re: America had a love affair with ‘fixer-upper’ homes. That may be over

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a new house with no hidden headaches from day one.

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This is a joke, right?

Another thing impacting this market is ageing Boomers downsizing.

I looked into this for my elderly parents and the cost inflation for these no frills one story walk-in places is insane. So many people out there now where Mom broke her hip and now she can't climb up stairs is driving a bubble market. They would rather die than go to a nursing home or assisted living. I can't really blame them for that, but the alternative is they move back to where they started 50 years ago as cash buyers who have stopped giving a sh*t about anything.

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Head line should read...contractors have made it too cost prohibitive for people to buy and renovate an old home.

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According to many on this board, you need a contractor to hire a project manager to make sure the tile guy is laying straight. Not making that up. A contractor told me that on this board.

Instead of just hiring a good tile installer.

Makes sense. When a kitchen remodel costs $80k and a bathroom remodel is $20k it prices most people out. Cheaper to buy a turn key house for $600k than a $500k house that needs paint, landscaping, and a full reno

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Why didn't you sue him and recoup what you paid since he breached the contract?

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Because it wasn't worth that. The amount we paid was a fair amount for the work that actually was completed (entire interior repainted, new flooring in master and office, repainted kitchen cabinets and new countertops and backsplash in the kitchen).

The unpermitted work was stuff related to the gas stove. We ended up abandoning that plan and going with induction so the amount I ended up not paying him on the contract were the things he either hadn't done or had fricked up.

It was an older house you’d have to completely reconfigure the kitchen to make it possible to effectively vent out. The existing stove was on an interior wall with no existing ventilation system.

My gut told me that it was going to be tough to accomplish but the guy acted like it was no big deal. Then after his crew was deep into the project he acted like we were nuts for thinking that it could be done without completely gutting the existing kitchen layout and starting from scratch.

A few days before we fired him he basically told us our options were to abandon that part of the project or he could jerry rig something that would look like shite and in all likelihood not really work.

Problem is the smaller company’s who are probably more reasonable priced, are so booked out , that they can’t come out in a timely manner and some of them just aren’t organized enough to even show up. You are forced into calling out the bigger company’s who will show up quickly but you will pay a premium.

I just had a plumber quote me $1400 to replaced a galvanized waste arm in a kitchen wall. Probably $100 bucks in parts and a two hour job. Most of these guys get 30-35% of the job they do,with the rest going to the company. I understand we all have to make a living but it is entirely unreasonable to expect $200 an hour.

tl:dr put your kid in a trade.