All Forum Posts by: Tim S.

I've used this guy a few times and been happy, very thorough.

Precise Inspections

RICHARD SCROGGINS
GLADSTONE MO.64118
PH 816-420-0130

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01...

@Kellie Davis When people move jobs from high paying city to lower paying, it causes pay inequalities within the group. My company reduces salaries for people transferring. An engineer might make $150k in San Jose, while the same job pays $100k in Raleigh. Locals are going to be pretty resentful of the transplant when they are both doing the same job. The transplant still retains a higher salary than locals, they don’t reduce it all the way to match local pay scale. 

Part of the problem is the annual propositions.  The populous votes to spend money every year, they often have no idea that taxes will have to go up to pay it back.  Prop 122:  everyone gets a free puppy and a Ferrari, yay sounds great, all the dum dums vote for it.  "The Rich" will pay for it.  Years and years of this insanity.

@Justin Thorpe  People aren't comparing COL to NYC or Tokyo, they are comparing to Boise, Reno, Dallas, Orlando

The media always over simplifies every story.  The fact is there is net out-migration, more people leaving that arriving.  Almost everyone I know in my age group, mid-late 50's, has either already moved out, or is seriously considering it. I am.  High cost of living, taxes, terrible government, rampant homelessness, bad schools, insane traffic (pre COVID).  Woke-ism at an extreme, affecting real estate investing, and it will only get worse. 

If you've been here a long time, makes sense to sell your house for $1.5M and buy something really nice for $500k in a place where there are low, or no taxes, lower cost of living, to maximize cash for retirement.  

But it's not so easy if all your family & friends are here, weather is unbeatable, so much natural beauty and things to do.  In the mean-time there are lots of high paying job, which attract people from all over the world.  They will keep coming.  I hire Engineers, I tell the younger ones, it's not worth it here, stay where you are.  $130k sounds like a lot, but doesn't go too far when rent is $3-4K.  They still come anyway.  With the pandemic, some of them decided to go back to where they came from, wanting to buy a house and have kids.  Nothing here in silicon valley for under a $million. Unless your company stock has skyrocketed, they will never be able to buy a house.  They eventually figure this out and move.  Or stay because so many high paying job, they think they will eventually make enough to live here, some will, some won't.  

The point is the answer is different for everyone. It's not so simple.  But the fact remains, more people are leaving than arriving and I understand why they leave.  

Biden administration is likely to forgive some amount of student debt.  Pay the minimum in the meantime.  I don't like it, people should meet their commitments, but it's free money.  It would be silly to pay it while millions of others are getting some debt wiped.  

$15k isn't nearly enough, more like $30k 

@Andy Mirza  & @Chad U.  Thanks! Very helpful. 

A tangent issue I have a question about.  If the borrower is in BK13, has anyone had any luck getting the court to require the borrower to pay the taxes, when they aren't escrowed?  

@Nicholas Rickman,  Well, we'll see where it ends up in terms of cost.  There have been several sizable change orders bumping up the price, and there could be more.  It's 830 sqft. Hope to end up around $160k for construction.  That doesn't include design, or permits, I'm up to about $16k for those items.  I have a GC running the job, so he's providing all of the subs.  I can get outside quotes if I need to. I did on the trench I talk about below. 

A couple of surprises, I was not able to bring power from the main house, it is maxed out. New service needs to be added from the pole. Existing service is above ground wires, over 2 adjacent properties to the house. Tacoma Power says they don't have right of way to add service that way over 2 properties. So I had to dig a 150' trench from the pole, down the alley to the ADU. That was pretty expensive, $2300 to Tacoma Power, and another $6.5k for the trench.

2nd issue, a fire sprinkler system is required since part of the structure is >150" from the street.  That wasn't in the original quote, and added about $8k. 

Had a couple of design issues from the architect, that caused some delays.  Most important is the overall height, which is close to the max limit.  Couldn't be built at the elevation the architect showed on the original prints due to lay of the land.  We had to stop construction and get confirmation that the increased height would be OK.  Took 2 weeks to get city approval.

Material delays due to COVID and wild fires.  Had to wait 6 weeks for trusses. It's good to have someone local to bounce things off of.  It's hard to manage this from afar, we were up there this weekend to see the progress for the first time. Glad to be in touch with you. 

Currently wrapping up framing, about to start roof and exterior siding. There have been a lot of challenges and extra costs, not planned for. Anyone else working on an ADU, or thinking about it? Want to share ideas? Let me know.