First deal! Success and a great learning experience
Hi All,
I wanted to share my first flip story(I will try and keep it short) A success all in all and an even better learning experience.
I took a hiatus from the site while doing my flip just because I didn’t want to be influenced on anything. I wanted to take what I had learned, what I thought I knew and tackle it head on without second guessing myself.
So it started a little something like this. From April 2017-August 2017. We looked at probably 30 properties. Made offers on about 10 and were outbid every time. Like not even close, properties we’re going for 20-30k over ask. Which was a game I didn’t want to play. Come August I was about to hang it up and wait a little longer maybe even wait until the winter had passed to look again.
Then my realtor called and said a property had fell through for the original buyer (financing) and we should jump on it. So we did. I used a commercial portfolio loan coupled with my home equity for the improvements and repairs. It was on the market for 115k and we offered 120k. With comps in the 250’s and my initial budget of 40-50k. Offered was accepted and we were super excited to get going. We closed at the beginning of September and I thought if I lined everything up. I would have it back on the market by thanksgiving.......but yeah, not so much.
The first month went great. I Demo’d what needed it on the inside. Carpets, walls, ceilings etc . Ripped off 3 layers of siding and had it Replaced with vinyl siding. Then came the roof , 3 layers of old shingles on a mansard style house. This was my first hiccup. The roofer had given me a square price on the roof,but failed to realize that there were three layers underneath when looking at it. He also didn’t count his squares correctly, which led me to be short on shingles. Long story short with us bickering back and forth it cost me about another $1800 in the end. So I was off budget a month into it.
So with the outside looking pretty good. I still felt confident about how this was all going. Then came the inside. Kitchen was a nightmare and not functional at all. There was only one bath in the house and being a plumber by trade I knew I needed to add at least a half bath and make the kitchen functional. The full bath upstairs was a jack n Jill bath the was in the middle of two bedrooms. Also a nightmare , it had a claw foot tub with a poor layout.
Regardless I put a plan into place and re-worked them all. I will provide pictures if people want. So by now it’s about thanksgiving, although I fell behind I thought for sure I could make a good push and at least get it done for the first week of December........Hahahahaha . If that’s one thing I did wrong I under estimated the time this project would take.
My second hiccup was my painter/handyman that was great in the beginning. He was doing a lot of odds and ends for me. Painting patching, light carpentry ,doing things I didn’t necessarily want or know how to do. So it was working out nice and it was someone keeping the project moving , especially at 20/hr. Mind you I was still working a full time plumbing and heating job. Trying to work nights and weekends at the house and still see my wife and son on a regular basis. Most nights I’d be home after they went to bed and was out of the house before they woke up. So thanks to my wife for allowing me to do this!
So let me speed up to around January. I had noticed my handyman had not been showing up on a regular basis and when asking him for hours, they seemed to not be totally accurate. When I asked him about it he seemed pretty defensive. So with my budget dwindling and my dis trust of what was going on . We squared up and he stopped working at the house. I figured I would just wrap the rest of it up myself. Easier said than done, especially with no time as it is.
So with about 5k left I started to panic. I needed countertops still. Vanities and finish work for the bathrooms. Floors needed to be refinished, new deck out back.I had just replaced the heating and hot water system after finding out the hot air furnace was beyond repair (an unexpected expense). Though I wouldn’t have known what to do if I hadn’t been able to do the heating system myself. So about 3k I didn’t budget for.
I ended up borrowing 8k from my parents to get the rest of the house done. I was pretty reluctant in asking them. This was one thing I really wanted to accomplish myself without anyone’s help, but at the same time I knew I needed to push on and just get it done. My attitude changed towards the house for a few weeks. I wanted to sell it as is. It was starting to drain me. I felt like it was never going to end but I pushed forward. Changed my attitude and had it on the market for the first week in April.
So two weeks went by we had over 15 showings but no offers. All the comments were;Love the house hate the location . It Wasn’t an ideal location, and I knew that going into it. So when people say location is key I have to agree. I also know that it only takes one person to like it , so finally after we dropped the price from 245k to 235k. We got an offer 235k with 5k back at closing. We took it and now I just awaited the inspections. Hoping nothing in this 120 year old house would hold us up.
Very minor things in the inspections. Things I was happy to take care of. So from the neighbors with a grow room in the garage and rebel flags in the window- to them miraculously moving out, To the lien on the property I found out about 4 days before closing from someone I never even hired. I consider it a success . Trying at times, but with a lesson at every turn.
As of 5/26 we closed and the first flip is in the books! Was there a million things I could have done better? Absolutely, but it’s complete and I was happy with the process even with-the range of emotions.
Thanks for reading and if this can help someone get to their first one or get thru their first one then it will be well worth it!
Thanks
Jay