Aug
16
Dead Cats and Multiple Offers: Boo
August 16, 2007 |
We submitted an offer yesterday morning on potential House #2 (the 3-1, 1900 sq. ft. house discussed in the last post), but I’m not exactly holding my breath. The selling agent claimed to have two more offers on the table, and our offer was for only $84,500 (the house is currently listed at $89,500). They’d recently reduced the price, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they got an offer for $89,500, especially if someone were looking for a primary residence, as opposed to an investment.
It’s got a lot of potential but even $84,500 is pushing it a bit, as a flip, especially with clouds of uncertainty swirling around the housing/lending market currently. I won’t say I’m getting cold feet as far as taking on more flips, but they’re not exactly hot feet, either.
Assuming we don’t get the above property, I’m probably back into looking for a rental property mode, and waiting until winter to buy another potential flip, depending on what things look like then. There are a couple of decent rental possibilities, including a HUD listing I looked at the other day. It’s a 2-1, 1100 sq. ft. house in a great location and doesn’t need a ton of work to be ready to rent. It’s got some layout issues, though, as it was built in the 1930’s and had some funky additions added over the years, with a strange enclosed porch and an odd interior room added that serves no ostensible purpose, as it’s too small to be a bedroom or any sort of functional room.
I didn’t immediately see a great way to renovate it later on down the line and extract much cash, but it’s in a great neighborhood and I could probably get it for $52,000, as it’s been on the market for awhile. It’d rent for $650-$700/month, and would likely show a decent profit if I hung onto it for 4-5 years and then renovated and sold it.
Drove over after work last night to finish up some last stuff at the Main St. house, and found the lovely surprise of a very stinking, very bloated dead cat in the driveway. Oh joyous times. I started to get the shovel and some trash bags but then thought, “You know, maybe I should see if I can get some fine city workers to come deal with this first.”
Which meant sweet-talking my wife into calling assorted city departments, as I didn’t want to lose any manly credibility myself, and assumed she’d have better luck playing the damsel in distress card. Someone finally promised to take care of it, but again, I’m not exactly holding my breath. Which is exactly what I’ll be doing later tonight, shovel in hand, assuming Mr. Dead Cat is still there.
