All Forum Posts by: Kel S

Welcome Mike!

I think you'll really enjoy it here on BP. There is a ton of info and for a fellow "newbie" like myself, I'm sure there is a lot you'll soak up like a sponge.

Look forward to hearing about your first deal when you take the plunge.

Wasn't sure where to post this but I had to share with you all. Don't you just love good deals? The SFH that we are working on needed a stove and refridgerator. My husband went golfing the other day with a friend from high school. He happened to mention the house and the guy told him he had a stove in his storage unit he'd sell for $25 if we wanted it. So we got it and it's a really nice stove. He delivered it with his truck.

Anyway, so then he said his brother had a side by side (yeah, unfortunately it has the water/icemaker) fridge that he was selling if we wanted that. So we picked that up for $50. It too is in nice shape. The brother delivered it and put the doors back on, etc., So for $75 bucks we got both appliances taken care of. WOO HOO! I was tickled :mrgreen: Saved me a lot of time looking for them on Craigslist and the hassle of finding a way to transporting if the sellers wouldn't deliver. Classic example of the power of word of mouth.

Jon,

I say impractical because not sure the difficulty. Our tub at our home is a one peice bath/shower surround combo. The jetted tub at the rental is the tub and then has 4 inch grouted tiles as the surround. So actually I don't think we could just swap ours for that one. Plus in the rental it has a big glass block window (see picture). So we'd have to replace the tub instead of swapping.

Scott,

I think I'll look into that because an addendum regarding the tub sounds like the best way to go should it break.

I know nothing about these type of tubs that have the jets in them...except that I want one :mrgreen:

Anyway, the REO we recently purchased has one of these tubs. Replacing it with a regular tub probably isn't practical. However, I would like to see if any of you have experience (personal or otherwise) with these type of bathtubs? What kind of problems can they have if any as far as maintaining them. And because the tub is already in the home, will we be required by law to fix it should say the jets stop working or something?

I wish I could swap it out with mine but again that's not practical.

Wow, really great info. Thanks guys. I figured not going with a W/D would be the best route. I learned something new though and that is regarding the ceiling fans. One of the bedrooms has one and one they took the fixture or fan out of. I was telling my husband we'll need to get another fan. Instead, now though I think I'll talk to him about NOT getting one for that second bedroom and in fact removing the one from the other bedroom as well and just putting in a light fixture instead. Very good point on those.

Those of you with rental houses, do you put in a W/D? Or do you just list them as washer and dryer hookups? I remember way back when I rented I didn't have my own washer or dryer. Do tenants these days bring their own? Or should we buy a set (used probably) and provide those? Would having them make it more rentable or appealing to prospective tenants?

Part of me doesn't want to provide them because that would be more maintenance should they break. Then the other part is wondering do tenants tote W/D to each place they rent?

30k cash including closing cost. The bank was asking $39,900.

We estimate no more (hopefully) than 3k in repairs since we will do the bulk of the repairs ourselves like installing the kitchen cabinets/counters.

Rents in that area for this size home run around $575 - $650. So we'll try somewhere in the middle of that.

This was the house that a lot of the guys here didn't think was such a good deal as far as the numbers. Unfortunately though the great deals that are priced in the 15k-20k range need an enormous amount of work. We did bid on one that is in this same school district, they had just lowered it several times from $29k, to 19k down finally to $14,900. But that one needed a huge amount of work and they ended up with multiple offers and didn't accept ours. Not that we won't stop looking for those awesome deals though (:

The story on this house was I saw it on the Fannie Mae site. It was listed as pending. I didn't see it on the MLS however or on any of the local real estate sites. I took a chance and called my realtor about it and she checked and even though it said pending it literally just became available again. What happened was someone put in an offer but they ended up unable to get financing. So we found it before it went back on the MLS.

In any case, buy, hold and rent is our long term goal. And hopefully by retirement time we'll see a return on the investments and more positive return.

Thanks guys,

The plan is to rent it.

We closed on it yesterday! It's a 2b/1b. It's a cute home I think. As you can see the kitchen was
gutted so we have to put new cabinets
and counters in. Also fridge/stove.
One thing we discovered today was the
central air actually WORKS! It did have
a burst pipe, so the plumber is fixing that.
It's one of the main pipes and not all of them
thankfully. Hubby went over and cleaned the
gutters and raked the rest of the leaves up.
Changed the locks and vaccummed. The
bedrooms and hallway carpet is like brand
new, so I'm happy about that. The living room
we'll steam clean. Probably will only paint the
living room. The bedrooms are fine though might
need to buy some touchup paint once we take
out some screws from the wall as they had a
mirror in there.

One car garage. In the back of garage there is a
workshop area with cupboards and shelves. It has
automatic door opener.
Though we have to get a new
button thingy for it.

Side deck leading to the side door and backyard.

Backyard.

Bathroom...actually bigger than it looks. Also it has a jet tub! I don't even have a jetted tub...
what the heck?! LOL! I wanna go take a bath over
there before we rent it :mrgreen:

One of the bedrooms. Sort of a deep purple-ish carpet.
It's actually sort of pretty and although you see debris
on the floor in this picture...it vaccuumed up and is
like brand new.

Kitchen...have to start looking into where to get cabinets.

Living room.

Utility/laundry room (this is what you see when you walk in through the side door).

I totally appologize about that. My husband had a copy of it on his computer but now thinks he deleted it...DOH! But he has a hard copy. However, looking at it, it's going to take me awhile to retype this thing. It's long. When I get some time to do it I'll post it for you guys.