The Cherry St house has been on the market for two weeks now. The open house was well attended, but no offers yet. Doesn't help that the realtors are out of town on vacation for a week! Keeping our fingers crossed.
The second house is on track to be finished this week. The air conditioning finally was installed on Friday (much too late for the poor folks who've been working there since early July!). Hope to have it listed before we leave for vacay.
Hubby is working with a friend of his to find the next project. They put in a bid on a single family home on a nice piece of land. It would definitely be the biggest project yet, but he had to bid way under the asking price in order to make any money at it. He has a little room to increase the offer, but not too much.
Meanwhile Hubby has been measuring and documenting all of the improvements made an how long everything took and how much everything costs. This is what he really brings to the game. He is really focused on developing consistent processes so he can more easily predict profits, etc.
Still haven't rented the one unit we still have open. Getting a few calls every couple of days, but the "right" tenant hasn't been found yet. After the previous disaster, he is obviously being a lot more cautious!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Open House Scheduled!
Open house on the Cherry St property is scheduled for Sunday. Hoping to get some traffic through. I don't think it has been shown yet. Realtor's generally don't like open houses, but maybe we'll get lucky! This is probably a good time to give a shout-out to our realtor: John Chernesky from Remax (http://www.johnchernesky.com/). He definitely gets the job done for us.
Still taking electrical and HVAC bids on the 2nd Flipper (Village Lane). That seems to be coming together really really well. Hope to have it on the market by the first week in August.
Hubby starting looking for a third flipper today, but we really need to sell something before we can buy another. Hubby claims we can buy a third one but won't have enough money to fix it up - LOL. He is actually thinking about having a buddy of his invest in number 3 so we can continue moving forward.
Still haven't filled the empty apartment, and decided to at least report the $2100 we are owed from the eviction to the credit agencies. Weirdly the court system seems unable to help us (even though $1800 of it is an official judgement from a case). Hubby is going to look into it a bit more, but it doesn't look promising at all. It really stinks because we know where they work, but apparently we can't put any kind of lien on their paychecks. Hubby is sending a letter telling them to pay in 30 days, but they haven't paid in 6 months so I am obviously not very optimistic.
Still taking electrical and HVAC bids on the 2nd Flipper (Village Lane). That seems to be coming together really really well. Hope to have it on the market by the first week in August.
Hubby starting looking for a third flipper today, but we really need to sell something before we can buy another. Hubby claims we can buy a third one but won't have enough money to fix it up - LOL. He is actually thinking about having a buddy of his invest in number 3 so we can continue moving forward.
Still haven't filled the empty apartment, and decided to at least report the $2100 we are owed from the eviction to the credit agencies. Weirdly the court system seems unable to help us (even though $1800 of it is an official judgement from a case). Hubby is going to look into it a bit more, but it doesn't look promising at all. It really stinks because we know where they work, but apparently we can't put any kind of lien on their paychecks. Hubby is sending a letter telling them to pay in 30 days, but they haven't paid in 6 months so I am obviously not very optimistic.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Good news and bad news on rentals
Well, I was just getting ready to announce that we had 6 out of 6 apartments fully paid this month (1 is still empty but more on that later), when Hubby told me that one of our tenants had bounced a check. This is a very expensive problem for the tenant, because now they owe a $100 fine. $50 for the bounced check, and $50 because the rent will be late this month!
On the good news front the empty apartment is ready to go and Hubby has already started receiving calls for it, although he hasn't advertised at all yet! One tip that some might find useful, he give existing tenants a "finder's fee" of $50 if the apartment is eventually rented to someone they recommend.
No activity on the first flipper (Cherry Street) this weekend. We were hoping that it would get some showing because it is new to the market. Keeping our fingers crossed for a quick sale!
On the good news front the empty apartment is ready to go and Hubby has already started receiving calls for it, although he hasn't advertised at all yet! One tip that some might find useful, he give existing tenants a "finder's fee" of $50 if the apartment is eventually rented to someone they recommend.
No activity on the first flipper (Cherry Street) this weekend. We were hoping that it would get some showing because it is new to the market. Keeping our fingers crossed for a quick sale!
Thursday, July 12, 2012
HVAC in Flipper 2
Hubby is going to meet with the HVAC guy tomorrow or Saturday to decide what to do about the heating and AC in the new place. It currently has oil heat and a separate Air Conditioning unit. He is thinking about converting to a heat pump for everything. There are pros and cons, of course. The Realtor says that gas heat is best, then a heat pump and last is oil heat. The problem with removing the oil furnace is that the oil tank has to be removed too. The tanks are often put in the basement after the basement is poured and then they build the house over top of it. Getting it out will be tricky (plus there is oil in it!).
Carpet cleaning on Sat for the open rental unit. The remaining stuff has to be stored for a few more weeks and then we'll trash it. There is a bit of drywall damage, but that can be easily fixed. Tenant screening starting next week, hopefully!
Carpet cleaning on Sat for the open rental unit. The remaining stuff has to be stored for a few more weeks and then we'll trash it. There is a bit of drywall damage, but that can be easily fixed. Tenant screening starting next week, hopefully!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Some Financials - or "How Profitable Is This Anyway"
Hubby and I discussed the course of the business a bit tonight. Some of his realtor friends want him to start negotiating with banks on their behalf, and he will get a portion of the profit from any sales that result. They also want him to do some property management (for rentals, and housing developments, etc.). He also wanted to discuss maybe bringing in a partner to help fund the next renovation (we have enough to fund about 2.5 projects, but not three full ones).
After much debate we figured out some of the financials. He will make about $15,000 from the first flipper, and he could make as much as $30,000 from the second. If we estimate conservatively, at $15,000 per property, and consider that we can comfortably do 2 properties per quarter. That is a profit of $120,000 per year (before income taxes, of course). This does not even count the income from the rentals. Very lucrative. Of course, we are dependent on the realtor getting the houses sold, but it is really in his best interest to move the properties (because we won't buy a third until one in sold). During the down times (which we might have in August) Hubby can work on the rentals, and also develop the estimating process, and start generating a list of interesting properties for the next round. Even if we miss our estimates in a particular quarter, we should still be just fine financially.
Decision: for right now, Hubby is going to stay focused on the flipping and rentals. It has only been two months. We can always re-evaluate after the first year.
In other news, we finally got the water turned on in flipper number two! Nothing much to discuss on the rentals right now.
After much debate we figured out some of the financials. He will make about $15,000 from the first flipper, and he could make as much as $30,000 from the second. If we estimate conservatively, at $15,000 per property, and consider that we can comfortably do 2 properties per quarter. That is a profit of $120,000 per year (before income taxes, of course). This does not even count the income from the rentals. Very lucrative. Of course, we are dependent on the realtor getting the houses sold, but it is really in his best interest to move the properties (because we won't buy a third until one in sold). During the down times (which we might have in August) Hubby can work on the rentals, and also develop the estimating process, and start generating a list of interesting properties for the next round. Even if we miss our estimates in a particular quarter, we should still be just fine financially.
Decision: for right now, Hubby is going to stay focused on the flipping and rentals. It has only been two months. We can always re-evaluate after the first year.
In other news, we finally got the water turned on in flipper number two! Nothing much to discuss on the rentals right now.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Finally listed!
Flipper is finally listed. Looks fantastic! Here is the listing with some great pictures of the property:
http://www.remax.com/property/108472628-60440123/1322-CHERRY-ST-Pottstown-PA-19464/
Bought all of the materials for the 2nd place yesterday morning. Work has already started and because it's a townhouse there is not much to do on the exterior (we needed to fix a drain pipe - already done - and the patio might need to be relaid because it slopes too much toward the house. Doing a minor kitchen remodel (new counter top, new floor, maybe new appliances, but keeping the cabinets). Need a few interior doors, but the exterior ones are already fixed and/or replace. New furnace and AC, of course (that seems to be one of our trademarks - and helps the resell value tremendously!).
Not much news on the rentals this month - definitely a good thing! - have received rents for 5.5 out of the 6 units that are occupied. Expecting the 2nd half of that last one on Friday this week (keep fingers crossed!). Need to get new tenants into the place that ended up being evicted, but really happy to be rid of the old ones. Almost giving up hope of ever seeing any of the money we are owed on that one. The place is clean already and we may move the stove from the new flipper to this apartment, but otherwise it is good to go. Hubby is confident it will be occupied by August 1st. It does feel good to have the rental situation a litter calmer, at least for now.
http://www.remax.com/property/108472628-60440123/1322-CHERRY-ST-Pottstown-PA-19464/
Bought all of the materials for the 2nd place yesterday morning. Work has already started and because it's a townhouse there is not much to do on the exterior (we needed to fix a drain pipe - already done - and the patio might need to be relaid because it slopes too much toward the house. Doing a minor kitchen remodel (new counter top, new floor, maybe new appliances, but keeping the cabinets). Need a few interior doors, but the exterior ones are already fixed and/or replace. New furnace and AC, of course (that seems to be one of our trademarks - and helps the resell value tremendously!).
Not much news on the rentals this month - definitely a good thing! - have received rents for 5.5 out of the 6 units that are occupied. Expecting the 2nd half of that last one on Friday this week (keep fingers crossed!). Need to get new tenants into the place that ended up being evicted, but really happy to be rid of the old ones. Almost giving up hope of ever seeing any of the money we are owed on that one. The place is clean already and we may move the stove from the new flipper to this apartment, but otherwise it is good to go. Hubby is confident it will be occupied by August 1st. It does feel good to have the rental situation a litter calmer, at least for now.
Friday, July 6, 2012
First Flipper Goes On Sale on Monday
I've been neglecting the blog lately - too much going on! - I will try to do better.
The first property hubby has renovated goes on the market on Monday. Quite a transformation (will try to upload pics tomorrow after it is fully cleaned). A lot more work that he originally anticipated, but we should still get a nice profit and certainly have the satisfaction of seeing the transformation before our very eyes!
Hubby has started work (well not personally, but the general contractor has started) on the new townhouse. Finally closed on that property a week ago. Working with the HUD was a major pain in the neck. We ended up closely a full two months after the original date, and the REALLY stupid part was that the listing indicated that they wanted to close in like 10 days! This property seems like it will require less. Contractor has already replaced the front door, fixed the sliding glass doors, removed a section of drywall that had mold behind it, and fixed the plumbing (the copper was stripped). We are deciding how much of a kitchen reno to do, and have to do the paint and carpet (as always!). Also need to replace the furnace and AC. Looking for a nice profit out of this one.
On the rental front, hubby reported that rent for 4.5 out of 7 properties is received for July! Planning to pick up one more payment tomorrow, and the second half from someone next Friday. FINALLY evicted the tenants who were months and months behind on the rent. That is now empty and clean. Hubby is confident he can have it rented by August 1st.
The first property hubby has renovated goes on the market on Monday. Quite a transformation (will try to upload pics tomorrow after it is fully cleaned). A lot more work that he originally anticipated, but we should still get a nice profit and certainly have the satisfaction of seeing the transformation before our very eyes!
Hubby has started work (well not personally, but the general contractor has started) on the new townhouse. Finally closed on that property a week ago. Working with the HUD was a major pain in the neck. We ended up closely a full two months after the original date, and the REALLY stupid part was that the listing indicated that they wanted to close in like 10 days! This property seems like it will require less. Contractor has already replaced the front door, fixed the sliding glass doors, removed a section of drywall that had mold behind it, and fixed the plumbing (the copper was stripped). We are deciding how much of a kitchen reno to do, and have to do the paint and carpet (as always!). Also need to replace the furnace and AC. Looking for a nice profit out of this one.
On the rental front, hubby reported that rent for 4.5 out of 7 properties is received for July! Planning to pick up one more payment tomorrow, and the second half from someone next Friday. FINALLY evicted the tenants who were months and months behind on the rent. That is now empty and clean. Hubby is confident he can have it rented by August 1st.
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