Creek House = Very Nearly Sold

I’ve been holding off for fear of jinxing it, but we’re set to close on the Creek House this coming Thursday, and wonder of wonders, it looks like that’s actually going to happen. It’s been under contract for about three weeks, at a purchase price of $128,000 (minus $1,500 we’re paying towards closing costs as well as a survey and home warranty). I was a little concerned about the appraisal, as there aren’t a ton of good comps for older homes that were substantially renovated (just lots of beat-up older homes that were foreclosures that sold at fire-sale prices) and we did purchase it for $38,000, so it needed to appraise for over 3x the purchase price. But it appraised at $135K, so no issues there, and while the buyer is using a 100% USDA program they claim that all systems are go on their end and they’re cleared to close on Thursday.

I’ve been dragging my feet on the whole before/after photo production, but below are some collages I threw together, to give an idea of what went on. I tried to include the before after photos of corresponding areas of the house, but in some cases it’s not a perfect match:

The front and back of the house. The fridge on the deck we added in the back just hadn’t gotten moved yet, so no, the deck doest come with it’s own dedicated beer fridge. We also had to add a railing on the deck, as the city wuldn’t pass it without one because of the height.

Little more detail of the front of the house, and the back corner where we added the master bathroom, removing the door on that corner that accessed a laundry room and the kitchen.

The big living room where you enter from the front door. Pretty happy with how the original hardwood floors turned out after refinishing and staining, and the beadboard on the walls and ceiling was actually original as well, hiding under the carpet and sheetrock in the before photos. We added the interior French doors and the yellow bedroom for the 3rd bedroom (which is pretty tiny, but still technically a bedroom), as well as the French doors that lead from the yellow bedroom out ono the back deck.)

The other side of the living room that leads back into the main part of the house, as well as the French doors leading to the deck from the 3rd bedroom.

The master bedroom, plus the sitting nook and desk nook we added. We also added the French doors and transoms, leading to the back deck. The master bathroom is off to the left, which was all new as well, as the house previously just had one bathroom.

Master bathroom, which is all new from scratch and was previously an unfinished laundry room. Jacuzzi tub, tiled walk-in shower, and his and her vessel sinks. Struggled to get a good photo of it but I was really happy how this turned out, as it wasn’t a huge space but we managed to pack a lot in.

Not the greatest photos here, either, but this is the big dining room and the kitchen. We completely opened up the wall between the two areas, and added a laundry room area in the back of the kitchen. All new hickory cabinets and appliances, sink, and granite tile. It’s hard to see the detail in this photo, but we tried something a little different with the dining room, as far as using clear-coated birch plywood on the walls, broken up in a staggered pattern that I use for tile. Wasn’t quite sure how it’d turn out but everyone seemed to like it.

The second bedroom at top, which we did almost nothing to other than new closets, and more details of the kitchen and the dining room walls.

And some miscellaneous photos of various areas already touched on, as well as the existing bathroom in the top left after it got  a complete makeover.

As far as the “important” stuff, I’ll show a final profit of between $15,000-$17,500 when it’s all said and done, after commissions, taxes, etc. Which is good, and very welcome, don’t get me wrong. But man, if I had to assign myself a grade on this one, it’d probably be a D-. And that’s quite possibly being a little generous.

This project took a lot out of me, as evidenced by the decreasing number of posts and updates here. Physically, mentally, you name it. I had a lot tied up in this one, as I was hoping it’d be my ticket out of the day job grind, but in the end it turned out to be not so much an escape but just more hard work, stress, and headaches. Not even really sure where to start, but a lot of boiled down to issues with my contractor. I thought we were at a decent place as far as him understanding the long-term potential of our relationship and treating me right, without a lot of supervision and whip-cracking, but no, not so much. I very nearly let him go at the tail end of the project, as it became pretty clear that he was absolutely milking me for all he could. Not in a dramatic or even criminal fashion, but in a constantly-doing-just-enough-to-show-a-good-effort-but-really-dragging-it-out for as long as possible sort of way.

And yeah, I know, big shock. Welcome to the world of contractors. But I thought 2+ years of working together had gotten us past that point, to where I could trust him and not have to be on site constantly to make sure shit got done. Turns out not so much, and he ended up way over budget on his side of things, which meant that I ended up doing far more work myself than I’d hoped. While I was working 60+ hours a week between my day job and freelance work, just to pay the bills, as my wife quit her job a few months into the project and still hasn’t found gainful employment. Add to that the fact that my day job somehow has managed to become even more depressing and frustrating, and yeah, I’ve been kind of depressed and not gung-ho about anything for the last 2-3 months, just trying to keep the trains rolling and get this house done and sold.

The real frustration is that if I’d been able to just work on this project full-time and manage the job, the house would have been sold months ago for a profit of $30,000-$35,000. No doubt in my mind at all, as this really was a project with that much potential, which I manage to half-ass pretty thoroughly, with too many balls to juggle, ending up with a nice profit in the end (which I’m grateful for), but one that really doesn’t change the equation, as far as the need for a day job, etc. Plus I feel like I’m back to square one with contractors, without anyone I can trust to run a job on budget unless I’m constantly there. Which I can’t be, because of the day job, which I can’t even think about leaving due to the economy and my wife being out of work, etc.

And so it goes. Not really sure where this leaves things, as far as my REI plottings. I don’t really feel like I’m able to tackle another major project like the Creek House, at least not now, and that leaves pretty slim pickings on the MLS. I’ve thought about getting more serious about marketing for deals off the MLS, but again, just not a lot of spare time floating around, and I almost feel like it’s pointless as a great deal could pop up but if it involves a major rehab, well, I don’t know that I could pursue it. And just to be clear, the current contractor I’m working with is the fourth contractor I’ve tried, here in small town USA, so I do realize that there are lotf of better contractors in the world, especially ones that respond well if you treat them right and can potentially offer a ton of work over time.  I just haven’t been able to find one yet.

For the moment, though, it’s a bit of a moot point, as once we sell the Creek House I can get serious about rehabbing Larry’s House, which I got at the tax deed sale and have been working on a bit here and there, as far as demoing it out, prepping the exterior for paint, etc. I’m trying to do the whole rehab in cash, so I’ve been holding off on the major expenses like electrical and plumbing, but hopefully I can be done with the whole rehab by Christmas, once I have a little money to play with. It’s a complete gut rehab but it’s only about 300 sq. ft. (no, really, it is) so it shouldn’t be too painful. Famous last words. Ha.