plenty of work lined up will quote on the very high side because it's no big deal if they don't get the job. I wouldn't be in a hurry to get elective work done right now. For something like a leaking shower that needs to be repaired, I'm not sure what else you can do during times like this other than keep getting quotes until you find someone who is more reasonable. In the past I've found that offering literal cash, and positive reviews on yelp/angie's list/google assuming the job goes well helps a lot.
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Dec 23, 2016 04:48
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What to do when a house is vastly overpriced? It's an estate sale, but the price is...$200k or so over what it's worth. Interior is all original from when it was built a in the early 70s and the deck needs to be replaced. We're heading to it next week with our contractor to see how much fixing it will actually be, but it seems like it can't hurt to put in a low ball offer that will allow us to replace, for example, original shag carpeting.
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Dec 23, 2016 09:03
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Glass of Milk posted:What to do when a house is vastly overpriced? It's an estate sale, but the price is...$200k or so over what it's worth. Interior is all original from when it was built a in the early 70s and the deck needs to be replaced. With mortgage rates going up and (it now being winter), there's a chance the market has cooled locally, but it depends what part of the country you live. The sellers are going to have an absolutely outrageous opinion of what their house is actually worth. How long has it been on the market?
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Dec 23, 2016 13:30
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Glass of Milk posted:What to do when a house is vastly overpriced? It's an estate sale, but the price is...$200k or so over what it's worth. Interior is all original from when it was built a in the early 70s and the deck needs to be replaced. Absolutely can't hurt, just make sure it's really lowball enough that you don't regret it when it's accepted.
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Dec 23, 2016 15:13
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I think you can argue it either way, there is a dearth of buyers because of rising rates or there is a surge of buyers trying to cram in a transaction before rates get even higher. The latter seems to be more true recently, but obviously that is not sustainable.
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Dec 23, 2016 18:04
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That quote is not the only one we received in that amount, though we have not done a full exploration of options. We also don't want to cheap out and end up with whatever kind of jackass did this thing in the first place and find ourselves in the same position down the road. We'll certainly keep looking for a little bit but I don't think 3k is at all realistic though and this isn't something we can really wait on since the other bathroom is used by a roommate and it's not really right for us to barge in on the bathroom we agreed in the lease is hers. Jealous Cow posted:Earlier this year I was being quoted similar high five digit estimates for basically the same thing. Demo a tile 3x3 stall shower and replace with a fiberglass unit. This is tempting. But it's the master bath and I don't think the fiance is okay with the bathroom she'll shower in every day being the worst one in the house. She got too used to the nice tile setup that's currently in there.
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Dec 23, 2016 18:29
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By the way I meant high 4 digits. I don't know why I said 5. That would be insane.
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Dec 23, 2016 18:32
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My parents spent $5500 earlier this year to have their existing bathtub/shower pulled out and replaced with one from http://www.onyxcollection.com/. That included some electrical work and a new exhaust fan, and fixing up the shower backing to be whatever they needed. I don't know if those Onyx showers are cheap or fancy though - just providing more price feedback since I know it's hard to get that kind of information.
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Dec 23, 2016 18:44
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Kase Im Licht posted:That quote is not the only one we received in that amount, though we have not done a full exploration of options. We also don't want to cheap out and end up with whatever kind of jackass did this thing in the first place and find ourselves in the same position down the road. Can you post a picture of this unicorn shower? $10k to R&R a shower should be a lot of allowances for hidden damages or upgrading fixtures. If it's truly the basin leaking you should only need to demo out the basin and maybe one row of tile. Is it because they don't want to work over Christmas?
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Dec 23, 2016 19:12
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That sounds an awful lot like the "gently caress you" price to me.
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Dec 23, 2016 19:24
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:With mortgage rates going up and (it now being winter), there's a chance the market has cooled locally, but it depends what part of the country you live. The sellers are going to have an absolutely outrageous opinion of what their house is actually worth. How long has it been on the market? 30 days now, but there's no interior pictures or even details on the MLS listing, so it doesn't seem to be a high-effort sale.
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Dec 23, 2016 20:29
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Kase Im Licht posted:So the shower pan under the tile is leaking. Being quoted 8-10k to tear out existing tile, redo the waterproofing, and replace with new tile. YouTube and a handy friend gets this done for way cheaper. Worst case, you compleete the tearout and don't end up paying for that.
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Dec 23, 2016 21:36
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:That sounds an awful lot like the "gently caress you" price to me. I had a contractor do an entire bathroom rehab down to the studs for $14k. This guy is getting scammed.
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Dec 24, 2016 16:18
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Need to get rid of a meth house or lead paint? Don't worry the lawyers have figured out a way!quote:A year after Tiffany Bennett moved into a two-story red brick house at 524 Loudon Avenue here, she received alarming news. How we have not had armed revolution by now is loving baffling to me.
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Dec 28, 2016 00:06
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Pryor on Fire posted:Need to get rid of a meth house or lead paint? Don't worry the lawyers have figured out a way! Half the country seems to think that the EPA is some evil organization trying to keep the working man down. It's only going to get more awful.
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Dec 28, 2016 00:16
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Finally closed the deal last week. Everything went smoothly on my end, but there was some hold up from the bank. Turns out the seller's agent had to fax something over to the bank. Only problem was, the bank never mentioned anything about this bit of information being needed, so it was just fortuitous the seller's agent had this information on hand. It got taken care of, but me and the other people involved in closing had to stay about an hour longer than necessary because of this. I'm in my new place now. It looks like a total war zone in here with boxes and furniture in disarray. Plus, the guy who lived here before me was a total slob with zero pride of ownership. I spent 2 hours alone cleaning the inside of the refrigerator. The door handle was broken, so the guy literally just taped it together. Also, in the bathroom, the toilet looked like it hadn't been cleaned in at least a year, and the guy so kindly left behind his filthy toilet brush. But drat, it's freakin' mine! Just knowing that these walls, this carpet, and the basement below me are all mine gives me great pride. And so far my only real complaint is that this place is dirty. I haven't found anything that needs major or immediate repairs. Keeping my fingers crossed.
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Dec 30, 2016 03:13
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If the house is that gross, you might want to steam clean the carpeting and TSP the walls before you put all your furniture and stuff in its new place. And congrats!
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Dec 30, 2016 03:27
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Droo posted:If the house is that gross, you might want to
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Dec 30, 2016 03:34
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Droo posted:If the house is that gross, you might want to steam clean the carpeting and TSP the walls before you put all your furniture and stuff in its new place. And congrats! Paying a house keeper to "deep clean" the house before we moved in was the best thing ever. I think she charged us $150 to do it knowing we would be keeping her on if we liked her, wrote her a check for $200 when she finished. All the dog hair, cabinet crud, and miscellany were gone, plus the toilets, showers, oven, etc were nice and shiny clean.
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Dec 30, 2016 05:15
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Oh yeah, you better believe I'm giving the carpet a good cleaning when I have a chance. I would like to replace it entirely, but my budget just won't allow that for a while. And these walls will eventually be repainted as well- the guy did a really lovely job painting the place and I'm finding paint marks on the door frames, cupboards and baseboards. He's a good reminder that even though owning is usually a better financial move in the long run than renting, there's also lifestyle to consider as well. If you're the kind of person that just doesn't want to take care of your living environment, go with renting. Don't get me wrong- even though cleaning up someone else's filth is no fun, I got this place at a fantastic price in a wonderful area and it's in great condition structurally. The guy who lived here was apparently very eager to get out, and this worked to my advantage. A little extra (ok, more than a little) hard work up front is a fair trade in my book.
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Dec 30, 2016 05:30
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H110Hawk posted:Paying a house keeper to "deep clean" the house before we moved in was the best thing ever. I think she charged us $150 to do it knowing we would be keeping her on if we liked her, wrote her a check for $200 when she finished. All the dog hair, cabinet crud, and miscellany were gone, plus the toilets, showers, oven, etc were nice and shiny clean. I actually thought about doing this for clients down the line as a way of saying thank you for the business. $150 is nothing in the grand scheme of things when it can mean so much to someone trying to get settled in.
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Dec 30, 2016 06:12
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On Terra Firma posted:I actually thought about doing this for clients down the line as a way of saying thank you for the business. $150 is nothing in the grand scheme of things when it can mean so much to someone trying to get settled in. We actually hired our real estate agents housekeeper. He sends around ~$200 in gift cards to local businesses and subscription to the local weekly rag. I would suggest you to friends if you offered to clean my house for me after purchase, though that is a deep well if you wind up with a dog piss jungle where it soaked through the carpet into the hardwood and 18" up the drywall. Gift cards are safe and still endearing to someone I indirectly paid $10k.
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Dec 30, 2016 06:19
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I'm on week 2 of exercising the previous owners from our lovely bungalow. Last week was about ripping up 30 year old carpet that stank of cigarettes and animal piss. We now have lovely polyurethaned white oak floors that were creepin' underneath. This week I used TSP to make the walls in the living room literally bleed 40+ years of nicotine smoke. We're now painting, and it's no longer beige on beige and it looks lovely. I'm also doing/getting family to change over all outlets to tamper proof grounded outlets, and switch up the light switches from a hodge podge of various flick pole style to the modern flat ones. Also various updates like cleaning up dead wires and fixing things like where 2 fixed lights were plugged into an outlet. It's nice having family that knows more about this stuff them me. Except for the 5 rear entrance way stairs all the old carpet is gone, and with the paint, everything smells a million times better.
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Dec 30, 2016 06:21
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It's nice to buy a house at the end of the year so I have lots of goals for the 2017 goals thread 
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Dec 30, 2016 06:39
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Team_q posted:I'm on week 2 of exercising the previous owners from our lovely bungalow. You should really let them go, I know smoking is bad but you can't force someone to exercise. 
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Dec 30, 2016 07:35
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H110Hawk posted:We actually hired our real estate agents housekeeper. He sends around ~$200 in gift cards to local businesses and subscription to the local weekly rag. I would suggest you to friends if you offered to clean my house for me after purchase, though that is a deep well if you wind up with a dog piss jungle where it soaked through the carpet into the hardwood and 18" up the drywall. Gift cards are safe and still endearing to someone I indirectly paid $10k. Gift cards seem too easy to me. I feel like moving and getting settled is such a huge hassle, and that doing something to alleviate that would go a long way. Anyway I'll end the derail there. Just looking to help my clients out in any way that I can. Moving sucks!
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Dec 30, 2016 17:29
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On Terra Firma posted:Gift cards seem too easy to me. I feel like moving and getting settled is such a huge hassle, and that doing something to alleviate that would go a long way. Anyway I'll end the derail there. Just looking to help my clients out in any way that I can. Moving sucks! Our sellers hired a great house cleaner the morning before we arrived, and it made a huge difference to us. We really appreciated having a clean house to move into!
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Dec 30, 2016 17:43
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On Terra Firma posted:Gift cards seem too easy to me. I feel like moving and getting settled is such a huge hassle, and that doing something to alleviate that would go a long way. Anyway I'll end the derail there. Just looking to help my clients out in any way that I can. Moving sucks! My agent arranged my house and car insurance (I was moving from another country), got multiple quotes on a car charger and scheduled the install, let various handypeople in and out, and gave me a Big Green Egg. Made me want to buy another house. E: she also, and this might have been the best part, had good recommendations for me on various tradespeople, cleaners, insurance agent, local restaurants and such. Since I didn't know the area, it was a real help getting settled smoothly.
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Dec 30, 2016 20:32
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Your agent sounds like someone I would enjoy paying.
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Dec 30, 2016 21:30
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Subjunctive posted:and gave me a Big Green Egg. Wtf
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Dec 30, 2016 21:36
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All I got was a $75 gift card to Lowes. drat.
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Dec 30, 2016 21:56
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Hahaha I've never heard of an agent gifting anything less than $100 card somewhere, I thought that was standard. $75 is the sign of a true miser I think, that poo poo must run deep.
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Dec 30, 2016 22:59
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Sounds like the agent had a crush.
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Dec 30, 2016 23:03
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Ours gave us a welcome mat. I think she might have paid for someone to come and clean it before we moved in but I can't recall.
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Dec 30, 2016 23:03
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Subjunctive posted:My agent arranged my house and car insurance (I was moving from another country), got multiple quotes on a car charger and scheduled the install, let various handypeople in and out, and gave me a Big Green Egg. Made me want to buy another house. Sounds like my agent except he got both my wife and I iPads (back when that was a cool thing to have). He set me up with a good insurance guy, cleaners, painters and landscapers and held my hand through the closing process (I think this is part of his job though since he's also a mortage wholesale rep).
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Dec 31, 2016 01:16
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Drunk Tomato posted:Sounds like the agent had a crush. The agent also made north of $40K on her commission, but I know her and her husband pretty well.
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Dec 31, 2016 02:58
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Pryor on Fire posted:Hahaha I've never heard of an agent gifting anything less than $100 card somewhere, I thought that was standard. $75 is the sign of a true miser I think, that poo poo must run deep. I think ours sent us a $25 Visa card, and an ornament for Christmas. He was great until we had an accepted offer, then he totally checked out.
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Dec 31, 2016 05:15
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My friend's agent got him a signed 8x10 from a local weatherman. (he collects those for some
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Dec 31, 2016 17:49
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We used a Redfin agent and while she didn't get us anything personally, we did get almost $1000 back from Redfin for using them, so I guess that counts?
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Dec 31, 2016 18:40
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It seems so weird that some agents just don't seem to give a gently caress about customer appreciation. Our agent totally blew us off after the deal closed too. We even tried to hit him up for advice after it was all said and done (New home builder, so it's a little different) and we just got nothing.
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Dec 31, 2016 18:49
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