Struggling with the flu, so I’ll just summarize the week with a general update…
House #1: The Corn House
We’ve decided to wait until after the new year to start marketing this property a lot harder. Luckily (or unluckily), we’ve purchased and rehabbed this property with all our own cash, so our monthly holding costs are essentially nothing (utilities, insurance, and taxes); so we’re not in a huge rush to sell this one, though of course it would be nice…
House #3: The Second Chance House
With the exception of a couple minor issues (rehanging a door, sprucing up the back shed, etc), we finished The Second Chance House today!
Earlier in the week, we laid the carpet, put the last coat of polyurethane on the hardwoods, and installed the glass door for the shower. We’ve spent the past three days — about 10 hours a day — finishing the punch-list tasks (paint touch-up, drywall repairs, making sure all the doors, windows, and fixtures work perfectly, etc) and staging. Normally, we wouldn’t be getting as hands-on as we have this week, but we don’t have a whole lot going on with other projects, and we really wanted to get this property done before we head out for the holiday next week.
Today, we had our house-cleaner come in to make the place shine, and this weekend we’ll be putting the finishing touches on the staging. The house looks amazing, and I’m hoping to get final staging pictures this week to post here and for our marketing collateral.
We’ve decided that we’re going to hold off on listing this property until after the new year; while we could have the first Open House this weekend, we’re a bit uneasy about advertising that there is a house full of new furniture sitting vacant over the holiday. While it probably shouldn’t be a concern, with my wife, my brother, and I all being out of town during an overlapping 36 hour period, I’m a bit confused about how I’d handle getting a phone call that the alarm was tripped; so I’m trying to minimize that likelihood.
House #5: The DIY House
We still haven’t finalized the contract for The DIY House. We have verbal acceptance of our offer, and have been working closely with the listing agent, but until the docs come back signed by the seller (the bank), I won’t consider it official. Not to mention, we haven’t had the inspection yet, so there’s still a chance we could back out of the deal if something unexpected comes up.
Our inspection is scheduled for Monday morning, after which I’ll put together the Scope of Work (based on my findings and the inspector’s findings), run a financial analysis, and make a go/no-go decision. Assuming we move forward, I’m hoping to close on this one in the next two weeks.
Leave a Reply