Dec
6
House #3?
December 6, 2007 |
It’s becoming a bit of a broken record, but still plugging away on House #2. I’m getting a little frustrated as while I’m staying busy and getting stuff done over there, I’m stuck waiting on assorted pieces of the puzzles to fall into place before completely finishing jobs.
I decided not to start the humongo tiling project as I planned, as I’m just asking for trouble doing that before other major jobs are finished. I was going to ignore the “flooring last” edict and work around it in various ways, but that’s just dumb, and I finally gave into reason.
The existing bath is still waiting for tile, beadboard, and trim, but only because I need the gas line removed for the old wall heater. Which can’t get done until I get a freaking plumber, any plumber, out there to remove and cap off all the unnecessary gas lines running under and throughout the house.
I can’t start painting the living and dining room because new sheetrock has to go in here and there in those rooms, and some holes created by the demo need to be patched and textured.
New sheetrock hasn’t gone in because I’m waiting on all the framing to be finished so all of that can be knocked out in one fell swoop, as the bathroom addition, new laundry room, and fourth bedroom/office all need sheetrock as well.
And on and on and on. So I’ve been picking off jobs as I can but I’m getting a bit antsy, as far as wanting to see more tangible progress being made. I need to twist my contractor’s arm a bit, as he’s off working other assorted small jobs he’s picked up of late, and dragging his feet a bit about getting back to House #2. Which is kind of my fault, as I probably was too open talking to him about my inability to get other people out to work on the house, so he knows I’m likely not going anywhere and can save the work I need done for a rainy day.
Despite all that, still in pretty good spirits as far as the project goes. This one was much bigger than anything I’d tackled before as far as the scope of the renovations, so some headaches and stumbles were to be expected. On the positive side, I’m getting a lot more pleasure out of the finished project, as some of the renovations really are night and day, even in half-finished state, compared to what I started with.
I’m trying to be good and not even consider the next project, but failing miserably on that front. There’s not a ton of stuff available that has me salivating, but there is one listing that’s been sitting there forever that I’m considering. It’s a 900 sq. ft. 1/1 that’s listed at $22,500 and has been on the market for forever. From the street, it’s pretty much a train-wreck, as seen here:
But our realtor had been inside it and said it wasn’t completely terrible, seemed reasonably solid, and had some decent original built-ins and features from 1910 era houses that had never been “improved” over the years. It’s also in a decent neighborhood and right across from a city park, so it’s not a bad location at all.
The appeal to me would be if I could pick it up very cheaply with a cash offer, as-is, with a very quick closing for something like $10,000-$12,000. That might be a stretch but it’s sat there on the MLS for nine months or so, it’s a vacant property, so who knows what the seller might accept, as far as a quick, no-strings-attached cash offer.
Even assuming that it’s a total gut job, it shouldn’t run me more than $15,000-$20,000 to turn it into a functional 2-1 rental, which would rent pretty easily for $650-$700/month and appraise for $70,000-$75,000. So it shouldn’t be too hard to rent it out, take out a loan to get my cash out, and have a nice rental with a little bit o’ equity.
The real appeal would be getting the carrying cost monkey off my back, as far as buying it with cash. That’s grinding on me of late, as while I don’t hate working on these properties after work, on the weekends, etc., that enjoyment lessens when the ticking clock is always right there in my ear. So it’d be nice to eliminate that to some extent, and ease some of the current pressure of trying to juggle a full-time job and the rehab stuff.
Comments
4 Comments so far
Hey there- how did I overlook your blog? Great stuff!
That little 1/1, 900 sq ft house looks very cool… be sure to post an update once you get inside :)
I think I would love that house. We have a similar situation on the home front. We’re not done with he one we’re working on and there is one priced similar to the one you mentioned. We shall see….
Updates to follow on my blog.
Maria
Hey Seth-
I like the House #3 as well - do you have to bring everything up to code on a house that old? Seems like all new wiring and plumbing would be expensive but heck, they charge 10k for roofs around here. Our insurance guy said we could not get HO-MO ins. unless we brought our (prospective) ’50’s house up to code. Which meant far less profit or we could just *skip* that and hope the buyer was not aware. Very cheeseball move which we of course did not do. I bet the prospect is still for sale but our pregnant investor was to worried about it all to proceed. Can’t wait to see how house #1 shakes out!
We have thought about picking up some of those cheap junkers and rehabbing them and selling them to landloards. It’s a whole different world then looking at houses to flip to homeowners!