nzstato
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Posts posted by nzstato
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Making a bit more progress
Due to GC @NickJ who brought me a replacement diff down I could start getting this back together. Replaced the pinion seal for good measure while it was on the bench.
Bit of paint makes it all look nice.
The intermediate bearings on the half shafts were stuffed so I sourced some replacements including the inner races which needed to be swapped on the shaft. Easiest way to do these is cut through most of them with an angle grinder then some solid blows with a chisel should split them off.
The UJs on the halfshafts are stuffed also, these have been replaced but some bright spark forgot to remove the dust seals on the needle bearings so they were running dry.
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57 minutes ago, azzurro said:
Dang.
Costs changes are related to variations tho? not just "yeah, nah, quote was for $ but lol, jokes heres the invoice for $$$"?
Shame cause otherwise seems like it was going pretty good, nice tidy site, good progress, quality work, etc?
The 'build' is going well, the builders are ace, working solid hours and a tidy side.
The project management of earthworks/services is rubbish, and thats where all the variations are.... yep, its the old bait and switch....
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So because this is real life I am currently looking at some nasty cost over runs on the build, not a small amount either (80k). I am fairly miffed with my contractor as the communication around this have been piss poor and its only after I asked a few questions were they forthcoming around the invoices I can expect.
Making it worse is the $$ I had set aside to bid on some land at auction this weekend now has to be used for these variations and pours cold water on that idea....
Not a huge amount I can do, but it grinds me - I feel there is a thin line between a provisional cost estimate and fraudulent bait advertising....
Moving on they can expect an owner who is going to be very dilligent with the details of the building contract and extremely picky at final inspection...
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Hopefully get another good push on the site this week. External is ready for final clad, all of the batts/jib has arrived to line out the internal. Builders got caught on another job so asking them to play catchup.
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1 hour ago, 64valiant said:
You can use foam underlay like in a house, but unless it's closed cell foam it will all absorb water. And that foam underlay will hold it longer than underfelt.
If you are thinking the under felt is going to get that wet I probably wouldn't be putting carpet in it.
I would look at rubber/vinyl matting.
But really depends how often you plan on getting the carpet and underfelt saturated. 10 times a year? Cause dehumidifiers work a treat in closed up vehicles to dry out carpet.
Cheers, I still have quite a roll of marine carpet I was looking to use.
So even close cell foam I'm going to get into trouble?
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3 hours ago, 64valiant said:
no.
I would recommend going to buy some under felt from a local supplier. usually 50 bucks a meter 1.8 or two meters wide.
probably wouldn't put that under carpet as you might find it able to compress and movable causing it to brake down where under felt is a lot more hard wearing.
I would put this type of product on a fire wall or on a ceiling.
Is there is a foam underlay you would reccomend?
I want to put something in the landrover but at the risk of doing a deep water crossing and underfelt would have to be removed entirely to dry...
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3 hours ago, azzurro said:
crooked gate makes me itch given the workmanship elsewhere! Hope its just the camera angle.
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(ps good work man, time to get some $ coming inwards!)
It is.... the previous owners didnt ensure the strainer post was vertical as the concrete dried.....
That gate is probably going to go, just not sure where yet....
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1 hour ago, anglia4 said:
link/image fail?
Fixed, must have gone dud last night
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Time to go fishing....
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I 'think' these were 1 1/4x27 inch. Pretty easy to still find, think I bought the last set online from Evocycles.
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12 minutes ago, Willdat? said:
Not trying to spam this up too much, but in my opinion real estate agents are not working for the seller either. They're working to maximise turnover. In a house worth 600k, 2%= $12k, to get $50k more of a sales price will require a whole lot more hustle for the agent to earn just $1k. A mates way of dealing with this was to offer 10% commission on $ over X, that's a real incentive to maximise what they're getting for you.
We sold our house ourselves, was really easy, made a sign, listed on trademe, had an open home, took names and numbers at the open home, rang the people who attended that night and asked if they were interested in making an offer. Sold in a week. The best part was knowing exactly how the process was going.
Spam away...
You're right, in many cases, the agents work to their incentive scheme rather than maximising the situation for the seller - who said a quick sale is a good sale? potentially leaving $$$ on the table there.
With what I do for a living I could look to do this myself, in all honesty its the hassle factor with everything else I have going on in life. With a well trained agent they will do your bidding...
I feel the commissions should look like investment funds...... you have a super low base rate, then a large performance fee i.e. achieve x% above the average price/GV for the area... that'll sort the wheat from the chaff.
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3 hours ago, azzurro said:
The agent works for the seller, not the buyer and thier goal, backed by % commission as an incentive, is to get the 'best' price - from the sellers perspective - ie the highest.
But not withstanding that, i agree, when we were looking some of them came across as smug lying fucks so tended to work against us putting in our best offer, but with a long line of bigger suckers it seemed like pretty easy money to put up a sign, hold an open home and then sort the offers from highest to lowest.
For alot of them, playing the game of FOMO is all they have got....
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So here’s my big on selecting an agent, and a bit on our strategy for selling this thing. First disclosure, I don’t have a background in RE but my day job is in corporate sales and know a fair bit about the area (various programs, training ppl etc). Also, salespeople are people too mmmmkay. Knowing what I know, I’m able to engineer the following process to the outcome I want. Quick tip, sales is 100% built on information, be transparent with information and sharp with questioning and you can have them eating out of your hand (or visa versa…)
I don’t really know any agents personally, so I decided to go to a few open homes ran by local agents who look to be successful. Posing as a buyer I was able to get a bit of an understanding on how they operate from the other side. Honestly a lot acted as professional clip board monitors, because the market is so hot right now, they’re sitting back and waiting for the deals to come to them – we want someone proactive but not pushy. It was a pretty easy shortlist (3) to make, the ones that bothered to call me back and ask some questions….. I asked these ones to come to a visit of our place, and provide an appraisal on potential value and marketing strategy, at this point I’m letting them to try and ‘sell’ to me
All agents will give a market appraisal where they show comparable sales in the area and how they see that reflected in your property, they aren’t doing a favour here, they have to do that… Be wary of agents who will look to ‘buy the listing’ by appraising your place super high as an attempt to wow you with greed. At this stage I noticed already differences in offering, Agent #1 was very bubbly and talking a lot about how strong the market was, how well it would sell and how good they were at negotiating. Agent #2 was more casual, walking through the different ways in which we could look to sell and asking questions about what’s important to us. For me, this meeting had nothing to do with getting an appraisal (just say “yes, ok, that’s great” a lot), it was a case of gathering information about who they were, what drivers they looked to use so I could use that again in the next discussion. I left each of these meetings outlining that I would be calling them on when we would speak next, but being clear that I would speak to them before making a decision. (if you are clear on YOUR actions and YOUR timeframe, you wont have them badgering you with calls).
Next meeting I’m flipping the script, I’m the one in control and asking all of the questions, the reasoning being that previously the agents are excited about the opportunity and this puts them on edge and more easily persuaded. I’ve defined that the strategy will be to do a quiet listing on the house before it is finished – purpose to capture buyers now and when they might be thinking in a few months, also to do so during winter when new build listings (competition) are low. If we don’t get an offer of something we like then we can pause to finish it complete and try again…. In any RE deal you’ve got 3 levers to pull in the negotiation – price, timing, and conditions. In our situation, the second two are easy for us to be flexible in order to achieve the best possible $$$. So here, I’m very much in control of the convo and the agent is the one saying yes to me, with their ability to manage the buying process being the key feature.It then gets onto commissions…. They both start that the standard rates are 4.5/2.5% but for me selling 2 houses they will get me a ‘deal’…. During this step, it is key to shut up, have long pauses before answering and show zero emotion (Chris Voss styles). Agent #1 did start with “what do you think a fair rate”? after which there was some fumbling to do some quick math that their offer was 2%, but that I should indicate what I thought was appropriate. For all the banter about being trained negotiators it didn’t take long for them to drop their rates with little encouragement. Agent #2 was a bit cooler about the whole thing, straight up a fixed cash price for a sale followed with some questions on if there was anything presented up until that point that we were unhappy with or needed more questions answered.
I have picked Agent #2, namely because he listened to understand what was important to us, what we feel the strategy should be and what expectations should be. I have also said to him that I’d like to add to his commission, whereby as well as the fixed rate, if he gets over a certain $X then will receive an additional % - key is to align the incentive schemes of you and your agent….
Agent #1 by accounts is good at what they do, they were top in sales in their office and has lots of listings. I feel that is due to be a hard hustler rather than an active negotiator, so the skills fit really wasn’t there.
Lots more I could go into the theories behind this process, but it’ll end up getting into sales101…
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Windows are now in.
Picked an agent, negotiated <2% commission. Post to follow on how to do that. A few articles coming our how commission fees are obscene considering $ and the hot market, I agree but main reason is we sellers accept that without negotiation...
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Looking more 'house-like' now, glad they have it covered in to store materials, there is minimal room left in my shed. Likely to pick an RE agent tomorrow, will post up my process to do so.
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Builders weren't going to wait on the roofer so got the sheet delivered and started on it themselves. My spare shed is brimming with building materials so with the roof on they can plow on with the rest now that the weather has turned here is the south.
3 waters contractor was round to put in the new water connections, cant recall what the cost was for this (was in the total contract) but shouldnt be too much with such a short run. New power connections due in a few weeks also.
Had a brief chat with my lawyer this morning, just to sign an easement to the council over their sewer main, and a private one for the sewer connections into the new lots. Title should be easy (and apparently not too much of a wait at the moment).
We are also having thoughts on just selling up the whole lot and just buying or building somewhere else, I have the pricing to do the relocate (60k+) but the hassle/financing factor plus the residual value of the bare sections, added to the fact availability of lifestyle blocks is getting harder means we are weighing up our options.
Watch this space, happy to receive questions also, I've had a few PMs along the way.
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Being that I dont have too much time to keep my shed I went ahead and sprayed the front. I bashed out the main dents where there the best I could but realistically the whole front end needs alot of panel work at some point in the future - probably worthwhile to get a whole new clip.
Ive got new bits on the way to rebuild the front axle so that's the next job on the list....
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19 minutes ago, kws said:
And to think, that was one of many chemicals I used to work with as an electroplater when I was a teen, with no more PPE than an apron and some long gloves
I do know that the liquid in the cyanide tank was very bitter to taste.
I spent 4yr in a chem dept of a major uni. Lots of H&S yarns....
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38 minutes ago, NickJ said:
Do those guys deal to the public? 500g of chromate would need a few more resto projects to consume!
Not sure, but better luck there than the other chem companies I know, there is an old guy (Neal) there who I used to work with. OG chem sales rep was on the road in an hq back in the day.
failng that, try an online order at Sigma Aldrich
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If you still want to homebrew, find a chromate salt you can buy (sodium chromate?), and a zinc salt which is benign (zinc chloride?) and mix.
Don't drink it.
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Cant get a roofer till the 27th, apparently these guys are super busy.
Going through the process on selecting a RE agent. Might make a post on that if anyone interested?
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A Poor Mans Defender.... SIIA 109
in Project Discussion
Posted
And requested some tools for some minor LR fettling…