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Fixing and Flipping Your San Diego Foreclosure Property

San Diego Foreclosure homes and REO houses are at a record high, which means that San Diego Real Estate investors are in a great position if they plan on buying and flipping houses in San Diego.  So what happens once you invest in a San Diego foreclosure or REO property?  Like most buyers of San Diego foreclosure homes, you are planning on fixing and flipping your investment property for a nice profit. The next step is to hire a contractor, or get into the trenched yourself, to make your dreams a reality. Get insider advice from these folks who have lived through the process.

Before Hollister, Calif. resident J.J. Vogel founded Advocates for Quality Home Construction, a national cybernet of disgruntled new home owners, and before Ned Van Valkenburgh, likewise founded the California Center for Quality Home Construction in Capitola, Calif., Alan and Denise Fields penned the ground breaking "Your New House" (Windsor Press, $14.95).

The book also hit the stands long before Fine Homebuilding magazine, Criterium Engineers, the California Real Estate Inspection Association and a host of others warned of the alarming and growing number of defects in new homes.

The Fields are undisputed forerunners in the consumer movement to demand quality homes -- and not a new housing development too soon.

Before the book's first edition published in 1993, finding solid new home buying advice wasn't easy. The book, now it is third printing, is based on the idea that when you buy a new home you don't expect it to yield problems you'd find in a resale house. When you do, builders should back up their product with sound, fast customer service to rectify the problem.

Too often, say the Fields, that isn't the case.

America's insatiable demand for new homes caught many builders short of skilled crafts people and quality has suffered from the demand for home construction at assembly-line speed. Builders concede it is difficult to find good help in hot markets where workers have their pick of jobs.

Chapter 1, "Reality Check: Bob Vila is NOT Building Your Home," sums it up best.

Not out to trash the home building industry, the Fields point out early the advantages of buying or building a new home rather than buying a resale house. It goes on to help consumers understand the home building industry's constraints while advising consumers how to work with the builder to build a defect-free new home.

Critics say many builders don't allow independent on-site inspections, but the Fields insist new home buyers should nevertheless press the issue. They say hire an inspector to act as site supervisor, to look in on the work several times before the home is complete, when the foundation is poured, when the framing is completed and again when the home is finished.

The book also suggests having your new home's various systems inspected as they are completed.

"It could be a series of different people. A retired contractor, a structural engineer, an architect,'' says Alan Fields.

Critics say some of the book's tough advice isn't practical, but it does teach buyers what to expect -- new homes that can pass muster during an independent inspection.

The book also suggests buyers arm themselves with a complete list of the specifications and materials the builder plans to use. Otherwise, says Fields, you risk builders substituting cheaper materials as construction progresses.

Advice for buyers includes determining how much home you can afford, scrutinizing the building team, finding a good location, the role of real estate agents in the new home purchase, new home design, comparing builders, working with contracts, managing inspections, giving finishing items the once over, options and how to quickly resolve problems with a new home purchase.

The Fields aren't afraid of referring readers to competing books and do so in a comprehensive bibliography. Their calling is to get the word out about new homes.

The book also includes a glossary, a review of products that go into building a new home and a section on bargain buys for new home owners.

Giving it to buyers as well as builders, the book hammers home the idea that the buyer is just as responsible as the builder for new home quality.

The 7 Sins of New Home Buyers

1. Putting faith in the builder's estimate of when it will complete the home or how much it will cost.

2. Moving in before the home is finished.

3. Assuming a model home item will actually show up in your home.

4. Failing to have your deposit placed in escrow.

5. Forgetting to get lien releases from subcontractors before closing.

6. Trusting the builder when he says he has great design skills.

7. Getting caught up in cosmetic details, while ignoring structural issues.

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