跟儿子讨论过穷日子。。。

-Hello Dad, did you call me?

-Yes, and I left you a message too.

-What's about?

-Do you have anything to do this weekend?

-Not really, maybe I go around a little bit.

-Last time you were talking about get some extra work over the weekend.

-Well, that needs supervisor's approval, and I don't think anybody has been approved lately.

-Since you don't have much to do during the weekend, have you been thinking about getting a part time job for some extra income?

-I have been thinking so.

-All right, try that. Maybe a supermarket or something. Many places need people.

- I guess so.

-I have been trying to teach you guys to find some source of income. Since you have many years to go, there might be bad time you need to get some income to feed yourself and family. It is an essential skill. You see my point?

-Yes.

-OK now comes to what I want to talk about. There is a house just listed, I want you to contact the realtor to set up a time to look at it. Do you think you can do this weekend?

-Yes I think I can.

-I already sent you the realtor's contact and the address by text.

-I saw that message came in, but haven't looked at it because I was at work.

-This is a house that needs a lot of work. I want you to have a good look at it. Remember that we have been to Home Depot to look at each shelf what they had? This is the time to use that knowledge. Try to find out what needs fixing and get an estimate for the job.

I have to warn you that the house is really in bad shape. It was hit by a fallen tree and has holes on the roof. The house was abandoned for years and there were water damages. There was no power or water .

The first thing for you to do is to get a big stick, tap on the floors or steps for each step before you go. I don't want you to fall through a rotten floor. And don't forget to get a face mask because there might be molds there.

The things to look at are, first the structure. To what extent is the roof damaged, how many rafters needs replacement.  Then go inside, check each room for walls and floors, check ceilings that are leaking because of the tree. That's the main thing. The house is old, everything inside goes, so ignore that. Apart from the roof damage this should be a regular extensive rehab. That's not I am worried about.

Also look at window, those are expensive to replace. And the condition of plumbing. I was told the house was frozen and then when the spring came the copper pipes busted and the basement flooded. Now the water was turned off and pumped out of the basement, but it can still be nasty there. When you go down that stairway to basement , make sure the treads are not rotted. Check plumbing and electrics, panel box, heating unit, water heater is probably no good anyway because of the freeze.

Basically that's it. Can you do that.

-I think I can.

-Ok that's good. Because by now you should know it's hard to get a job with good income, and housing is so expensive now, you might need the skills to fix or flip houses so that you got some place to live. Let me run some numbers. Say this house now sells for 100k, that's basically the price for the lot only. But if we can fix that, it will sells 300k. How much will this cost? Without seen everying my estimate is that maybe we need 50k materials and perhaps some services we have to hire. Some of the jobs we may have to hire licensed persons. You have learned a lot of skills over the years that you can do many things yourself. If I say we take time, and work on the weekend, we do it in a year, you might earned 100k sweat equity, that's way more than what you are making now.

-I see what you mean.

-You will probably be overwelmed when you first step into the house. It does'nt matter. Even if it's beyond our capacity, you gain experience by the exposure. You need to see many houses. Ok, I have said enough. Everything clear?

-Yes. I will see if I can do this weekend.

-Great, I am done with you. Have a good weekend.

-You too. Bye Bye.