Remodeling - Cleanup - Final Inspection

Remodeling - Cleanup - Final Inspection

Cleanup

With final cleanup also comes trash removal, which should take only a few hours or one day, maximum. At this point you can complete any necessary landscaping.

Final Inspection and Loan Closing

When all is done, be sure your subs have called for their final inspections and that you have called for a final building inspection. Again, if you don’t have a building inspection department, for peace of mind, call in an inspection engineer before final payment to relevant subs. Final inspections will verify compliance with code and that everything works.

When all work has been approved by inspectors, utility companies (if applicable), your lender, and most importantly you, you are ready to convert any construction financing to the permanent mortgage. This is usually arranged at the convenience of the lender, attorney, and you. It takes less than an hour. Now you can move in and enjoy.

Starting from Scratch – the Extreme Makeover

If you determine that the effort, cost, and "value added" in renovating a house just doesn't make sense or you just want a new house on a particular site and there is a house in the way, then tearing down the existing house and building a new one may be the option for you.

This option usually requires a lot of cash or existing equity in the project. The only legal way to tear down a house is to either own it free and clear or to pay off any existing mortgages. One could get permission from the mortgagor, but this only works if the loan balance is less than the value of the land, since once the house is torn down, the only thing of value left is the land! Whatever improvements you put into the house as cash or equity over and above the value of the land is gone forever once it is torn down.

Here are some other things to think about.

▪ An appraisal will determine what the land alone (with the house torn down) will be worth prior to you getting involved too deeply. Get one!
▪ A construction loan can often pay off an existing mortgage (up to the value of the land). It takes an experienced loan officer to be able to structure an extreme makeover loan (and I speak from that kind of experience.)
▪ Other than surmounting the legal and financial obstacles of tearing down a house (assuming you don't feel it's just not right to tear down a house) you'll simply be building a new house.
▪ Start at the beginning of this book and proceed with your project. The only additional costs will be demolition and demolition permits, neither of which are cheap.

A NOTE OF CAUTION!! Don't tear down a house that is financed and has a mortgage on it without getting written permission from the lender or paying off the loan first! It's illegal.

THE END

I certainly hope this not the end. I hope it is a beginning for you. I hope you have gained enough from this book, even if you don’t build right away, to fight what I consider one of the most serious problems in America, if not the entire free world, the high cost of housing.

Best wishes,
Carl Heldmann