At the top of the housing boon era television was awash home buying, home selling, house flipping reality shows. The most atrocious of was Probably
Flip This House! I expected it to be a
This Old House meets the 21st century deal, but I was wrong. The shows were pretty much in one vein: flipping crew purchases run down property without proper inspection. They start working and discover that all kinds of things are wrong. They scratch their head, bitch at each other, and try to figure out the cheapest and fastest way to cover up the problems. The end result is a house that looks good on the surface but has shoddy workmanship. The whole thing was nauseating.
Ironically, at the same time there was another show on, a Canadian import,
Holmes on Homes. This excellent home improvement show was centered around Mike Holmes, a general contractor extraordinaire. He took houses ravaged by lazy, incompetent or hack contractors, extensions, renovations gone horribly wrong, and fixed them up the way they should have been done on the first place. I have a feeling most of the houses from the other show would have qualified for this one.
But what does it all have to do with granite? I'll tell you. It seems that on every house flipping show I've ever seen the highlight was putting the granite countertop in the kitchen. The Sell This House type of shows too. "Having trouble selling your home? No, it's not because the pice is horribly inflated. You just need granite countertops!" One day people will look back at the granite countertop fixation of the early 21st century with the same horror as at wood paneling and shag carpeting.
I personally don't care too much for granite. I don't hate it, but can do without it just fine, and actually prefer butcher block. There is also this small issue of granite being more or less
radioactive. One another alternative I'd like to try out is recycled glass countertops. Just look at
these, they are awesome.
But the reason why I started obsessing about this is this: Last weekend, driving around Burbank I dropped in an Open House.
741 N Lima St Burbank, CA 91505 ( MLS#: F1765113)
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,958
$/Sq. Ft.: $327
Lot Size: 6,615 Sq. Ft.
Almost the first thing I saw upon entering was the remodeled kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances, and of course granite counter top. It was in sharp contrast with the rest of the house, none of which have been touched in decades. The online photos actually make it look better than it does in reality. For starters it didn't have any furniture. This half bathroom had peeling linoleum floor.
The main bathroom made me gasp. I suspect most of its parts date back to the original construction - in 1939.
There are no photos of the living room and I know why: It had a dirty carpet and yellow and purple walls. Seriously, is it so hard to buy a bucket paint and repaint the walls? There are also no photos of the small back yard paved over with concrete. This house is not a REO, an older person must have lived here. On a shelf of the closet of one of the bedrooms I saw stack of very old records, possibly gramophone records.
Overall, the house was not bad, but needs a lot of work, I don't think it's worse the asking price, no wonder it's been on the market for 127 day. So I guess granite cuntertop is not the magic bullet. I can't believe they spent money on that, but not on a bucket of paint.
I discovered the house on the corner of Vineland and Kittridge in early summer, 2006. That area can be best described as a "dump," and the house looked anachronistic there. For starters it was on a really big lot. The house itself was smallish, with dainty peaked roof.
I climbed through the well worn hole on the chain link fence. There were big old trees surrounding the house, a bird bath to the side. There was graffiti all over. This green and black one felt strangely fitting.
There were a couple of extra buildings in the back and a boarded up gazebo.
Behind one of the buildings I found an old work bench. The whole place harkened back to an earlier time. Have there ever been orange groves in North Hollywood? I wouldn't be surprised.
A couple of weeks after my visit the house burned down. I sneaked through the fence again. The walls and the trees were still standing, but the roof was gone. I got my first peak into the house. The only recognizable feature was a white tiled fireplace.
Next time I drove by the house was bulldozed off. So were most of the trees.
There was a note on the fence, something about building an apartment building, or maybe condos. Then the notice was gone, but they haven't built anything. It's just a big empty lot now, with overgrown dead weeds, and tree stumps.
Beds: 1
Like this I guess. Well, who needs to open that closet door, anyway?
Price: $525,000
It looks like It's been renovated, fresh paint, hardwood floors, and do I see granite countertops? I must admit that glass tile thing over the kitchen counter is very nice. There is one discrepancy however. It is listed as 1,300 sq. ft, but the county records indicate 1,209 sq. ft. Did they do an addition? Does it have permit? All in all, not a bad looking flip, and seems to be priced along the lines of other listings in the area. It is questionable however how good a chance it has to sell at that price. It does not compare favorably with this other property:
Price: $435,000
Very nice, newly remodeled house, same size, much bigger backyard, and location is as good, if not better, at a much better price.
Beds: 3
Almost the first thing I saw upon entering was the remodeled kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances, and of course granite counter top. It was in sharp contrast with the rest of the house, none of which have been touched in decades. The online photos actually make it look better than it does in reality. For starters it didn't have any furniture. This half bathroom had peeling linoleum floor.
The main bathroom made me gasp. I suspect most of its parts date back to the original construction - in 1939.
There are no photos of the living room and I know why: It had a dirty carpet and yellow and purple walls. Seriously, is it so hard to buy a bucket paint and repaint the walls? There are also no photos of the small back yard paved over with concrete. This house is not a REO, an older person must have lived here. On a shelf of the closet of one of the bedrooms I saw stack of very old records, possibly gramophone records.
Price: $339,000
Beds: 3
Listing Price History
No picture, though it's been on the market for 36 days already.
But lets put away the business talk and just look at the numbers, the basics: the SoCal median income is around $60k, the median house price is over $300k (over $400k in Los Angeles). No amount of urban myth can bridge this gaping chasm. Some people are expecting a mass of buyers rushing in for the now "affordable" prices. Let's be frank, the prices are not there yet, and the number of potential buyers is limited. Sure, lot of people want to buy, but most of those who were likely to make rush decisions, get over their heads have already done it the last five or so years. Those who are left are most likely to sit on their hands, window shop, and simply just wait it out. Not to mention that the tightening lending regulations now don't allow them to borrow more than they can afford.
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