Bid

[murva]

The bid came back for the sprinkler system on the building the day before yesterday. Took me very much by surprise. $130,000; about double what I had been expecting, and is nearly the asking price of the building. So I'm kinda left scratching my head. I think (though I speak with very little knowledge) that this could cause some very serious

Comments

[dancemonkey]

OUCH!

As for the financing, it is hard to say. Are you going to be asking for the money to make the repairs? If you are, then, yeah, it could definitely affect getting a mortgage. Of course it also depends on what sort of mortgage you're getting.

But there are a bunch of other questions you must also be asking. Do you really want to be spending over 200k on this place? Can you make the payments even if you do? etc.

But all of this is secondary to getting a second estimate. Just make sure you get it from a reputable company. Haha! That would be sweet, though. Get someone who has no experience with this sort of thing and have them make an estimate on it and then use that for your financing. AWESOME.

But I am sorry to hear about the high estimate, man.

[pure_doxyk]

He said everything I was gonna say. So I'll just add, good luck!!

[murva]

Thank you!

[murva]

Yup, OUCH is right. I'm far from giving up, and yes, I am willing to spend the money if ... if ... it looks like the numbers work, and I can have quality work done in it. Keep in mind I'm not flipping this. This is a career move, more or less, and I'm a very patient man :-)

Yup, I would be requesting financing for the repairs. I can't cough up that much dough on my own, and there's a pretty tight deadline that the building must be brought up to full compliance. It basically has to be signed off by the Fire Marshall in 24 months, else the lights go off on all 3 floors.

The payments would be key. If the building is occupied, it would pay the mortgage. If not, my income is not great enough to cover the payments. It certainly increases the risk substantially.

[quadtri]

Are the sprinkler's internal? If so, the costs are probably primarily to do with repairing the walls (drywalling, painting, etc), because the repair people are not expert painters and drywallers, so they charge a ton for that. As long as the pipe work is done solid, then you can do most of the wall repairs yourself.

If it's external, then you can definitely get a better price. The external folks usually charge a ton for digging (which is a lot of work, I must add), so if you can figure out a way to pre-dig the holes, then you can dramatically decrease your costs.

[murva]

Well, actually the cost is not due to repairing. They don't do that. I would have to go back and repair plaster and the accoustic ceiling tiles, etc. Their bid only included parts and union labor for the cutting, fitting, and installation.

[quadtri]

Then that's super jacked!