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Y’all, the flip house next door has sold! And the best part is that it was actually sold to people who are going to live in the house. That means that they have a vested interest in that house beyond just dollar signs. They’ll actually care about the house and the neighborhood.
And that also means that from this point on, the design choices they make for that house is none of my business. As long as the house was in the hands of a house flipper (and one who seemed crazy and greedy, in my humble opinion), I felt free to express my critical opinions. But just like I would never tell y’all about the projects (or lack thereof) that any of my other neighbors are doing (or aren’t doing) on their homes, or give my public opinion about those projects (or lack thereof), this will be my final say on the flip house.
But I couldn’t leave y’all hanging. After sharing about that house in previous posts (here and here), I had to let you know that it sold…finally. I went over and met my new neighbors a few days ago, and they seem like very kind, friendly, easy-going people, so I’m very thankful for neighbors like that.
Obviously, I had to ask them about that kitchen, though. And almost in unison, they said, “Oh, the kitchen is horrible!” 😀 So they do have plans at some point to redo the kitchen. Until they’re ready to tackle a kitchen remodel, they’ll obviously just live with it as is.
I can totally relate to having to live with a very inefficient kitchen. Do y’all remember what our kitchen looked like when we moved into our house nine years ago? If you’ve forgotten, let me refresh your memory.
Yeah…our kitchen wasn’t just inefficient. It was also very old and dingy. And thank goodness, it looks nothing like that today. (If you’re new here, you can see the most recent whole-house, before-and-after tour here, here, and here.)
And yet, we had to use that kitchen for several months before I started the kitchen remodel. So I know how it is to have an inefficient kitchen that hasn’t quite made it to the top of the priority list yet. But if I remember correctly, my new neighbors did say that they’ve already had plans drawn up for a new kitchen. So they’ll have that to look forward to in the future.
I did want to pass on one thing that they told me because I feel like it’s something that happens often, and home buyers need to be aware of this, especially when buying from a house flipper who just wants to do a quick turnaround and is in it for the cash.
They said that the highest priority for them (and the deal breaker for them buying the house) was that the electrical wiring had to be redone in the whole house. This was non-negotiable for them.
What the flipper had done was change out all of the old two-prong outlets for updated three-prong outlets, but the flipper did that without actually updating any of the wiring in the house. So the whole house still had all of the old wiring (i.e., the kind that has only two wires — hot and neutral — with no ground wire), while simply swapping out the outlets, making it look like the electrical wiring had been updated.
I think that is actually much more common than people think, and if a flipper is only in it for a quick turnaround and as much cash as they can pocket, electrical is definitely going to be one of the areas where they’ll cut corners. After all, electricians aren’t cheap, and rewiring a whole house is a huge job.
Thank goodness my new neighbors had the house inspected before they bought it and provided a copy of that inspection to the seller (or seller’s agent) so that they could have the seller fix it. And at that point, the seller really had no option but to fix it, because if they had refused to fix it, they would be required to disclose that information to the next potential buyer. So they’d eventually have to fix it anyway. There was no need to kick that can down the road.
So this brings the whole flip house saga to and end. This is the final chapter. The house is finally out of the hands of a crazy flipper who obviously wanted to do a quick flip, cut corners, and pocket a ridiculous amount of money, and into the good hands of owners who actually care about the house and the neighborhood (and thankfully, didn’t buy it a year ago and pay the flipper’s original insane price of $450,000). It’s a happy ending.
(And please never buy a house without having it inspected!! Even if you plan to completely gut and remodel the whole thing, get it inspected and know what you’re walking into.)
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
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