I’d apologize for the pages here going dark for so long, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Ditto to not responding to snarky, gleeful emails about my implied demise or demands for updates about the progress of the Creek House, etc. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

My own snark aside, man, it’s been a rough few months. I finally finished up the Creek House yesterday, with only a few tiny odds and ends left, and signed all the paperwork with our realtor to list it and hopefully get the damn thing sold.

As far as catching up on where I’ve been the last few months and what happened with the project, well, it’d take a novel, but the short version is that I had to pull our contractor off the job when I got back from Vegas July 15th and basically finish all the remaining work myself. I’d expected to come back from Vegas to a finished house but the reality couldn’t be further from that, as not only did my contractor try to bill be basically three times what he should have, but tons of work was still unfinished.

Pretty disappointing, and demoralizing in many ways, as the budget was already about 10% over what I’d hoped for, so not only were juicy profits swirling down the drain, but I was suddenly faced with absolutely busting my butt over the next month and change to get it finished myself, as that was the only way I could hope to still show any sort of profit on the job.

So that’s basically what I did, and where I’ve been the last few months. Add to all of that the fact that I’m basically working two other full-time jobs at the moment, and free time and motivation to update these pages was pretty lacking.

But I managed to get through it, and I’m still here, and will get a post up shortly with before and after photos of the Creek House as well as all the gory details about blown budgets and potential profits (ha) and all that good stuff.

And, against every fiber of my being that wants to never own a house again, I’m starting work on the Larry House, as the redemption period from the tax deed sale has expired, so it’s all mine to start messing with.

On the bright side, at least the kitchen of the Larry House is in perfect, move-in condition:

No, seriously, that really is the kitchen sink in Larry’s House, and not the most disgusting image I could find on Google Images.

On the bright side, we’re in the home stretch of the Wee House rehab, and it should be completely buttoned up and done by next week. I’m going to be about $1,500 over budget (boo) and about five weeks over schedule, (double boo), so that sucks. That’s mitigated a bit by the fact that I ended up doing more of the work myself than planned, which caused the timeline to balloon, as I made a conscious decision to abandon the timeline in order to keep the costs down.

So most of the blame goes to me for underestimating the scope of work, and I’ll take my medicine there. It’s still very much a learning process for me, and we’re still working the kinks out with our contractor, as far as what his crew can do, what reasonable expectations are, etc. So far my total carrying costs have been about $275, so it’s a good project to work kinks out on, due to how cheaply I picked up the property.

As far as the house itself, I’m pretty pleased with how the rehab turned out. Pictures coming soon, when it’s all completely done, but it turned out nicely. If anything, too nicely, as I did a bit more work than absolutely necessary for a rental (tile flooring instead of vinyl, decent solid wood cabinets instead of cheaper options, some decorative trim here and there), but it should pay off in the long run, when I do sell the place.

With the upgrades and the bedroom addition, I’m going to ask $500/month in rent, with PITI estimated at about $225/month when it’s permanently financed. It should appraise for $45,000-$50,000, and I’ll have about $30,000 total invested in it, so not a bad little rental, and, like I said, a good learning experience.

As far as Larry updates, he did wander by the property when I was there the other day, and told me that he’d signed off any interest in the place, that he was done, that it was all mine. I’m guessing this is more mental than legal, as there’s really nothing for him to sign, as the redemption period on the tax sales properties has to run its course on its own, but good news in general I suppose.

While there are other family members involved with the estate that perioviously owned it, I spoke to Larry’s aunt back when I bought the deed and first encountered Larry, and she said that none of them had either the money or the inclination to get the property back. I haven’t posted many photos of it but it’s in really rough shape, so there’s really no appeal for anyone other than myself to want to own it, as it’s very close to a tear-down in its current state.

Despite the fact that it’s 99.9% likely that no one will redeem it, I’m still just going to let it sit and wait it out. Especially since I may have found the next project yesterday, when my realtor called me up about a property he’d just seen that he thought I might be interested in.

Indeed, I was interested, and told my agent to put in an offer on it this morning, despite the fact that I haven’t even seen the interior. The house is a 2-1, built in 1935, but it’s nearly 1600 sq. ft., and has a hip roof with a lot of attic space and 10-12 foot ceilings thoughout inside.

The real selling point, though, is that it’s on a .4 acre lot that’s practically downtown, has big huge old trees, and with a creek running through the property, complete with wooden footbridge and a 700 sq. ft. workshop on the back of the property, accessible after you cross over the footbridge. Just a really beautiful big lot that you rarely see for a property that close to the downtown area.

As far as the house itself, it needs a lot of work. From peeking in assorted windows last night (the soonest my realtor can show it to me is on Saturday) and what our realtor said about it, someone was trying to fix it up but apparently gave up. They did a lot of the demo work, had some ductwork run, and other assorted odds and ends, but didn’t actually complete much of any work.

It doesn’t have central air or heat and the electrical is a mess, as there’s just bare Romex running out of the electrical panel and stapled to the outside of the house, etc. I imagine the plumbing is in similar shape.

As odd as it sounds, though, I’m not that concerned about the interior, as I’d likely turn it into a 3-2 anyway, so there’s going to much re-arranging of walls and existing framing as it is, new sheetrock, you name it. The exterior siding is in really good shape and the roof seemed to be in decent shape, with most of the work focused on the interior.

The reason I’m so hyped about it is that it’s listed at $35,000, which is way, way underpriced given the lot, location, and house size, even for a house that needs a total interior rehab. Like $20,000-$30,000 underpriced. It’s also “listed” by an older real estate agent/broker in town who basically works part-time these days, and he doesn’t list any of his properties on the MLS or even put a sign in the yard, just relying on contacts he’s built up over the years to sell his properties. It’s effectively not even really on the market, as far as possible competing offers.

So we’re going to go ahead and submit an offer of $33,500 and take it from there, giving it a good walkthrough on Saturday. I hesitate a bit making an offer sight unseen, as far as the interior, but we’re asking for a 7 day inspection period in the offer, so I’m only out the $50 option fee if they accept the offer but I then back out after seeing it.

Honestly, though, given the location and lot and exterior of the house, I’m not sure what I could possibly find inside that’d scare me off. Two similar properties vey close to thos one (on much smaller lots, though) just sold for $110,000 and $117,000 in the last month. I can’t see the rehab going over $25,000-$30,000, so even picking it up at full price of $35,000 would leave a lot of meat on the bone, as far as a potential flip. Renting it would be an appealing option as well, as 3-2s in that area typically rent for $1,000/month.

So, you know, fingers crossed. I’m not sure I’m quite ready to leap into another project but, if everything checks out, this one is just too good to pass up.

To quickly recap the situation: Larry’s grandmother owned the property and died in 1983. No one paid the taxes after that point. I purchased the deed of the abandoned house at this month’s tax deed sale, and met Larry for the first time a few hours later, as he was claiming to be the owner of the house. Larry seemed a bit crazy at first glance, in his late 40s, in and out of jail, essentially homeless and ridden pretty hard by life. He claimed he was going to come up with the money to pay the taxes and penalties and get his house back, and hand’t been seen until a few days ago, when he delivered his counter offer.

I’ll just link to scans of his counter offer, then respond below. For a larger image to actual read it, click on each image below.

This is the outer envelope, which was absolutely stuffed full. No writing on thr front, just this on the back.

This envelope was inside the outer one above. It was also full, and sealed.

This was folded and inside of the second envelope above, along with the letter below. I’m assuming this is the envelope to mail my response to him back with.

And, finally, the actual counter offer. If you find yourself squinting or doubting the scan quality, umm, no, that’s pretty much what it looks like.

So what do you think? Should I accept his counter offer?

And yes, I know, he’s obviously struggling with larger mental health issues, and I shouldn’t make light of that. I just found it fairly fascinating, as far as the document itself, and it reminded me of stuff from the days of yore when I was grad school, taking linguistic classes and talking about things like the Voynich manuscript, constructed languages, and similar stuff.

Aside from all that, he really doesn’t need to make a counter offer to get the property back, as all he has to do it pay the back taxes and penalties before six months is up, so there’s really no negotiating about it.

On a more serious note, it does make me a bit sad, as far as the real world ramifications of situations like this. From his point of view, there’s no good resolution to this situation. He doesn’t make a penny from what amounts to the sale of a house that he’s considered his for more than twenty years, and this is a person that a penny would be an appreciable amount of money to.

In the rural area where we live, there are really no resources to help someone in his situation, other than handouts from family and friends. I can’t think of anything I can do, personally, as he’s not really able-bodied enough even to do general clean-up manual labor, etc., and he’s got no income of any sort, as far as even paynig nominal rent or qualifying for rent assistance. And, honestly, in his state of mind I wouldn’t even consider the latter, as he’s just too unstable, from what little I’ve seen already.

I expected I’d learn a good bit after dipping my toes into the tax deed sales waters, dealing with much different situations than arise during the normal real estate purchase, but I never imagined I’d be in for something like this,