Jake's got us dangling at the end of a line like a hooked fish. It was a beautiful day today, perfect for starting on the driveway. After the rain rain rain, day after day, you could say it was time. But where is he? His delaying tactics are clearly well-practiced: say you've got another job finishing today, blame the weather, say the soil has to dry out, demand money upfront for materials, give an incomplete bank account number so the money can't be transferred for another day - oops before you know it, it'll be raining again.
It's very hard to contemplate doing another project like this one. The house was advertised for rent at the beginning of May. It'll be the end of June next week and still we haven't finished the driveway, which we need to do to get final sign-off. We'll have to pull the ad and relist when the driveway is finally done. With the next fine day not forecast to occur for another 8 days.... aaaargh!!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Weathering the delays
Heavy heavy rain no doubt going to give the driveway contractor another excuse to not start the work.
We finally got the building consent amendment approved and then had to wait a few days for the resource consent for the engineering plans to be approved. It pays to ring up and ask. We were dutifully waiting for the engineer to ring us, but the council guy posted the approval - by snail mail!! It was approved on the Monday, I rang on the Wednesday and found out he'd approved it, the letter didn't arrive in the mail box until Thursday. Three days of fine weather gone.
So, I immediately rang Jake. Jake - oh boy, now this is a whole 'nother story on it's own. Anyway, Jake's like - can we meet on Friday to get the plans. Two more days of fine weather pass!
So, now it's Saturday and it's been pouring down for almost 24 hours. No word from Jake.
We finally got the building consent amendment approved and then had to wait a few days for the resource consent for the engineering plans to be approved. It pays to ring up and ask. We were dutifully waiting for the engineer to ring us, but the council guy posted the approval - by snail mail!! It was approved on the Monday, I rang on the Wednesday and found out he'd approved it, the letter didn't arrive in the mail box until Thursday. Three days of fine weather gone.
So, I immediately rang Jake. Jake - oh boy, now this is a whole 'nother story on it's own. Anyway, Jake's like - can we meet on Friday to get the plans. Two more days of fine weather pass!
So, now it's Saturday and it's been pouring down for almost 24 hours. No word from Jake.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Council delays hold up progression to next project
We're still waiting for Council to approve the amendment to the Building Consent which will allow us to get the cesspit in and the new drive done.
Several lots of tenants are waiting to view or rent the house (click to view). We only advertised on Trade & Exchange online and http://www.sella.co.nz/ both of which are free. To list on Trademe would have cost $99! It's frustrating that we can't tell people a definate move in date. Most of them are saying they're keen to wait, since the house is worth it. None of the prospective tenants have baulked at the $390 pr wk rent plus having to pay for the water.
It's hard not to start looking for the next project. There's a house for sale on the same street for $300,000. The tenants are keen to stay. More attractive are the sections adjoining it. We find ourselves running away with ideas on what we could build there. How could we think of doing that after the gruelling year that it's been? It's the challenge. An empty site has it's own peculiar limitations: like the outlook, where the sun will be, the odd shape, the small size, the proximity to neighbours. There's the challenge of aiming to provide an honest comfortable home without over-capitalising, whilst remaining realistic about the area and the demographic of the community. There's no point building a $450,000 house in a street of houses worth only $280,000 that will only ever attract tenants able to pay $350 a week without over-crowding the place.
We're looking at kitsets. $145,000 for a section, $117,000 for a kitset to lock-up, $25,000 Council new dwelling fee, $5000 to WaterCare... $2700 building consent fees, plumbing, decorating - you do the sums. It just doesn't add up. It's up to $300,000 in no time without hidden extras. Can't do it. May as well buy the existing house and be earning from day one. Plus we wouldn't have to spend a year of weekends and holidays working on it.
Tim Ferris, in an interview on YouTube, said "income without time is no value." It's a good thing to remember: we're doing this to set up cashflow, to set up an income stream that will buy us out of having to sell our time to someone else and in the process make them rich. We've laboured very hard for a year to set up this rental property. The payback will be the passive income. Oh and the doodad:
The boat. That's just our small reward, our way of switching out of work-work-work back to a pattern of having some leisure (with a few snapper thrown in).
Several lots of tenants are waiting to view or rent the house (click to view). We only advertised on Trade & Exchange online and http://www.sella.co.nz/ both of which are free. To list on Trademe would have cost $99! It's frustrating that we can't tell people a definate move in date. Most of them are saying they're keen to wait, since the house is worth it. None of the prospective tenants have baulked at the $390 pr wk rent plus having to pay for the water.
It's hard not to start looking for the next project. There's a house for sale on the same street for $300,000. The tenants are keen to stay. More attractive are the sections adjoining it. We find ourselves running away with ideas on what we could build there. How could we think of doing that after the gruelling year that it's been? It's the challenge. An empty site has it's own peculiar limitations: like the outlook, where the sun will be, the odd shape, the small size, the proximity to neighbours. There's the challenge of aiming to provide an honest comfortable home without over-capitalising, whilst remaining realistic about the area and the demographic of the community. There's no point building a $450,000 house in a street of houses worth only $280,000 that will only ever attract tenants able to pay $350 a week without over-crowding the place.
We're looking at kitsets. $145,000 for a section, $117,000 for a kitset to lock-up, $25,000 Council new dwelling fee, $5000 to WaterCare... $2700 building consent fees, plumbing, decorating - you do the sums. It just doesn't add up. It's up to $300,000 in no time without hidden extras. Can't do it. May as well buy the existing house and be earning from day one. Plus we wouldn't have to spend a year of weekends and holidays working on it.
Tim Ferris, in an interview on YouTube, said "income without time is no value." It's a good thing to remember: we're doing this to set up cashflow, to set up an income stream that will buy us out of having to sell our time to someone else and in the process make them rich. We've laboured very hard for a year to set up this rental property. The payback will be the passive income. Oh and the doodad:
The boat. That's just our small reward, our way of switching out of work-work-work back to a pattern of having some leisure (with a few snapper thrown in).
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