All Forum Posts by: Brenda B.

A service animal can only be a dog or a small horse (no joke.) And a service animal is NOT an emotional support pet. Emotional support pets are pets- people print up paperwork from the internet so their landlord will allow them to have a pet- they expect their untrained pet to be treated as a service animal, which is a slap in the face to those hard working, trained animals and to the people who train them. Service animals literally save lives and allow their owner to live more independently. An emotional support pet allows their owner to break laws and rules- it's not fair.  Ask your attorney about the laws in your state but hopefully this ridiculous emotional support pet scamming (IMO) will be put to a stop. 

Hi BP crowd- we just closed on a house through Auction.com-first of all, that process was seamless and fairly quick. We're not sure about our plans for the house- I'm going to live there during reno- we live in aspen and I'm sick of the long winters & short summers. I work remotely and my job allows me to live in one of four counties in CO. We took a HELOC out and my plan is to fix this up and refinance with mortgage to pay back HELOC. We have about $10k for reno, which doesn't seem like much at this point! We didn't get the house inspected, we spoke with neighbors who knew previous owners and the house had also been winterized and gas/electric on all winter. It's a 1700 sq ft modular on a foundation, has a crawl space- it sits on 3/4 of an acre in a small subdivision of seven homes. (Yard irrigation is free through the town.) It has a huge garage, size of a four car garage with opener and large window, also nice big storage shed. Fenced yard with dog run and kennel area. The wife died in 2012 & the widower lived there until fall of 2016, then his children moved him back to MO. The house is dirty, carpet stained from dogs but no pee smell just old & dirty. Appliances work but are 15 yr old white so they're gone. It has a giant master bedroom and huge master bath-modular's have good floor plans! On other side of house there are two additional bedrooms and full bath. There's a picture window off of dining room which I hope to change to doors that lead to a deck- the views are beautiful and there's a large back yard. I also want to do a deck off the front of the house to dress it up. As you walk in thru the front door there is a wall that separates the kitchen and living room- it has those cut outs in it for an old style TV- I'd like to put a gas fireplace there. I think the kitchen cupboards are fine but maybe I paint them white? Definitely new stainless appliances and new flooring throughout. We already have 1000 sq ft vinyl plank flooring-a man bought too much and sold $2100 worth for $600 to get it out of his garage. The tubs and showers are cheap plastic or fiberglass- I think they need to be replaced, along with all of the bathroom fixtures- I'm hoping to keep the vanities, which match the kitchen but put a new top on them. I've been seeing that travertine flooring is good for bathrooms? I also need to replace the window screens-my husband says I should do this myself and I say no way. Need new front/back doors and many of the interior doors are missing. For the outside I'm thinking stucco and fake (nice) rock on the front and hopefully just replacing the bad portions of siding rather than redoing it all. We're crawling under the house today because there's rust and plastic down there- it may just be from the leaky hot water heater or??? Cross your fingers. Here are some pictures- any other ideas/thoughts?

here is the link to that house- it's much worse than I remember! No offense, but I'm planning on a different type of rehab! http://www.heidenhomes.com/idx/mls-684151-648_minter_avenue_de_beque_co_81630

@Account Closed Thanks for your comments and example on cookie cutter flips. That house looks like EVERY OTHER HOUSE. It's interesting how they staged the house but then the bedroom, one of the most important rooms, has ratty comforts flopped on the bed. I think they should've spent time on landscaping to dress up that beat up yard- that would have really made a difference. I get offended when someone (not so much in this example) takes a nice old house and rather than bring out some of it's original features they cover them up with flooring or paint or gross vinyl siding. There was a 100 yr old house in De Beque, CO that had beautiful stone on the outside- a rehab co bought it for $35k, slapped paint, vinyl siding, flooring, new appliances and tore down the old garage that was in the driveway- & sold it three months later for $120k. I'm still appalled that they covered up the front with ugly beige vinyl siding. 

Beautiful! What a difference! I appreciate that you left the kitchen cupboards- many people would have replaced doors or painted etc but they look fine and you saved some time and money. 

I just listened to a BP podcast on adding a 3rd bedroom to a 2 Bd property because in many markets it's all about 3/2. I think it depends on your market and the neighborhood- but my first instinct is to tell you to invest in flooring that will last, landscape so there's not a lot of upkeep and not add the fourth room. If you were going to continue having several roommates who are paying rent on each room then add the fourth but if you plan on renting to a family, a fourth room will ensure more people live in the house and cause that much more wear and tear. 

I am in your same boat- we bought a house on auction.com without knowing the full extent of what we were getting into. We closed yesterday- the house is 90 miles from where we live (Aspen-so buying closer is not an option yet.) I went there to have the water turned back on and started getting caught up in what the preferred order of operations should be. I finally stopped wasting time and just started cleaning. As I'm moving through the house cleaning everything, I'm better able to notice what needs to be removed/replaced, and every other little defect. I can't do much until my sons arrive in a couple of weeks to do the big renovations but arbitration least I didn't get stalled due to being overwhelmed. Good luck and we will both learn BIG lessons with our first projects and do better the next time! 

Wow, @dave 

@Dave Foster, I too will change my terminology- we just bought a house and we aren't sure of our intent- I may live in it since it's about 90 min away-(we live in Aspen & I'm way over the long winters & short summers,) we've discussed eventually renting it out or having my son live in it. So until we figure it out I will NOT be using that term! Thank you! 

We just started our first rehab and we will definitely stage when it's time to sell but I would never pay someone to do it- Someone on another thread suggested downloading the Pinterest app and the Houzz app for rehab ideas but both are also useful for ideas on how to stage. I'm slowly acquiring furniture and decorative items from garage sales, our local thrift shop, Craigslist, the classifieds and Restore/Habitat for Humanity store that sells donated appliances, floor covering, furniture, windows, doors etc. I live in Aspen, CO so the selection of used items is likely better than some places, but there's probably nice used items to be found wherever. 

We started our first flip yesterday and we'll have @J Scott's two rehab books worn out by the time we're done!