Weekend Update

We made a lot of progress this weekend. The new roof is complete and Moday they will begin work on the siding. I spent the weekend at the house doing general labor stuff. On Saturday, I prepped the house for paint by removing all of the wallpaper, wood paneling (which was nailed over sheetrock), electrical outlet covers, and fixtures. On Sunday, I spent the entire day cutting down bushes and small trees that covered the front of the house. It was a good thing too. On two sides of the house the bushes/trees had grown up against the house and it would have been impossible to replace the siding unless these bushes/trees were removed.

After spending the weekend in the house I learned a lot more about my new investment. First, in the back yard, in the very back of the back yard, there has to be at least a days worth of junk removal, which is hidden by overgrown bushes and trees. The deck that once was attached to an above ground pool has power (yeah…I hate electrical). The master bathroom showerhead has a outdoor spicket(<-- southern word) attached to it (see the pic below). So, I guess the hot and cold shower valves do not work or now that I think about it, maybe they do work, but just will not turn off. Hmmmmm.

Also, I took some before pictures for you to enjoy…

Front Elevation

Front Entry

Living Room (post wallpaper)

Kitchen (post wood panel)

Guest Bath

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Bath

View out the back door (anyone want any fitness equipment?)

Ready, Set, GO!

It is Friday morning and the orginal contractor that I was going to use has yet to fax me his bid, which he gave me verbally on Monday. If I had waited on this guy we would never get this job done. Wednesday I met another contractor who owns his own roofing and siding company and does a lot of work through Home Depot. He quoted me $8600 for an architectural roof, 3 free deck boards, ridge vent, copper flashing, soffits, lead pipe covers with a 30 year warranty. Install Napco Siding, replace rotten wood, Life Time warranty not prorated. This guy was hillarious. He actually got me into his truck and drove me all over the city for about an hour showing me previous jobs that he had completed. Furthermore, there were a few home owners that were home and he would knock on their door to get refrences. It was very entertaining to say the least. Oh and I was very impressed with his work. We looked at one siding job that he did 10 years ago according to the home owner and I have to admit it looks like he did it yesterday. I wonder how much he paid them to say it was done 10 years ago...LOL.

I tried to get a dumpster, but since we are in the city limits we can only use one company and they want $450 (OUCH!!). The contractor said not to get the dumpster and he will rent a Uhaul on Friday and remove all of our and his debris to one of his dumpsters (he has several at other job sites). No charge to us (its probably already priced into his bid)

Gutters - he will do the gutters for us at cost $2.50 a foot.

Shutters - we can get these and he will put them up or he said he will get them at cost for us.

My painter will be out Monday morning to start the paint. Oh yeah, the whole interior he will do for $650. He will paint the trim white semi-gloss, walls an off white ( I am going to call him today with a color) and eggshell for the kitchen and baths. He will repair the leak over the fireplace. I also am going to have him resurface the shower in the master bath for $150. It will look GREAT! We have them doing this out at an apartment community that the company I work for manages and it is amazing.

I will be out there Saturday and Sunday removing all of the bushes from the front of the house and if I have time I will begin tearing the carpet out.

Our to do list:
Remove old cabinets
Price out cabinets
Install new cabinets
Price out floors (hardwood, carpet and vinyl for master bath and laundry)
Install hardwood, carpet and vinyl
Replace sliding door with french doors
Replace hardware on front door
Replace ceiling fan in living room
Replace light fixture in dining room
Sheet rock garage
When it rains water comes in under the garage door ( I think the gutters, since there are none today, might solve that problem)
Check security light at garage exterior
Landscaping

Obviously the seller finally left, but not until Tuesday afternoon. On a sad note however, he did leave quite a few thing in the garage. I was organizing everything to throw away and found a box full of photo albums with pictures of his ex-wife, kids, softball games, trips to the beach, etc. from looks like the early 80's. I am going to try to reach him to see if he meant to leave these things behind.

Seller Will Not Leave

According to the contract, the seller had three (3) days to vacate the premises. Therefore, he should have been out by no later than 5PM on Sunday. Well, around 4PM on Saturday the seller calls to tell me, “due to weather” and some other issues with people helping him etc. etc. blah, blah, blah, he will not be able to completely be out of there until sometime on Monday.

Monday I planned to have my business partner there to meet contractors, so that we can finalize our budget and get this party started. I told the seller that we would still be there on Monday and I would call him to figure all of this out. Unfortunately for me I was in Daytona Beach on Saturday and I really did not have time to talk. Furthermore, my business partner leaves Tuesday morning to Costa Rica for two weeks. Therefore, this is our only chance to finalize this budget and get things moving.

I am officially a private real estate investor!!WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!As of yesterday I closed on my first non-owner occupied deal. I will call it the Duluth House. I have another rental property, which was a previous house that I owned in Woodstock.

The Duluth house was in pre-foreclosure, which was brought to me through an agent that specializes in these types of transactions. We were able to get the bank to stop the foreclosure one day before it went to the steps. After that they reviewed my offer which they took over four months to do. Then they came back to me on January 31st and asked, "How fast can you close?". I said, "Two weeks". On February 1st they agreed as long as I could close by February 15th. Oh, and they also agreed to pay $3,000 in closing costs. YES! :) I know what you are thinking...but yesterday was the 16th. I was selected for jury duty on Monday and the trial finally ended yesterday. I will probably tell you more about that in another post.

The house is a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch, with a one car garage. I bought it for $105k. The house is in pretty decent shape, other than it needs a new roof, siding, paint and carpet on the inside. There are several good comps in the neighborhood, where this exact house has sold for $150k.

The goal is to fix it up, refinance it 90% LTV, pay myself back my original investment and place the property into rental service. Yes, I know that to some of you $150k is not alot of money, but the median sales price for a single-family house in the Atlatna MSA, according to the National Association of Realtors, is $167k. I promise to include before and after pictures once the house is complete.