Flip Thy House

“Can We Perhaps Add a Couple of Days onto January?”

Sprinting towards the finish line on House #2 as far as trying to wrap it up by the end of the month, but it’s probably 50/50 as far as whether I’ll make it. Well, more likely 25/75. Oh, who the hell am I kidding. 10/90? 5/95?

There’s still a lot of painting ahead of me, which will likely be the hold-up and reason I go a week or two over. But somehow or other, it’s looking like all the major stuff will be done. Which is a slight small miracle in and of itself, as the last week saw some pretty major progress.

I’d been holding my breath on the last major obstacle for the new bathroom, which was removing enough of the concrete slab so that the plumbers can run all the pipes and vents and get out under the foundation footer to tie into the existing lines. A couple of the contractors who originally came out many moons ago to bid on the project (before disappearing) weren’t at all encouraging about that prospect, quoting me prices of $150-$200/ft for cutting out the necessary area with a concrete saw and jackhammer. While my contractor was willing to give it a shot, I assumed we were in for an extended nightmare, if the going rate for such work is that high.

In the end, not so much. In fact, anti-extended nightmare, as all the sawing and jackhammering took about two hours total, with another hour for cutting out rebar and cleaning up. We were done before lunch and had the rental equipment back in time to just get charged for half a day. Total cost to remove about 15 sq. ft of concrete? About $250 plus some thank-you beer for the guys coming out on a Saturday to tackle it.

We also got the old gas floor furnace out, almost accidentally. There was one old floor furnace in the bathroom hallway and we were looking at it to see what to do about the hardwood floors there, as far as patching or inserting some inlay design once it was removed. We lifted it out enough to see how thick the old floors were, and it was coming out fairly easily (it was disconnected from the gas lines, so no need to monkey with that), and some banging and cursing and crawling under the house to insert a jack underneath it resulted in no more gas furnace to worry about, which was another nagging item in the back of my mind that I’d never tackled before and wasn’t sure how long it’d take.

All the tile is currently going in, as we’re on hold for the last of the sheetrock work, waiting on the plumbers to work their magic so we can have the rough inspection, before sealing the last of everything back up. Trim and crown moulding and some door casings are going in, so rooms are actually looking like rooms again.

Seems like I’ve been over there more than at home for the last few weeks, but at least the end is in sight. The only downside to all the above happy-happy progress talk is that the budget is on fumes, and I’m probably going over by a couple of thousand dollars. That “miscellaneous” category will bend you over every time, as trim, light fixtures, and outlets add up too damn quickly.

We’ve had a surprising number of showings of House #1, but still no offers. Still on the fence about whether or not to reduce the price further, just to get it gone, but I’m leaning towards leaving it where it is at $89,500 and giving it a month, and renting it out if it doesn’t move by then.

Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just Rolling That Old Rock Up The Dang Ol’ Hill

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.

Hacking Up a Lung (or Two) and Shivering

Not much progress on the REI front in the fledgling new year so far. I’ve actually been pretty sick since around the 1st, which is a rarity for me, as I tend to only get a cold/flu every 5 years or so. I drug myself over to House #2 on the 31st/1st and got some work done, but mostly light stuff like painting trim, removing the old wall oven and rangetop, etc. The fact that we’ve been experiencing sub-Arctic temperatures here in central Texas (or, you know, lows in the mid 20s) hasn’t made it easier to get over there and get to work. Feeling better now, though, and the waether should be nice this weekend, so the plan is to crank away and get much work done over there in coming days.

I did manage to sort out most of the existing electrical as far as what circuits feed what, and should be set for running new circuits for the laundry room addition and the 4th bedroom, as well as getting everything wired in the bathroom/closet addition in the new master bedroom. I’d planned on hiring this out but it’s reasonably simple and the budget is getting ever-tighter, so I’m going to devote most of this weekend to electrical fun. I tend to shy away from such stuff but this job is pretty straightforward, as it’s largely just relocating existing circuits (that were either unused or made unnecessary due to changes I made), which I can hopefully handle.  HVAC guy needs to come back for a few finishing touches for the new furnace anyway and he’s a master electrician and said he’d check up on all the rough electrical work and make sure nothing is screwed up.

Still haven’t closed on House #1, which is obviously frustrating. Apparently the buyer owns her hair salon, so the lender is taking forever to approve her loan as she’s self-employed, yada yada yada. She also went with a smaller local lender (she does the hair of one of their mortage bankers)  and they originally pitched her loan to an investor who got cold feet about the general market as a whole, decided to pass on it, so another investor is looking at it now, etc. She apparently wants the house pretty badly (and has even packed up all her stuff and is ready to move) so we’re going to wait until the lender decides something shortly, then pursue a lease/purchase option or something similar if they turn her down. I’d like to get my money out of the house and move on but I’m also fine with some variety of lease/purchase or owner financing, so I wouldn’t be too crushed if their lender backs out.

The couple that had previously been interested in House #2 touched base again last Friday with our realtor, letting him know that they were still interested, what my timeline was for finishing the house up, which is pretty good news. I’m trying not to count on them, as stuff can always happen, but it’s not a bad card to have up the sleeve, as they didn’t bat an eye when I said before that I was looking to list it in the 145K-150K range, and they actually requested that I not spend a lot on landscaping and similar stuff, as they wanted to do all that themselves. I want to get the house put back together more before talking more seriously with them,as it’s still currently a scary shambles now, but it could definitely make my life much easier if they turn out to be serious buyers.

Buh-Bye 2007

Finally back home for a bit after visiting family in Tennessee for Christmas, but we’re back on the road on Friday to visit more family in the Dallas area, so it feels more like a pit stop. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back home on Sunday, with absolutely no traveling or trips planned until April.

Still trying to close on House #1, which is getting a bit frustrating. The buyers’ lender is apparently dragging their feet a bit but everyone swears we’re on track to close before the end of the year. I’m not holding my breath, as that basically means next Monday, so we’ll see.

House #2 is basically on hold until I get back on Sunday, then it’s a mad push to try to get things wrapped up there by the 15th. That’s probably over-ambitious, though, but we’ll see. Our contractor was supposed to have gotten in a week’s work while we were in Tennessee but that didn’t happen, as he got stiffed by a client for a pretty big job and claimed he didn’t have the cash on hand to buy materials while I was away, and I had no way to get cash to him.

A little annoying but I’m on the fence anyway about being absent when big jobs get tackled, as we’ve already had a few hiccups here and there where he and his crew have finished stuff up before I wanted it done, such as the new sub-floor in the laundry room getting put down before the plumbers ran their drains and supply lines, etc. Some of that is probably unavoidable but there’s no substitute for actually being there, as far as making sure things are done correctly and in the order you want.

Hard to believe that it’s nearly 2008. Jebus.

Words I Never Thought I’d Be Saying

Wonder of all wonders, plumbing work should be starting on House #2 today. Hallelujah. And the heavens open up and sunbeams come shooting through.

This is just the first stage (capping off unnecessary gas lines under the house, pulling all the gas lines in rooms, the floor furnace, and the wall heater in the bathroom, as well as updating all valves in the existing bathroom and running a line for a showerhead), so no huge celebrations yet, but it feels mighty good to finally be tackling that stuff, after so many difficulties on the plumbing front.

Lots of progress over the last few days, as the unfinished workshop room is all demoed out and has a new subfloor in, and is basically ready for the HVAC vent to go in, a little re-routing of electrical, then it can be sheetrocked, painted, and stamped with the big “Done” stamp.

The new laundry room will be framed in today, with the subfloor finished yesterday, so it’ll be ready for rough plumbing and electrical.

I’ve been knocking out assorted odd jobs the last few days, installing some new light fixtures, painting here and there, fetching supplies to keep the framing moving along. I’m off on a poker reporting trip from December 12th-19th, so I’ve been pushing to get things wrapped up as far as all the framing and major structural stuff. Looks like we’ll make it, with much of the remaining stuff pretty straightforward and not really requiring me around to make major decisions, so I’ll be leaving my contractor a list of smaller things to knock out when he has some extra time here and there between jobs.

We’re visiting my folks in Tennessee for Christmas, then off to Dallas the week after that, so likely not much action on House #2 after today until around New Year’s. I’m getting a bit worn down so I don’t hate that too much, and I should still be roughly on target as far as wrapping up work by January 15th and getting the thing listed.  

Everything’s still a go as far as the sale of House #1, although we’re not going to close today as originally planned. I never expected it to happen that quickly so no huge shock there, and all signs point towards closing at the end of the week. I’m going to set up my wife with temprorary power of attorney before I take off so she can sign for me at closing, which is kind of a headache but easier (and about the same cost) as trying to next-day-air documents back and forth from the Bellagio.

So likely not much on the posting front here for the next week, but I’ll probably poke my head in here and there, especially if House #1 gets sold as planned.