Exactly right, Russ. Our gardener and some of his friends have been working for some of the large Chinese flipping outfits who’ve been infesting our housing market as of late. He said they paper over all of the serious flaws, and even want the workers to reuse the nails and screws. These “improvements” are cheap and possibly dangerous, and they are charging extremely high prices for “upgrades” that will end up causing problems down the road.
I’d much rather encourage the use of the FHA’s 203(k) program for owner occupants.
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BG, it would be far better to have affordable housing available to owner-occupants than artificially fancied-up houses with cheap granite counter tops and a coat of paint. Our concern should not be for the hopeful sellers, but for those who are looking to buy an affordable roof over their heads. The notion that your primary residence is an “investment” needs to go. It is a consumption item, and there is no guarantee that a buyer will make money on a home purchase. Maybe, if we teach young people to think logically about housing, they might be less inclined to eagerly overpay and cause the bubbles that are so prolific in California (and other places).
