Something for everyone to consider. Went to another county meeting this morning about their home rehab program. The county got $18,000,000 from the stimulus program to spend on buying and rehabbing foreclosed houses. They have 8 houses ready to go, 36 more in various stages of closing and have 10 months to spend all 18 million. Their goal is 12 houses a month. That will make local government the biggest developer in this area by a long shot since the county is only issuing about 10 permits a month now.
There were only 30 contractors there which means only those 30 will be permitted to bid on these homes. My past experience is that only 8 to 10 will bid on any one home so with 12 a month the odds of landing one are much better. In spite of my misgivings I’m going to bid on 5 this week and see how the bids go.
This is a national program and is probably happening in your county too. Check with your local county housing office and get on their bidder list. It could mean work.
And one last cynical comment. “This is not tax money, it’s a grant.” Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight.
Replies
Wow, only 30 guys there?! Thats good for you as its less competiton. I bet we would have 300 in our area show up!
Ah, you already looked! Yes but there are a bunch of low bidders there. I did this once before, 6 months or so ago. I bid 2 houses, one at about $36K and told my wife I didn't know which worried me more, the thought of getting it or the thought of not getting it. I didn't need to worry, the low bid was $23K which was less than the total of my subs' bids. That was from a fairly big, mainstream contractor. He went under several months later. I may just bid below my costs and make it up in volume.
your on the right track,heres a favorite story of mine.[there a longer version out there,same results.]
So a man wanted to go into business with his friend so they decided to sell watermelons. Since they didn't have a farm, they would be the middleman and buy watermelons directly from the farmer, then sell them at their fruit stand. They would buy a bunch of melons for $1 each from the farmers, then sell them at the market also for $1. This went on for a few weeks. They would load up his truck with watermelons from the farmer at $1 each, and then haul them to his fruit stand and sell them at $1 each. A few more weeks goes by and his friend says "you know, we aren't making any money this way" So he thinks about it for a minute and says "you know something, you are right...do you think we need a bigger truck?"
bid low,make it up in volume..........................JUST GET A BIGGER TRUCK
the older i get ,
the more people tick me off
Edited 11/2/2009 10:52 pm by alwaysoverbudget
Edited 11/2/2009 11:00 pm by alwaysoverbudget
"This is not tax money, it's a grant." Now I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Sleep well, the Chinese are gonna want that grant money back some day.
Joe H
$18million to purchase and/or rehab 10 house per moth for the next 10 months.
=$180,000 per home???
Did anyone bring up how all that money is spent? Those #s don't add up for an average house.
This money should be put into the public sector, not into bureaucracy
115 houses total they said. Yeah, the math sucks. I get about $156K per house. They are paying less than $60K per house and will probably average $25K to $35K on rehabbing. They will have $85 to maybe $100K in houses that will still be worth $60K or less. I suppose the rest is for the county to administer the work or possibly to pay the price down. Then of course they are going to sell and finance the houses back to the same people who couldn't afford them the first time around.
They DO NOT want to talk about how the money is spent.
We have or had a similar program during the last 5 years. It makes no logical sense, but HUD wants the program to succeed. I think if they had a few accountants on staff to point out the idiocy of it, it could be stopped!
Dave
Florida,
This may not be tax money collected by your county, but it is certainly tax money collected by the feds.
Regards Rich
Sorry florida, I reread your comment and realized you knew that.
Edited 11/3/2009 8:19 am ET by mr.rosy548