Happy New Year!!

New Year's eve, the start of 2008 is fast approaching!

Worked today, and actually am going to be at the house tomorrow. When you work at home, days off don't quite mean the same. I actually want to get some rehab stuff done.

Today, I hooked up the dishwasher, and it works! Also got the extra frame pieces done for the counters (where there used to be a blind cabinet). And more grout removal. Geez that is tedious.
Tomorrow I plan on mortaring the replacement tiles down, and finishing the grout removal. There is only about 1/4 of the kitchen left to do.

Basically starting to put things back together now, not sure when my granite will arrive - but I will just finish up everything else.

Rehab week in review

Got a lot done for a short week.
- Finished painting the wall color in both bedrooms
- painted the bathroom and repaired the toilet
- installed gfcis in the bathroom and kitchen
- finished painting the kitchen
- reinstalled the stove hood
- removed more grout

Here is a picture of the kitchen beam area that was repaired. The paint color is not that much different, but amazing how updated it looks (Brandied Pear by Olympic)



Here is the kitchen in it's current state. The dishwasher is fitted in, but not hooked up. Wanted to make sure cupboard doors and such could open before putting on the counter top plywood.


Plans for next week:
- continue with grout removal. This takes forever, even with the dremel
- repair broken tiles
- install plywood for counter tops
- add box to install bathroom light

Water Heater and painting

Had the water heater checked out today. There wasn't really anything wrong with it. He just cleaned it and got it to light and stay lit. Only cost $80 - so I am not bothered by that.
Interesting note, the water heater person had been at this same house a couple years ago. Apparently the previous owner had a shady contractor in doing crappy work. She hired this company to come out and give her a list of what needed to be done to get the work up to code. Basically, he said all the plumbing had to be redone. Poor woman. She lost her house a year later, after putting in all that money.

Today I got the rest of the kitchen painted except for touch ups. I also reinstalled the stove hood (which I painted white), and painted the rest of the bedrooms upstairs. Then I started the edging around the bathroom. Tomorrow I plan to finish painting the bathroom, then remove the doors to the bedrooms upstairs so that they can get painted. Fingers crossed that I will finish all painting this week.
Then it's pretty much just counter tops.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!
Back to work tomorrow. Short week - will have to work hard LOL!

Rehab week in review

Got a lot of stuff done this week:

Removed counter tops
Finished painting the living room
Installed new light fixtures
Painted the master bedroom
Got the plumbing fixed
Painted the stairwell
Repaired the ceiling beam area
Painted the range hood white
Started grout removal

I should be done with the painting next week. That is really the thing that takes the longest!

Plumbing

There was good news and bad news with the plumbing. The handyman opened up what we thought was the pass through for the pipes and found this:

Not a pass through - but a solid beam (covered with plywood). So, we weren't quite sure how to proceed at this point. The question was whether to open up the ceiling and find the pipes or go through the wall in one of the bedrooms. Since we didn't know the status of the pipes, other than that there was a big leak - we decided to go behind the tub.

After opening up this wall - the problem was evident. The cold water pipe had separated just above the shut off. It wasn't broken - it had just popped out. Got that soldered back into place and no more leaking!! So - we didn't have to repipe anything. Saved me money and time that way.

The bad news is that the water heater doesn't work. Tried that today. It's only 3 years old, but won't light up. So - have to have someone come look at that. At least I know a fixed price ceiling on this, in case it would have to be replaced in a worst case scenario.

Now I can start putting the kitchen back together. It looks bad now LOL

Painting

Progressing quickly with the painting. Got the first color coat on both bedrooms. Chose a buttery yellow color, it's quite nice. I started trim painting upstairs as well.
I can't wait to get the pipes fixed in the house. Then I can do more work on the kitchen.
I was able to scoot some of the cabinets over on one side to make more pass through room to the basement door. I took out more cabinet width than dishwasher width, so I could do that. I will also move one of those removed cabinets to the area near the fridge. I bought a little extra granite in case I was able to do this.

I have to say that grout sawing is very tedious. Since I am keeping the tile, I need new grout. Much of this grout is filthy and the color just makes the tiles look a little weird. I have a grout saw, and it works well, but just takes time. I think I will work on doing a little each day, rather than doing it all at once.

I did turn the water on to the house, just to check the downstairs pipes. I slowly opened the main shut off valve, and then I heard water trickling behind me from somewhere. Silly me forgot to close the drain on the water heater! None of the pipes downstairs are busted - so that is very good news!

Oh, and more snow expected tonight....... sigh.......

Shovel, shovel

We got quite a bit of snow yesterday, on top of what we got Friday. So - not only do I have to shovel my own driveway, but the one at the flip house as well. Ugh!! Have had about enough of that! John was looking at electric snowblowers online today :)

Got all my lights on the first floor changed out, and they all work - so no new wiring needed there. I even got the ceiling fan replaced. That took quite awhile, and I was so sure that it wasn't going to come on when I put the power back on. There were *a lot* of wires! But, it did.
Think the neighbors probably heard me shout for joy.

The countertops are removed and I also removed the 2 cabinets which are going to be replaced by a dishwasher. There was a bit of mold behind the cabinets from the water damage, so I had to bleach that out. Luckily it's just surface mold. The kitchen looks officially torn apart now!

The granite tiles were ordered on Saturday, along with the edging system I am using. I can't wait to see how this is going to look! It will probably take at least 10 days, with the holidays in there, I am hoping it won't be too long.

Rehab week in review

Well, the first official week is done in the new flip house.
What was accomplished:
- Furnace fixed
- water turned on (although not running through the house yet)
- evaluated and made a list of what needs to be done
- driveway shoveled (twice!!), with a big storm expected again this weekend.....
- Worked on basement cleanout
- Picked out granite tile for the counter tops
- Removed wallpaper downstairs
- patched all the walls
- started painting

Painting is going pretty quickly. There is very little trim to paint, since all the trim downstairs is a nice wood. There is a section of the kitchen I am not painting until the work on the pipes happens next week.

I found the most beautiful granite tile. It's called St Cecelia and it has beautiful wine colored accents in it. This will play off the door color really well. I am going to tile with a metal channel, and mosiac backsplash. It's going to look really sharp (I hope!). It will take 10 days or so for the tiles to arrive.


Goals for next week:
- shoveling for sure LOL
- Remove counter tops
- finish painting downstairs
- replace light fixtures
- fix closet doors
- start painting upstairs

Creepy

You never know what you are going to find when you clean out someone's stuff. This house doesn't have a ton of things to go. I won't even need a dumpster (yeah!!).
Found this adorable little thing in the basement. So creepy
Someone actually liked it enough to buy it!


Had the furnace people come out today. The furnace actually needed more repairs than thought - to the tune of $1400. Good thing I am saving money on the dumpster and the tile floors. That will help offset that in the budget. Just one of those things that you never know what it's going to cost. But the good thing is - we now have heat!

Demo and evaluation

Okay, first off - it's freaking cold in that house! Someone will be out to do the furnace tomorrow - but it's hard to work when it's 30 degrees *inside*.
Here is the kitchen.


The colors are pretty drab in here, and that wall paper doesn't help. Removed the chair rail and started pulling the wallpaper down.
I am thinking I will keep the tile floor. I wasn't sure at first, but the more I look at it, the better it looks. Just needs a good cleaning. There is one broken tile - but I found a box of extras in the basement (lucky there!)

The tile is neutral, which is good. With a better color on the walls, this will definitely look better.
Once the heat is on, then the water will be turned on, then the upstairs pipes can be repaired.

Closing!

Here is why you need nerves of steel to do RE investing.
This is a recap of what happened prior to close in the last week:

- Last Friday, notified that the bank need copies of cancelled checks for the previous flip property mortgage. All months. Was told this was the last thing they needed. Did that.

- Monday morning - was told the checks were fine, now the bank wants to verify the utilities are in working order. They were shut off and winterized. Bank says utilities must be turned on, and this was the last thing needed. I called to have the electric and gas turned on for Tuesday. The city refused to turn on the water prior to closing. We could not get around that - had several people call, no dice. So - we asked them for a letter stating why they wouldn't turn on the water to send to the bank.

- Tuesday - was told electric and gas would be on by 6pm. Great! Appraiser scheduled to come back on Wednesday at 9am to verify utilities are on. John and I go after 6 pm to light the furnace and turn on the main breaker. No power or gas. I call National Grid - was told the power was shut off at the street (which I told them yesterday) so it had to be turned on manually. They tell me someone will come out at some point during the night to do this.

- Yesterday - still no power and gas at the house as of 8am. Called and was told there was a mistake, the person who came out thought they had to verify the power was *off*, so did nothing. Idiots. Frantic to get everything on, since the appraiser was due out in an hour. Realize that this is unlikely - so call the appraiser and ask him to come a little later, but needed to have him there by noon so we could close the next day.
National grid comes out - power on, but furnace won't stay lit. (Don't care about that, just a service call there). However - appraiser doesn't know what to make of this. He took pictures of the gas stove lit to show that the gas was on.
All submitted to bank, we look good to go. Closing scheduled for 4pm the next day.

- Late yesterday afternoon, call from mortgage broker. Bank won't accept that the water is off, and wants the system pressure tested by a plumber. Told this is the last thing holding up the deal. Well - *we* know the system will fail the test, since we know there are broken pipes upstairs, the bank does not know this. I am now curled up in a fetal position on the floor.

- About 8pm last night, told we might be able to sign a waiver that we don't hold the bank responsible for any problems with the plumbing.

- This morning - said addendum is faxed and we got all needed documents and went to the closing table at 4:30pm. Since funds won't be available tonight due to the late closing time, all funds are going to be wired in the morning. All docs are signed and I will get the keys tomorrow.

What a nightmare!

So close!

Almost there. The bank accepted the cancelled cheks - but now they want the utilities on before closing, with a reappraisal indicating that they are on. It's crazy!

The city refuses to turn on the water before closing, which I understand. Not to mention the fact the I don't want the water on with the broken pipe upstairs.
The furnace needs servicing - so while the gas is turned on, the furnace can't be turned on. Luckily there is a gas stove, so the appraiser could take a picture of the burners lit to prove the gas is on. And the electric is on.
It's now up to the bank, yet again. Who knows if they will accept the utilities as they are. We have the closing set tentatively for 4pm tomorrow.

These are the kind of things that gurus never tell you about.

Almost there

Well - we got the *last* condition from the bank late Friday afternoon. On my last flip - the mortgage never appeared on my credit report, so this bank wants copies of cancelled checks to show that the mortgage was paid. So - had to get copies of 4 months worth of checks.
That was the last condition. If for some reason, they don't like the copies I can't do anything else to prove the payments. If they do accept the copies, then we will get the clear to close.
FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

This might be the last stated income loan I try to do. Unless something in the market changes over the next 6 months.

Deal still alive!

Well, I thought this deal was on life support, but it looks as though it might go through after all!

Definitely need to sit down with my mortgage broker after this and go over all investor options that are open.
Stated income isn't likely to work anymore.
We are shooting for a closing date of 12/6 or a little earlier.

Wachovia funding

Well, Wachovia dropped a bomb today. They are no longer doing funding for investors. So even though they have given us the conditions, they won't close the loan. How about that?!?!?

We have the back-up bank on the table now, and have submitted all conditions to them. The interest rate is higher, though.

Trying not to be irritated about all this, but it is difficult LOL!

Mortgage issues

I am not sure the funding for this deal is going to go through. We are stated income, so it is already difficult in this climate - but it is really getting annoying.
The bank keeps asking for more information, and then doesn't respond with what they want for conditions. We have some conditions, but the bank says there will more *if* they decide to go ahead and fund.
MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY!!!

Either yay or nay, but quit stringing me along. It's too late now to go for hard money, with closing date of Monday, so the deal will die.

Oh well, I think for sure next time I will do hard money to avoid all this crap. Just means I need to get the property for even lower.

Laminate floors

Well, this isn't a rehab house - it's our own, but there is always work to be done!
Here are a couple photos of the new flooring we put down in our bedroom. Got it at Lumber Liquidators. $1.69 a square foot, and has the underlayment attached to the boards. It's click and lock flooring, but not many of the boards clicked into place. We had to do a lot of tapping to get them to lay flat. Once we got past the first couple rows - things went much smoother.

Closing soon

Got some conditions back from the bank today. Some of them are a PITA, our broker actually submitted the loan to 3 different banks, just to see who had the better offer to us!
When looking at this loan vs hard money
My loan is 7.875 % with 10% down, no points state income. 30 year fixed, no prepay penalty (need for flips!). 4-5 weeks to close

HML - 14% interest rate, plus points. No prepay penalty. 2 weeks to close.
Which would you choose???

I read this whenever I get irritated with the banks.
The latest the closing will be is the 20th of November. Might have a bit of trouble getting workers to come in that week, with Thanksgiving - but I can at least get started on demo.

Appraisal came in good!

The appraisal came in for the property. Got it for $90K and the appraisal came in at $110 in the current condition. Instant equity - gotta love it!

Mortgage commitment is being sent this week, and hopefully we can close in a couple weeks. I have until 11/20 - but hope to get in early.

Showed the kitchen pictures to my handyman to give him a heads up of what the project will entail.

Appraisal done

The appraisal was done on the property. We are now waiting on the results. Should have mortgage commitment letter today. Hoping to get this financing pushed through to get the house earlier than November 20th.

Moving forward on new property

So, I have the finalized contract on the new flip property. Closing is done on the last one (yay!!!).
Since there was a broken pipe in this new house, I went in and cleaned up some surface mold before the appraisal. I am going with traditional financing on this one as well. 7.85% interest rate, can't get that with hard money.
I can't wait until I am able to pay all cash for houses.

Looking into different counter tops, there are some local granite fabricators, so I might be able to get a better price on granite than on Corian. Will have to see. The counters will all depend on how much the pipe repair is going to cost.

Offer accepted!

Yeah! Next property on the way! Dealing with banks can be a real PITA, you know? But, in the end - I get the property.
This one needs so much less work than the last house. That will be nice. Plus there is no seasoning on the title, which means I can turn it around faster!
Closing is set for 11/20, however we will push forward to get as much done as quickly as possible for an early closing.

Negotiations

We are in negotiations on the next property (the one in the post below). I think we are pretty close to a deal!

Possible flip candidate

Got a request for mortgage payoff for next week on my current flip. Looks like the buyers might close early after all - here's hoping!

Looked at a cute, cute house today that would really be mostly light cosmetics.


It has 2 large bedrooms, and had been recently updated. It appears that there was a broken pipe in the bathroom (probably freeze damage), and you can see in the kitchen picture - the beam area of the ceiling shows the damage. The bath pipes go through area this to the main waste line. That looks to be the only big issue. The rest is paint and new kitchen countertop, flooring and light fixtures. If comps work out, might go for this one!

Article on my last rehab.

I have posted an article on Associated Content with a synopsis of my last flip. If you would like to read that rather than go through the blog, please click here.

Inspections and mortgage done

All inspections on the house are done, and the buyers have mortgage approval! Yay! We have asked that they move the closing date up, as now it is wasted time since all approvals are done. Hoping they agree.


Have looked at a couple places. One would have been a nice rehab if it wasn't right next to train tracks and a factory LOL!

Also, have a multi family on the short list right now. Going to look at some more next week.

Buying a house at auction

Real Estate Investing Through Foreclosures: Buying a Home at Auction
By Lori Kimble

As a real estate investor, purchasing a foreclosure home at auction can offer a great deal of equity for a small amount of money. Finding these properties is not always easy, but the actual auction is fairly straight forward.

So what should you do to prepare for an auction? First, you need to find homes up for auction. Purchasing an auction home is not like working with a home owner to prevent foreclosure - an auction is the lender actually selling the home to try to gain its mortgage money back.Click here to read the rest of my article

New offer!

Just received another offer on the house. This one is actually better than the first one, so fingers are crossed that it will move along without issues!

Fingers crossed

Had an open house over the weekend, and two more showings to come this week. There is a party that has requested the seller's disclosure sheet, so I have my fingers crossed.

We put up a thin plywood sheeting between the trees and the fence to keep the next door neighbor's dogs from scaring people. The dogs are very nice when you meet them, but are scaring people away. One of the dogs managed to create a hole big enough in the wire fence to push her head through, so that is why we put up the plywood. The trees are too close to the fence to be able to put up new fencing, so we just wove thin plywood around the trees and fastened them to the existing fence. That at least blocks the view of the dogs. The neighbors are very understanding about it, new owners are going to have some nice neighbors here.

Deal is dead

Well, that was fast. The deal fell through. Apparently when the buyers came back to do a separate inspection for the heating system, they got into an altercation with the neighbors. I still do not have full details on what went down, but the buyers are backing out of the contract. They are still in attorney review, so they can do this.

House is back on the market! Gotta love it.......

Inspection done, waiting on results.

The inspection was done on Monday. These buyers are not wasting any time at all! Now we are just waiting for the laundry list :)

There are some things I am assuming they will ask for, as I had a few projects I was going to work on while the house was on the market.

Offer on the house

We received an offer on the house friday which we are very happy with, so we are going to move forward on the sale! It was on the market for 14 days.
Just need to get through the inspection and mortgage final approval. Conditions will be fulfilled by the 21st of August, and closing is set for Sept 13th.

Have all toes and fingers crossed!!

Kitchen rehab

The kitchen was the room that had the most work done, and the most money spent. It's a small kitchen, a little less than 100 sf. It was in total shambles when we first saw it:

We were better able to really see potential once the junk had been cleared out:


There really wasn't anything salvageable in this kitchen. We changed the layout a bit, the refrigerator was located in the back hallway, and we decided to give up some counter space to get the fridge into the same room. There is also a nice pantry, which someone had installed a toilet in.


So - everything was ripped out, from the floor to the ceiling:


After that, we had some new electric put in for a hood and a new outlet. Then plumbing put in for a dishwasher. The hookups we originally thought were for a dishwasher turned out to be plumbing for a washer. We also added more cabinets above the stove, so even though we took out some lower cabinets and counter space for the fridge, we ended up putting in more storage than was originally there.

Hallway work

The hallway turned out quite nice. There was a runner carpet along the floor, when we pulled that up, you could see water damage on the hardwoods from the bathroom. They actually came out okay after refinishing, but I decided to put another runner down, and that turned out to be a very nice touch.


The hallway required wallpaper stripping, ceiling and wall patching, new light fixture and paint.

Rehabbed bedrooms

This house has 3 bedrooms. First views were not bad, although the rooms had junk in them.




They ended up being a little more work than I thought. There was wallpaper, which I thought would just come down and I would patch and paint. Not so - there were multiple layers of wallpaper, very old - down to the original wallboard.
I soon realized that this would not be possible to remove, so I skim coated the walls with joint compound and then painted.


The floors upstairs are red pine. The varnish had darkened to the point that I thought the floors were actually stained, but turns out they weren't.



Rooms finished. They were all done in the same color scheme: Magnolia Spray on the walls with white trim.

Bathroom rehab

Already have 2 showings scheduled for the house! Then an open house on Sunday. Here's hoping the market isn't going to be soft for me.

The bathroom rehab was the scariest part for me, because it involved doing things I hadn't done before, such as toilet replacement and the tub.
This bathroom was just gross. Filthy, moldy and outdated. The toilet leaked, and you could see water stains on the kitchen ceiling below. The shower surround had small round holes in it, not sure how those were created, probably with a screw driver.



After inspecting the tub, we decided that other than the finish, it was in good shape, so rather than removing a cast iron tub - we wanted to refinish it. After deciding that, everything else was removed from the bathroom except for the medicine cabinet (which was original). Like every other surface in this house, there was wallpaper everywhere, including behind the shower surround!

After repairing the floor, I put down backer board and then tiled.


Then the toilet and sink were installed, then the surround. The tub refinisher said to have the tub done last, so everything went in but the caulk and fixtures.


After that, the tub was done. It originally was almond, and the refinisher was able to make it white. They can actually make it almost any color, which I have filed away for future reference.
Then came the light fixture and shower curtain.
Finished bath (the colors are a bit yellow due to the sunlight):




I really like how this turned out. The pedestal sink makes the bathroom appear much larger. I would have liked tile for the tub surround, but we had to make room in the budget for the overage on the roof. Turned out quite nice, and was quick and easy to install. It was a mid-range surround.