Renovations are well underway on both The Mini House and The Sunglasses House, and I’m happy to report that a week in, both projects are still on-schedule and on-budget.

We actually had an interesting experience today over at The Sunglasses House…a county code enforcement inspector (the same inspector we had for The Second Chance House, coincidentally) was apparently driving by the property and noticed the big 30-yard dumpster in the driveway that we were using for demo. He pulled into the driveway right as our GC was pulling up, and they had a chance to speak. The inspector wanted to verify that our GC was licensed and that we had all our permits for the rehab.

Of course, as I’ve explained before, we only hire licensed and insured contractors, and we pull permits whenever necessary, so this wasn’t a big deal. In this case, we were missing one permit, so my GC needs to head down to the permit office tomorrow or Monday; but, had we been stupid and tried to cut corners by using unlicensed contractors or by not pulling permits, today’s experience could easily have derailed the project and thrown us over-schedule and over budget.

So, for all you house flippers out there, consider this a reminder — always use licensed and insured contractors, and always pull permits when your municipality requires it.

I showed up a few minutes later and had a chance to chat with the inspector (which is good, as he’ll probably be the one doing the inspections on this house throughout the rehab). Before he left, the inspector asked if we had any other properties we were working on. I told him about The Mini House, and he apparently headed down there next to check that one out. That one is a basic paint and carpet renovation, so we didn’t pull any permits, and according our contractors down there, he stopped in, looked around for about 2 minutes and left.

When I got down to The Mini House a while later, I was quite pleased with the progress. The interior paint was completed, all exterior work was done, and the fixtures and vinyl flooring were set to go in. We expect the house to be pretty much complete tomorrow, with just a few detailed saved for next week. Specifically, next week we’ll be getting the carpets cleaned, putting in the appliances, and getting a new garage door.

We expect to have this one on the market next weekend. Time to go order the staging furniture and another alarm system, as the other two sets are currently being used…

{ 0 comments }






House #6: The Saga Continues

July 1, 2009

In a recent post, I mentioned the continued underwriting drama surrounding The Red Garage House. I was pretty angry when I wrote that post (specifically about the mortgage broker incorrectly ordering the appraisal), but I’ve quickly transitioned from pissed off to a state of complete apathy over this particular deal. In fact, it’s [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

House #12: Officially Ours

June 30, 2009

We closed on the purchase of The Mini House today…
After last week’s last-minute fiasco of finding out the house was in a floor plain, we spent two day scrambling to get surveys, elevation certificates, and flood insurance. In the end, the news was actually pretty good. While the entire area was moved into [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Building a Buyers List

June 27, 2009

Starting out in real estate a relatively short time ago, it’s been reassuring to find other investors out there who are also working to build their businesses and become successful investors in the face of tough economic times and a tough real estate market. One of those people is Scott Costello, an up-and-coming wholesaler [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Update for 6/26/2009

June 26, 2009

Here’s my end-of-the-week update on all our houses…it’s a quick one, but after this long, long week, I don’t have a lot of energy to write…
House #1: The Corn House
Nothing new with this house…just looking forward to collecting our third (on-time) rent check…

House #6: The Red Garage House
I’m so angry that it’s difficult for [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

House #12: Flood Zone!

June 25, 2009

This week started off about as badly as any week we’ve had in this business. Everything that could go wrong, was going wrong. And it all culminated with a phone call from our lender on Wednesday morning letting us know that The Mini House was in a flood plain, and that we’d need [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

House #11: Officially Ours

June 24, 2009

After lots of scrambling to prepare for the growing mold problem at The Sunglasses House, and after threatening the bank with backing out of the deal if they couldn’t get to the closing table this week, we got word the other day that the title problems had been solved, and that we were ready to [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

House #10: Final Analysis

June 21, 2009

Another quick Final Analysis post, as it’s for The Deja Duplex, a property we held for less than a week and only visited two times…
I would consider this to be our first real wholesale deal, and while it would have been nicer to have just done a double-close (meaning we sell it the same day [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

House #11: Mold Problems

June 18, 2009

We were supposed to close on The Sunglasses House last week, but due to some title issues that haven’t yet been resolved, we still don’t have a closing date. In fact, we don’t know if it will be another week or another two months…
Normally, I wouldn’t be over-anxious about closing on a property, but [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

House #6: Chugging Along

June 17, 2009

If you’ve been following the drama of The Red Garage House, you know that it’s been under contract now for exactly two months. And about half that time has been spent in underwriting, trying to get FHA financing approval for the buyer.
As of the end of last week, we were fairly certain this wouldn’t [...]

2 comments Read the full article →