Not a heck of a lot to update on the house front. House #1 is still on the market and we’re still set to close on September 21st on House#2. Got the official confirmation that we’re locked in with 95% financing for the 30 year mortgage I’m going with on this one, so that’s good news. The lender has apparently stopped offering 95% financing entirely for investment properties, but our application was far enough along in the process to get approved, so we’re good to go there.
Met with the couple potentially interested in House #2 and it went fairly well. They’d actually looked at the house before when it was previously listed, so they were familiar with it, and we saw eye to eye on pretty much everything that I had planned as far as renovations. The only thing they really wanted that I might balk at is adding a two car garage, which would basically mean adding a new entrance to the existing garage and flipping the orientation of the doors, and other major stuff. It’s not the worst idea in the world but a fairly major project, and I’m already tackling one major project with the bathroom addition.
We left things open-ended as far as the future, as they still need to sell their current home, and wanted to talk things over, etc. I waffle back and forth on whether working with a potential buyer in a situation like this is a good idea, and I’m still not sure. Still get ahead of myself in all sorts of ways even mulling it over now, so I guess I’ll play it by ear.
House #2 is going to be an interesting project, if nothing else. The risk of falling flat on my face is much higher here, as far as tackling a property that needs more substantial structural work (bathroom addition), a fair amount of plumbing work (adding a shower head in the existing bath, plumbing for addition, plumbing for a dishwasher/disposal/water line for fridge), electrical work here and there, and so on. I’m flailing around a bit as far as coming up with a preliminary budget and estimate of costs, so this’ll definitely be a learning experience, for better or for worse.
