Evolve or die

[Jims5543]

This just took another twist.  I just got off the phone with the rep from the advertising company I am working with for the Score card.

They had a cancellation at another Golf Course one town over where I work a lot too.

They made me an offer I could not refuse. I purchased a year on that score card for the came price as the one up the road even though it was supposed to be more money. As a thank you for jumping in at the last minute, they gave me a second year free at the course local to my office.

The rep was cracking up when I told him I wanted to do something silly.


I have until Monday to toss a rough concept to him so they can work up the art.

Ideas?

"Bill Murray would never use this company, that is why you should"

If I chicken out I might just go with "25 years on the Treasure Coast, family owned operated and staffed"

[Jims5543]

Email from this little pool company we started to work for about 1 year ago:

We received the email below from Martin County upon their review of the Schafer form board survey requesting finished floor elevations.  I was surprised to see this comment, as in my experience, you are well aware of the survey requirements for Martin County.  I have chosen to employ your services due to your knowledge of the survey requirements in Martin County and in Port St. Lucie.  This does not exhibit the level of professionalism that we have come to expect from your firm.

I seemed to recall having you prepare a form board survey for the Lopez pool last year, so I went back to look at that survey, which is attached.  As you can see, the FFE information is clearly noted on the Lopez survey.

Sadly, we are losing additional valuable time in the construction process on the Schafer pool because this survey does not meet Martin County's requirements.  We respectfully request that every effort be made to resolve this as  quickly as possible.

The last 2 form board surveys we did for them have been riddled with problems of the pool companies making. I have lost money on both of them.

Then I got the email above and I have had enough of this pretentious asshole.

My email back explained there was no way for me to anticipate that rejection, it is not a valid rejection as we performed a form board survey of a pool hole in the ground before the gunnite is sprayed and there is no way to determine an elevation of the pool from that.

Therefore a House finished floor elevation is pointless and just some county office moron trying to find a reason to make a rejection.

The other survey she refers to was one I started at the permit stage, the last one she just got rejected for was not my job, I jumped in the middle as the surveyor they used for permitting was taking too long to get out there. I did this in less than a week. The other surveyor was going to make them wait 3 weeks.

I have reached a point where, if you are going to be an asshole, I am not working for you. There are a couple more clients perilously close to being canned too.

After explaining that to her, providing her with a revised survey with the house elevation on it, that has no effect on the pool hole. I then told her she can choose to employ someone else as I told her not to order anything else from my firm.

I would have preferred to tell her where to go. I had to restrain myself. I bent over backwards for this pool company and all they do is this shit,

[Jims5543]

BTW - The last pool company I quit from was a few years ago because they were not paying their bills.

They ended up in jail, not because of me, because they were ripping everyone off. The husband / wife owners are both in jail for decades now.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/indian-river-county/2024/05/24/amore-pool-owner-guilty-in-multimillion-dollar-pool-building-scheme/73585251007/

[94touring]

The pool business is evidently complicated.  Speaking of.... our condo pool that was going to be renovated 2 months ago:

[Jims5543]

Having beers with my surveyor friends, I commented about how over regulated pool permitting is.

One of the surveyors specializes in consulting with municipalities.  He commented that every regulation is a result of a lawsuit.

I mentioned this to one of my pool contractors and she agreed. She pointed to this news story.

https://www.wpbf.com/article/exclusive-family-says-florida-father-of-four-died-saving-sons-from-electrified-fountain/45632212

After that, all commercial pools / fountains and anything similar were stopped for almost a year while new regulations were drafted up.

A pool like your condo pool is subject to way more rules and regulations than a residential pool would for obvious reasons.

[94touring]

Yeah we have a nice mud pit for the summer.

[MiniDave]

I wonder how big the lawsuit settlement will be, even tho it was posted?

[Jims5543]

My equipment salesman hits me up this morning with a solution to a problem I had.

I want to get rid of my 1st generation Robotic instrument. I have been delaying that because it was heavily damaged by water intrusion and has had extensive repairs to it.

I have since bought the second generation of it and do not use the old one anymore. He just let me know they are having a trade in deal where they give 10K trade in for the old instrument towards a 3rd generation one.

Then I can sell off one of our 2nd Generation instruments for about 12K making the purchase of the 3rd gen relatively painless.

Decisions.

edit

He just sent me a quote. The 3rd gen is $25.3K, they will give me 10K on trade.  I am trying to see what my 2nd gen is worth to sell off.

If I can get 12K for my second gen, I am only out 3K for a brand new one that will serve me easily for the next 5- years.  This is a no brainer.

[MiniDave]

I wonder why a heavily repaired unit is still worth more than $10K?

But I agree, sure sounds like a no brainer to me too.....

[Jims5543]

I have been holding off selling it because I do not trust it. I have a problem passing issues onto an individual.

I have no problem handing it over to the equipment company.  If I were to try to sell it I may be lucky to get 6-7K for it considering its history.

They swear its repaired and back to factory specs. They did over 4K in repairs to it and ate the cost.

As I said too easy to take 10K for it and get rid of the problem.

[Jims5543]

The new robot required me to upgrade my software on my Win10 Tablet.  The software I was using was not 100% compatible with the new instrument.

I had hoped the new software would have dialed out some of the software glitches I have grown both used to and annoyed by. Welp, after 2 weeks of using it I would like to congratulate Topcon, they managed to make it worse.




In business related news, I have noted before, I have seen a steady decline in home sales over the last 2 years, when the prices doubled along with interest rates in 2022, it basically tossed a wet towel on the housing market.

My tract home builder has slowed a bunch, they only have 20 vacant lots in the huge subdivision I work in for them and they are struggling to justify building those last 20 homes.

My smaller builders have been dormant for the last 2 years as well.  The pools are what keep me busy and off the street customers which in many cases are more aggravation than its worth to work for.

I suspect we will start seeing in the news that the housing market is collapsing. I tell people all the time, I see things before anyone else does, I get a good feel for the temperature of the markets based on what I see in my day to day business dealings.

 I have been watching the housing market slowly die off for the last 3 years, I expect we will start to see more mainstream reports that things are going south soon.

Great news for my niece and son, they may finally be able to afford a home in the not too distant future.

I have heard so many in my business say the same thing, if the interest rates would drop 1% all hell would probably break loose. I know a lot of people who have stopped shopping for a home and are waiting for just that, as well as prices coming back down to earth.

I do not see a 2008 crash coming, I do see a market correction, which is long overdue, coming up soon.

[Jims5543]

That picture above was taking while surveying a $5 Million home last week.

The house was remarkable. We had to rush this as the rescission is expiring Friday this week. I had 2 crews on this Thursday last week, we knocked out the field work in less than 2 hours. 

[MiniDave]

Is that place on the Inland Waterway?

Looks like it was built in the 40's, or at least in that style?

Would it have originally had a tile roof?

[Jims5543]

Its on an interior waterway called the inter coastal waterway.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3968-SE-Old-Saint-Lucie-Blvd_Stuart_FL_34996_M67926-43686



I just dug through the old satellite imagery, the images prior to 2007 get grainy, in 2007 is had a metal roof it may have always had one.

Fun fact in Key West building code calls for all houses to have metal roofs. That code was put into place in 1886 after a huge fire.

Many houses have metal because it holds up good in hurricanes, and its fire proof.

[94touring]

A price correction would be great.  Even in Tulsa modest homes are nearly twice what they probably should be.  This is me saying this as someone who owns 3 properties already. I have a 4th property in mind I'd like to buy, but it's almost hard to justify it. 

[Jims5543]

BTW - That house above was a cash deal.

Niece and her husband were just at our house they were looking at a house up the corner from our house to rent. We warned them that the neighbor next door was an asshole who leaves his dogs outside all the time and they are big and always barking all the neighbors hate him.

They toured the house knowing that, went into the backyard and made some noise, the dogs were there to barking up a storm.

Deal breaker!! They told the realtor that was the reason they were passing. LOL!!

They have another house in our subdivision to look at to rent. They are trying to see it tomorrow night.

They decided to just rent for a year, house prices are so insane it is actually cheaper to rent, well, in some cases some are asking way too much to rent.

Fer reference, the house they looked at is $2,800 a month rent and that is a deal around here. Insanity!!

Get off my lawn!!

[Jims5543]

How un-affordable is housing now?

We just talking to a super while working in the large tract home community. His little story made me realize people are getting in over their heads buying houses again. Smacks of 2004-2008 all over again.

Couple is on a final walk through on the house with the super, they start asking questions, how much will the electric bill be in this house?  Can we turn off the automatic sprinklers? 

I thought they had reclaimed water in there, they do not all the irrigation is on municipal water, which is not cheap. Hence them asking if they can turn it off, which will result in dead grass.

After he told me that, I said to him, these people can barely afford these houses, one bad event and they are in foreclosure.

Crazy! 

[MiniDave]

For some that prestigious address is worth the suffering.....it's not to me.

[Jims5543]

I catch your drift, except there is nothing prestigious about this community.

I cannot remember when I first started in there. There are only 20 vacant lots left now. We have over 300 houses built in there now.

As the place fills up, I notice a lot of houses are starting to look really bad, lawns are burned up and all weeds, whats left of the grass is not mowed, driveways full of stains. Junk in yards, its getting trashy in there. The newness is wearing off fast.

This is a place you buy in because the houses are cheaper.

They just dropped their prices 50K per house and now they are selling. Here is an example of one.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5483-Lugo-St-Fort-Pierce-FL-34951/337760914_zpid/


I am the same way Dave, I probably typed this before; many years ago James Woods made a comment that has stuck with me, exactly 4 people care about the house you live in, buy a house to make you happy not to impress people.

My wife and I love our little 1400 s.f. house. It has all we need, we love the location and community.
We toyed with selling a few times, then stopped ourselves, this house is paid for, we love this little house.  We have no plans on selling, ever. It will end up being passed on to our kids.

[Jims5543]

The 5 Million $$ home above?

While doing research I learned something cool about the area. The property the house is sitting on used to be a hotel 100 years ago.

The Sunrise in, this is a picture of the 1911 Record Plat, You can see Capt, Henry Sewell's house on Sewells Point across the river, he was a huge part of developing this area in the early 1900's along with his friend Lieutenant Hugh Willoughby, there is a road here named after him.

The funny part is the "Reserved" Willoughby Point, it was recently subdivided and has 3 houses being built there.

Neat article on the Hotel.
https://archive.tcpalm.com/yournews/martin-county/historical-vignettes-the-sunrise-inn-at-beautiful-port-sewall-ep-381473119-342810492.html

Picture of the hotel from 1965 (I think it was used in the article too)
https://martindigitalhistory.org/items/show/2286



Some other pics from the hotel.



Circa 1915 along the water behind the hotel.


Cool aerial shot from 1955


Dock in 1914.

[Jims5543]

To give you an idea how this area changed over the last 100 years. 2 Pics of about the same area 70 years apart.



The empty wooded Island (Sewells Point) is now fully developed and is a perfect example of prestigious address.

Further in the distance you can see the St. Lucie Inlet (Altantic behind it) that point just to the left of the inlet is Sailfish Point where I posted about the billionaires house a page back.

[MiniDave]

Man, all of that land looks like it's just a hairsbreadth away from being under water!

[Jims5543]

The 5 Million house finished floor elevation was 13.5' above sea level.

I live on a sand ridge, my house is 30' above sea level, I am practically on a mountain. LOL!

That sand ridge I am on runs down Sewells point along the west side (closer to us in the pic) those houses range from 20 to 40 feet over sea level, the other side of the Island is very low like 6-10 feet over sea level.

If you ever see a hurricane coming our way and it has a 15-20' storm surge, many of these houses would be under water.

The crazy thing is, FEMA does not consider the 5 Mil house to be in a flood zone. They were asking me to prepare Flood Elevation Certificates, I told them they are not in a flood zone, therefore I cannot prepare one. The good news is Flood Insurance should be cheaper due to that.

[MiniDave]

What's FEMA? Hasn't it been defunded?   

[Veggivet]

If you can wait just a few years, all those submerged houses will be priced at much more reasonable levels...