Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: 2014

[hawing]

Relish tray.

 

That is all.

You'd think that if anything on a Brewers message board would be my legacy, it might be Brewers related. But no.

 

This year we were assigned a shrimp tray, which is more straightforward at least. The guy who usually brings the shrimp (and the ginormous Italian antipasto tray) is currently on the outs with his wife right now and won't be coming to Christmas Eve. So it's *his* fault we have to bring shrimp, and might not have those delicious Italian meats and cheeses. Thanks, infidelity.

[jjkoestler]

I just finished putting together a relish tray. Hawing and BF.net definitely crossed my mind as I was doing so. Relish Tray woahs solvdd.

[GAME05]

I miss Fatter than Joey.

[Mass Haas]

I've never not even once posted in the "Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread".

 

D'OH!

[adamb100]

I have a seasonal job at Target and I'm pretty sure Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett came in. Sure looked like him, was tall, and seemed older. He looked disappointed when we didn't have what he was looking for.

[davego]

I miss Joey too!

[RobDeer 45]

Ha!! Seriously love the relish tray comments and previous thread! Tremendous.

 

Happy holidays!!!

[1992casey]

It wouldn't be the holiday season here at Brewerfan if someone didn't bring up relish trays.

[DHonks]

I've never encountered someone like this, but they make lots of news this time of year. I'm talking about the anti-"Merry Christmas" crowd. Apparently they'd rather strangers pass without any sort of greeting or pleasantry than offer up this greeting with a smile. I have a lot of Jewish friends, along with lots of non-religious friends, and they all embrace the warmness of Christmas as an American holiday and how it brings out the best in people. So why is it that some Scrooges/Grinches actually become irate when greeted with a pleasantry?

[jerichoholicninja]

Just finished watching The Holiday ("Christmas" romcom, wife made me watch it). The only good thing about this movie is that I'm pretty sure Jack Black took the part as a joke and acted it as corny and cliche as possible. Bravo to him.

[trwi7]

Apparently they'd rather strangers pass without any sort of greeting or pleasantry than offer up this greeting with a smile.

 

That would be me. Don't talk to me when I'm walking past you if I don't know you. Don't say Merry Christmas, don't even say hi.

[NeedMoreFans]

Long story short, the house next door to mine has been vacant since April. In the 5 years we lived here, we never saw her neighbor. Her house was in a state of disrepair...shingles flying off of the roof when it was windy, wood siding that had birds living in it, gutters with trees growing from them...etc. Last week, we noticed some activity, and as it turns out, a flipper bought the house and is remodeling it and will presumably put it on the market. My other neighbor says this is bad. I can't think of any scenario in which this is a bad thing. Am I being naive?

[pete]

Seems better than what was going on. There are often negatives related to the way the house is prepared for sale, but other than some theoretical effect on property taxes I can't think of any.

[jerichoholicninja]

The only thing I can think of is that they might make the house super nice and cause your property values to go up but I can't believe one house would make that big of a difference. Or that a flipper would make that much of an improvement to it.

[RobDeer 45]

I think it's a positive. The only negative would be that the flipper does a cheap job and the next person loses value when they sell. That said, it has to still be better than what is there now. Should hopefully bring up property values in the neighborhood if they get a good price for it.

[NeedMoreFans]

I mean, what are the alternatives to flipping it? Putting it on the market for far less than our house (which has an identical layout, just reversed) in hopes that the new buyers put money into it? There are a lot of ifs in that alternative...what if they don't fix it up? What if they have no intention of doing any repairs? What if the buyers are bad neighbors (which could happen anyways). Personally, I was fearing them putting it on the market for far less than market value and attracting buyers whom we wouldn't want as neighbors, which would also hurt the value of our home. We are likely to sell in the next 5-7 years, and I see this as being a good thing because it could raise the value of our house.

[FVBrewerFan]

There's a domino effect too. The longer your neighbor's house looks like crap, chances are others will follow eventually. If this one gets fixed up nice, maybe others will keep theirs in good shape as well. That will be very helpful when it comes time to sell.

[brewcrewdue80]

Just sucked down my Around Christmas eggnog bottle. Gone in 60 seconds maybe LOL. and of course now the tummy ache begins. Publix Brand this year, not the greatest but it's over with.

[Menotti80]

"I can't think of any scenario in which this is a bad thing."

 

Here's an example of a possible bad scenario:

 

Let's say there are other houses in your neighborhood that are for sale, and let's also say that your house , the house next door and these houses for sale would all be considered comperable (in terms of size, # of beds/baths, etc.)

 

If these other homes for sale are on the market for market value, a flipper could mess things up by making the home as good or even better than these other homes and then price it to sell. If the other homes are priced between $175-200k, maybe a flipper could get the junker house next door for $100k, put $40k into it and put in on the market for $170k to make a quick profit.

 

Now all of the other homes in the neighborhood just went down in value and may have to sell for even less (depending on how good the flip was). If the market doesn't significantly change in the next few years, the sale price of the flipped house and other houses in the neighborhood could affect future home sales based on comps.

[Invader3K]

I'll always take a house next door that is fixed up and looking good, versus one that is in disrepair.

 

At our old house, we had neighbors next door who were nice people, but they were renting. They didn't exactly do a great job keeping the place up. The house had a gravel driveway, and it constantly had weeds growing in it, toys strewn about, etc. At one point there was a tree growing in the driveway, right along our shared fence line. One day I asked if I could cut the tree down, and they said yes. I removed the tree, cut down all the weeds, and cleaned everything up (including removing a bunch of trash that was hidden in the weeds). The woman who lived there was appreciative, but they never did anything to maintain it after that, and within months it was overgrown with weeds again. Glad I don't have to look at that driveway anymore.

[NeedMoreFans]

I spoke with the guy who bought it today. He's very in tune with what the market in our neighborhood looks like, so I'm very optimistic. He said his wife actually asked about buying it for themselves (his company technically "owns" the house, so he'd have to buy it from the company and pay investors with the profit). There are a lot of things he said he's going to do which will make the property look much better, so this should be a plus for us. His other work is posted online, and it all looks pretty nice. Puts me at ease a bit.

 

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