Quality Control

Houses

4 minute read

March 13, 2013

Is it just me, or is the quality of some “quality renovations” seriously lacking…..ummm…..quality?

I won the “Shop Award” in 1993.

By “Shop” I mean wood shop, of course.

You know – the industrial arts, as it was called back then.

Drill press, bandsaw, lathe.

Jigsaw, torque-drill, belt-sander, router (not the kind we use for the internet).

Take a bunch of 11, 12, and 13-year-old kids, give them some responsibility with potentially dangerous equipment, and see where it takes them!

My, how things have changed.

The “Shop” at Bessborough Public School was turned into a computer lab about three years after I graduated, and kids no longer learn to use their hands.

Ah, responsibility!  Twenty years ago, kids were trusted with saws and other spinning objects in an effort to teach responsibility, by not cutting off their fingers.  Today, kids are trusted with cell phones and Facebook to teach responsibility, by not taking naked photos of themselves, sending it to their boyfriend/girlfriend, and being surprised when everybody in school has it two weeks later…

Have things changed for the better?

I’ll be honest – I’ve changed, or rather my knowledge and use of tools and other manly skills has diminished over time.  I’m not the same man I was…..when I was a child

The next time you’re in my condo, feel free to take any painting off the wall, and see how many other holes are present next to the nail in the wall.

What can I say?  There are professionals better suited for many jobs when it comes to housing, renovation, and the like.

Of course, I use the word “professional” in the context in which I believe it should be used.

www.dictionary.com defines “professional” as “a person who is an expert at his or her occupation.”

If that’s the case, then there are a lot of MLS listings advertising “professional renovations” that come nothing close to the definition.

If there are two things that listing agents over-use, and over-exaggerate on MLS, it is the following:
1) Upgrades
2) Professional Renovations

Some agents tout “upgrades” from 8-year-old condos, when in fact, they were upgrades back then, and now they’re probably less than the standard.

Some agents list “upgrades” for things that potential buyers wouldn’t want at all, like vertical blinds on the windows, when the buyers are more privy to horizontal drapes.

And then, some agents use the term “professional renovations” like a professional is anybody who can operate a screwdriver.

It happens all the time, and it’s usually on flipped houses, or houses that have been prettied-up before the sale.  We call the latter, “lipstick on a pig.”

Here are some photos of a house I went through last week, where the “upgraded flooring” was “professionally renovated,” as per the MLS description.  Don’t get me wrong – the entire house was full of awful renovations, but I’d rather look at this from a micro approach, and see five photos of just the flooring itself.

I’m not a professional floor installer, but me and my drunk buddies could do a better job.

This is brutal.

No concept of how to use quarter-round, let alone cut a straight line.  Or a curved one.  Or anything resembling what is acceptable, let alone, professional.

Where is the pride of workmanship?

How about this one?

That’s a full inch-gap between the wall and the floor, and whoever installed these just figured, “Meh.  Maybe buyers won’t notice.”

Did somebody pay for this?  Was this a DIY job?

Knowledge.  Skill.  Action.

The installer of these floors possesses none of these traits.

Here, the installer didn’t know what to do with a round wall.  So he just ended the white quarter-round, and left a gap.

And folks, that’s just the flooring alone!

Imagine what the rest of the house looked like!

Every day, I see the following clichés on MLS:

Renovated Top To Bottom
Custom Renovation
Quality Workmanship
Designer Quality
Upgrades Throughout
Professional Quality

Etc, Etc.

Does any of it mean anything?

Not if we see results like what’s displayed above.

Chances are, you probably wouldn’t see that kind of workmanship in a $1.5M house, as sellers and builders know better.

Most of this goes on in $500 – $800K houses, where sellers want to put lipstick on a pig before the property hits the market, or in some cases, where the seller wants to make the house something it’s not.

For example, an estate sale where the kids decide that Mom’s money isn’t enough on its own…

An old lady dies, in a house that hasn’t been updated or renovated in thirty years, and instead of setting the price low, putting “CALLING ALL RENOVATORS” on MLS, and selling the property as an estate sale, the soon-to-be-rich kids decide that they are, in fact, professional house flippers, and they figure they can make another 10-20%.

So they go get really cheap and ugly flooring, they rip out the cat-urine-soaked carpets, and they hammer down flooring while cutting the planks like a blind man.

Then they paint over the old, peeling paint, making it look worse in the process, and change the living room light fixture to stainless steel, even though the rest of the house is from the 60’s (oh – and they keep the box for the light fixture in the garage, and EXCLUDE that fixture on the listing so they can return it to Home Depot and get $50 back.  True story!)

Then they put a couch in the living room, next to a vase of flowers, and call that “staging.”

In the end, they probably drive away the odd buyer who feels, “I would buy this house if it were a complete gut, but it looks like there’s some work done here, and I don’t want to pay to undo it.”  That’s a very common sentiment among buyers who want “all or nothing,” and would rather have a move-in ready house that’s up to date, or a complete gut; but not something that’s hadsomework done that might end up being redone, despite having paid more for it.

But so long as Jack and Jill House-Seller believe that they too can act like the folks on all these real estate TV shows, and do some quick DIY-renovations, we’re going to keep seeing awful workmanship in houses that could use some sprucing up.

A job worth doing, is worth doing well.

Nowthatis a quality statement…

Written By David Fleming

David Fleming is the author of Toronto Realty Blog, founded in 2007. He combined his passion for writing and real estate to create a space for honest information and two-way communication in a complex and dynamic market. David is a licensed Broker and the Broker of Record for Bosley – Toronto Realty Group

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5 Comments

  1. moonbeam!

    at 9:37 am

    Aghast but not surprised… I’d love to see more examples of the not-so-fine work you come across in viewing properties…

  2. CraigB

    at 9:59 am

    A lot of this is due in some part to offer dates. In that I mean, when I bought my very first house, I went through it with my agent. Then went through it again on my own a couple days later and finally one more time with my dad. You just can’t afford that time if a listing comes out on Thursday with an offer date Tuesday.

    As a result, a lot of these “minor” things are over-looked or not noticed at all. Some items are cosmetic like above, but some are functional items, like not noticing that the washer door opens up over the toilet (don’t drop your clothes!), all the way to major things like lack of HVAC in some rooms (building inspectors will miss this and much more).

  3. AsianSensation

    at 10:59 am

    Rookie job!!! You gotta trim the bottom of the door frame to get the flooring underneath.

  4. B

    at 6:10 pm

    We saw a commercial property on Roncesvalles Avenue that was a complete joke in terms of “quality” finishings. The door at street level leading to the apartment upstairs did not even reach the ground. No, there was a 5 inch gap between the door and the pavement. Tons of bad examples on the inside. Even a lay person like myself could not miss how shoddy the workmanship was. The kicker is that the MLS listing referred to it as being “Beautifully Renovated”.

  5. MY

    at 8:33 am

    My friend asked me to check out an open house with her… the listing was “beautifully renovated! upgraded features!” and the house was listed about $7,000 more than similar houses in the development. Her thought was that maybe the renovations would make the price premium worthwhile since the development was about 15-20 years old.

    I think the bulk of the renovations happened about 10-12 years ago and the people who owned it had apparently only been there for about 3 years. They didn’t even bother painting… baseboards were missing or unevenly pieced together, the “beautifully renovated” bathrooms upstairs had granite countertops but were pretty filthy: uneven tiles, dirty grout, etc. The carpet in the basement was installed unevenly, etc. etc.

    When the realtor asked what we thought, I told her point blank the house was overpriced and the “beautiful upgrades” were a bit of a sham. I pointed out everything wrong with the listing. We then watched as the price on the unit dropped over $15,000 before it was apparently leased out.

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