Jan
15
Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just Rolling That Old Rock Up The Dang Ol’ Hill
January 15, 2008 |
Radio silence usually isn’t the best of signs in bloglandia, and my recent lack of posts is no exception. Nothing too terrible, though, and I’ve mainly just been insanely busy the last four or five days.
It’s looking like the deal to sell House #1 is pretty much dead in the water. Despite being “pre-approved” and many reassurances that the buyer’s lender was just finishing up the final paperwork to close, they apparently can’t find an investor willing to take on her loan. They were trying another investor the last we heard, but no one is answering phone calls now, and the contract has officially expired. Our realtor told them that we’d be more than happy to sell it to them if they can get something done, but that we’re going to actively market the house for sale again. We also told them we’d be willing to do a lease/purchase agreement if the buyer needed more time to secure financing, but again, dead silence from their end for five or six days.
Pretty frustrating all the way around, and it’s taken a bit of wind out of my sails at a bad time, as far as pushing to wrap up work on House #2. While we’ll at least get the option money and earnest money ($600), I spent nearly $2,000 to completely update the plumbing, with the assumption that it’d come right back to me when we closed on the house and rolled those costs into the increased purchase price. And yeah, updated plumbing is a nice selling point, but not exactly the scenario I wanted to have happen, with all the money I’m pumping into House #2.
House #1 is at least attracting some interest, though, in the four or five days it’s been back on the market. It’s been shown three or four times and another showing is scheduled tomorrow, with a cash buyer looking to pick up some rentals in the area, so, you know, fingers crossed. If we don’t get another offer in a month I’m going to throw in the towel and actively market it for rent, as the carrying costs are pretty much eating away any remaining tiny profit.
House #2 is lumbering towards completion, with nothing too noteworthy going in. Trying to push hard to get everything but the flooring completed by the end of the week. Well, that and the new bathroom addition, as the plumbers won’t be back out until the 25th or so to plumb all of that. I’m hoping to get nearly everything else ready to roll, so that we can bang out the bathroom addition and finish up the flooring.
The potential buyers interested in House #2 dropped by again this weekend, and seemed pretty happy with all the progress and changes. Still trying to not pin much hope on them, but this is the 3rd time they’ve stopped by, so there’s definitely some level of interest there. They’re still not actively trying to sell their own house, though, which worries me a bit as far as the timing. But, who knows, and it’s better to have someone interested than no one interested, so I’m still looking at it as a good thing, even if it doesn’t pan out.
Enthusiasm for all of this is ebbing to a low point, which is sucky timing, as we’re hitting the end stages of House #2 where I’m over there pretty much every day, working on it at night after work, putting in 12 hour days on the weekends, etc. Can’t blame anyone but myself, as I’m the silly monkey who kept blazing ahead and took on House #2, but I’m definitely looking forward to wrapping things up on my little real estate investing adventure, and seeing where the cards fall.
I’ve basically been juggling life, multiple houses, day job, and an equivalent of a second day job for nearly a year now, and it’s getting pretty dang old. And I don’t really mind the juggling or staying busy part if there’s some tangible reward for it, but real estate hasn’t yet demonstrated that for me. So you’re officially on notice, real estate. Get your dang old act together.
Comments
1 Comment so far
I’m hearing this same complaint over and over: it’s hard to juggle a day job along with a full-time real estate gig. If the “part-time” is 4 hours per day, 12 hours per day on weekends, then it’s pretty close to 40 hours which is full-time in my book.
I’m taking a few months off from anything real estate.