All Forum Posts by: Michelle Hart

I've been really pleased with my Amica policies so far. I'm in Texas, so YMMV, but they're fantastic about walking you through various scenarios.

My 86-year old grandmother owns a home in which my uncle (her son) has been living for the past several years. Up until June of this year, she was living in the home, and paid the mortgage. 

In June, we realized she was not being properly cared for, and she moved to Austin to live with me. Uncle has remained in the home. Since she left, my grandmother has been contacted by the City about him illegally storing approx. 20 "junk cars" on the property, and we know he's running illegal poker games out of the back of her house. We suspect (but don't know for sure) that he also has a woman living there with him that my grandmother expressly told him was not welcome in her home.

Every month, he has an excuse as to why he can't/won't cover the $650 mortgage. To date, he hasn't paid a dime to live there, and the mortgage money has come out of my grandmother's very limited SSI check. As of this month, I'm covering the mortgage on her behalf. He refuses to move out of his own accord, and I have quite a bit of his detailed excuses for nonpayment in writing.

My grandmother is adamant that he needs to move out if he's not going to pay rent. We need the equity out of her home so she can afford assisted living. He's been a huge thorn in our side, threatening to file for guardianship over her and/or try to have her declared incapacitated if we don't let him stay in the house. 

I intend to use my POA to move forward with my grandmother's wishes to sell the house as soon as possible, whether to an investor who wants to flip it or someone else via MLS.

My understanding is that even though he doesn't have a lease and is refusing to pay rent, he has to be treated like an ordinary tenant when it comes to the eviction process.

My plan is to drive up there and tack a 3-Day Notice on the door listing the total amount of back rent owed. If he doesn't pay within 3 days, I'll file an eviction proceeding with the local court and follow the usual process.

Should that be enough to get him out?

Given the absence of a lease, should we also list the myriad legal violations and suspicion of an unauthorized tenant on the eviction petition?

Is there any leverage, law or guideline I'm missing that could help me remedy this situation and give my grandmother some peace of mind?

@Matt Gragg Your staging looks great! Very clean, nice but doesn't detract from the property itself. 

(And I love the vertical subway tile in the shower/bath!)

We didn't start off treating this as a flip. We actually purchased the house with the intention of renovating, doing an addition & moving in, but realized we really wanted more space than the addition would give us. So, we didn't approach it as investors in the beginning. (Our profit would have been higher if we did!)

@Saberian Younger

@Saberian Younger Zilker is one of my favorite Austin neighborhoods. I'd love to see some of your work! 

Bath/shower backsplash & half of the kitchen backsplash is Moderno Blanco, purchased at Home Depot. (Pretty spendy stuff.) Accent wall in the kitchen is a wood-look tile, also purchased at Home Depot. Hardwoods are hand scraped espresso birch, purchased from HardwoodBargains.com. Countertops are Silestone Nobel Gray. Fans & light fixtures were purchased from Wayfair.com using a designer discount. Appliances are all from Lowe's, bought during Black Friday.

Now that we're treating renovation as an investment, we're seeking better prices for materials and investor-friendly suppliers. Definitely open to suggestions!

Thanks, everyone!

@Ariam K. — The bulk of the rehab money was spent on the kitchen ($13K), bath ($5K) & outdoor space ($5K). We actually overspent on the kitchen due to an overzealous GC ripping us off on several items, but were able to recover that in other areas by managing trades directly to finish the job. To be honest, if we had allowed our GC to complete the job and/or had paid more for the property, we very well could have just broken even on this one.

Our GC definitely took advantage of this being our first renovation. For instance, I originally said we should replace the cabinets and pantry, and he convinced me that keeping the original cabinets and doing custom shaker doors and a custom island would be much more cost-effective. By the time the cabinet doors and "custom" island (which was actually just a set of 2 off-the-shelf lowers with a haphazard bookcase added) and all of the paint was done, we were close to $7K for the cabinets. The "custom" cabinets turned out to be far less functional than requested (like 5.5" wide cabinet openings for the trash & recycling drawer I asked for) and much of the work had to be redone. 

And then there was the day I showed up to see a brand-new roof being installed without my approval. We had discussed the potential of doing a roof, but agreed to wait until the renovations were finished to see where the budget was and if the roof was really necessary. So, the GC never produced an estimate or change order. But after I jumped down his throat after realizing no work had been done in almost 2 weeks, he decided to do something, I guess. Just not something he was supposed to do. 

Even after that, I chalked it up to miscommunication and decided it was best to just finish the project and not hire him again. We had a few more (less egregious) mishaps but then I returned from a trip to find out the "finished" work he had texted me photos of and invoiced me for were anything but. You could still see the wood grain on the cabinets that had been painted, tile was cut too short in the bathroom, newly hung doors wouldn't close properly, exterior door locks installed upside down, giant chunks of siding taken out during window installation and "repaired" really shoddily. I lost patience and fired him, hired a couple of highly recommended trade guys at a great rate, and were able to correct all of the shoddy work AND finish up the remaining items in less than 3 weeks.

We also realized after the fact that he was buying more materials than necessary and invoicing me for them, but we were never able to locate the extra materials after he was fired. We can only guess he returned the extra materials and pocketed the cash.

So, long story short, we had a lazy/sloppy GC who seemed like a nice guy and took advantage of the newbies. That plus the added carry costs for the time delays caused the cost increase. But, on the bright side, we bought the property right, we're in a high demand area, we learned some powerful lessons, and stand to make an excellent profit.

My husband and I just finished our first flip (which we stumbled into quite by accident), and we're thrilled with the results. We've loved this process so much that we're already under contract on our next project (another 3/1 ranch) and are looking forward to doing several more in 2017.

This flip is a 1957 3/1 ranch in the highly-sought-after Bouldin Creek neighborhood of Austin, TX.

We took the bathroom down to the studs, reworked the kitchen and living spaces to make them more practical, updated the entire house & spruced up the exterior.

• Marble quartz countertops in kitchen & laundry
• New handscraped espresso birch floors throughout
• Wood-look ceramic tile in bath & laundry (and as backsplash behind the range)
• New stainless steel appliances
• Remote control LED lights under kitchen cabinets
• Nest thermostat
• New windows
• New roof with architectural shingles
• New horizontal cedar fence
• New cedar deck
• New custom exterior shutters
• Generous setback from main road
• Xeriscaping provides added privacy & noise reduction
• Carport & enlarged parking pad for easy turnaround
• Prewired for Google Fiber

Renovations took right at 100 days and cost approximately $60K (versus the 45 days and $40K the original GC promised us, but that's another story for another time). We bootstrapped the purchase & renovations and bought furnishings & decor to stage the property ourselves.

Even with the delays and serious overcharging by the original GC, if we get our asking price ($479,900) within 90 days of listing, we stand to net over $100K.

These are some quick iPhone photos of the finished product. My husband will be taking more professional photos with his fancy cameras after the Christmas frenzy. Thoughts on the before/after appreciated!

Mike: 

I may be able to help. Sent you a PM.