May
8
One Down. One to Go
May 8, 2007 |
I’ve still got lots of little things and touch-ups to finish up, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and call the work at the Austin house done. Praise be to Jebus. On Sunday I grouted the patio stone I added to the front walkway, which was the last of the fairly big jobs.
Plan is to finish up all the little stuff after work this week and load up some of the stuff in the garage that I need to get out of there. Still need to arrange for carpet cleaning (and maybe general cleaning via a maid service, as I planned to do it myself but my heart is pretty far from in it at this juncture). Going to plunk some mulch in the garden beds when we actually list it, but that’s about it.
I planned on taking it easy yesterday but tricked myself into putting in a pretty solid day of work. All the patio stone and other tile is at the Main St. house now, ready to roll, and I got assorted tools and supplies shifted over from the Austin house. I also broke down and got a storage unit, as I’m accumulating too much assorted stuff I may use in future rehabs, as far as the old fridge from the Austin house, the stainless steel kitchen sink, etc. My wife and I could use extra storage for some stuff in general, too, so it’ll be nice to have the extra space.
I also registered a domain name for my rehab efforts, as far as a more business-like, professional-looking website, and need to see about getting a yard sign made and one for my truck. It’s basically going to be a “We Buy Houses in Any Condition” sort of pitch, as I realizd belatedly that I’m not putting the high-visibility nature of the Main St. house to good use, with tons of people driving by it every day. Getting ahead of myself a bit, obviously, but it’s easy enough to slap up a website and never hurts to dip my toes into those waters, even if I’m really not positioned to buy another property right now.
It’s been kind of amusing to me that when people have randomly asked me how much I plan to ask for the Main St. house (roofing guy who put on the new roof and a cable installer who showed up out of the blue to see if I was moving in and needed installation), I don’t have an immediate answer, hemming and hawwing, before finally answering.
It’s not that I don’t have a fairly firm plan (likely asking $86,500 but willing to take $80,000-$82,000), it’s just that I’m still a little hesitant at taking myself seriously, to some extent. Part of me is afraid I’ll say $86,500 and have to stand there as they guffaw and point at idiot foolish me, despite the fact that I know it’s a pretty reasonable price, have done a ridiculous amount of research and followed the MLS listings daily for nearly a year, etc. But I imagine the hesitant feeling will fade over time, as I get a little more comfortable with the horse-trading nature of the business, as well as a couple of houses under my belt as experience that I have at least a bit of a clue as to what I’m doing.
Comments
5 Comments so far
Just my $0.02, but i think your asking price is pretty accurate. I don’t think you should be hesitant to ask $86,500 for it at all.
BTW, do you have any updated pics of the main st. house? I’m pretty anxious to see what it’s looking like. I have been keeping an eye on this website since just after you purchased it. I’m getting closer and closer to buying my first flip house everyday and I am dying to see an actual flip project succeed before my own eyes. It’d give me a little boost in confidence. Especially since your project matches the one i’d like to do (such as the size and price of the house, budget, etc…).
Keep up the good work and be sure to give us a great conclusion write up when you’re done!
I am going through the same thing right now as I am within 2 weeks of putting a rehab on the market. As the house looks nicer my wife wants to price it higher and higher. She thinks that setting a high price is important so that people can offer a low price and feel they got a good deal, while I would like to set the price lower and get a quick offer.
Justin,
Definitely more details and photos coming soon of the Main St. house. I’d planned to do lots of that, as far as step by step details, but I’ve been so bogged down with the fix ups at the house in Austin that I haven’t really had much to detail as far as work on the Main St. house. Which hopefully should change in the next few weeks, as the plan is to bang out all of the repairs I’m looking to do pretty quickly (knock on wood).
Paul,
I flip flop myself pretty constantly on the subject, as far as whether to price houses to move quickly (and get on to the next project), or whether to try to wring out as much profit as possible, even if it means holding the property for longer than I’d like.
Until I get to the point where I can pay cash for properties, I’ll probably lean towards the price ‘em to move quickly strategy, for all the obvious reasons.
As for registering a domain name, just thought I’d add that a good website still goes a long way. My realtor listed our PA property on craigslist a few weeks back and got nothing from it. I relisted it again myself and included the link to a dedicated website with photos etc (she wouldn’t us it for whatever reason), and “the crowd went bananas”. Well, not exactly, but interest has increased dramatically (100 unique hits to the site since Thursday). Lots of calls coming in now about the house (versus about one per week prior)… so we’ll see where it lands us.
Anyway, looking forward to the pics of main street.