Not a heck of a lot going on here in the last week or so, as far as working on houses. Everything is wrapped up with the Austin house and it’s pretty much in our realtor’s hands now, with the house going on the market officially a few days ago. She bumped up the listing price a bit higher than I probably would have but I’m likely a bit too pragmatic about such things.
Taking a mini-vacation tonight with the wife, but Sunday and Monday are going to be marathon work days, trying to knock out all of the interior painting (minus the windows) at the Main St. house, as well as tiling in bathroom and the new ceiling in the kitchen. Knock on wood, but I think I can power through all of the work I plan to do there in the next few weeks, and be done with it by June 15th.
Went with our local realtor to look at some properties yesterday, mainly just to eyeball some of the more promising stuff available right now. Didn’t see much in the way of potential flips, but we did look at a couple of rental properties that looked good, a duplex with 2-1s on both sides (listed at $59,000) and a 1400 sq. ft. 3-1 SFR (listed at $49,000). The 3-1 needs a little more work to be rent-ready, but nothing too substantial, mainly just painting and new flooring throughout. It’s also got an amazing old live oak tree in the side yard, easily 200-300 years old. The pier and beam foundation is kind of wonky, though, which isn’t much of a problem as far as renting it but potentially an issue when selling.
The duplex has zero curb appeal, but it was built in 1990, has a slab foundation, indestructible ceramic tile on the floor, and really nothing wrong with it. Just needs some paint and appliances in both sides.
Either property would rent out for $750-$800 when fixed up, which isn’t bad. Both have been on the market for awhile, too, so there’s probably some negotiation room in the list prices.
Getting ahead of myself in the planning and plotting (buy hey, planning and plotting is fun), but I’d like to get to the point where I can flip 3-4 houses a year, netting $40,000-$50,000 in profits, and basically roll all those profits back into picking up a couple of rental properties each year, covering down payments, repairs, etc. Not very sexy, as the rentals will likely never throw off a lot of free cash on a monthly basis, but I think the long-term prospect for appreciation in our general area is very promising, as people continue to pile into central Texas.
