I officially signed the contract for House #1 (“The Corn House”) on Saturday. And as promised, here are some more details:
* First, some pictures of the new property. The basement pictures aren’t in here yet, but since I’ll likely be finishing the basement, I’ll upload those when I get a chance. If you take a look at some of the pictures of the back/side yard, you’ll notice these very tall (~15 ft) stalks that look like corn. They’re all over the back yard, and I have no idea what it is (it’s not corn, and it’s not bamboo). Whatever it is, because of it, I will now officially refer to this house as the Corn House forever more.
* I’ve been going back and forth about whether to rent or try to sell this house. While I think either exit strategy would work, I’m leaning towards reselling for a couple reasons. First, this is the first property I’ve purchased, and there would be a get feeling of satisfaction if I could take the whole thing from beginning to end quickly, and actually make my first profit from this business. Additionally, I really want to get to know some of my contractors (as I’ll need them for bigger things later), so having them do a full rehab would allow me to better judge their skills, their ability to hit schedules, etc. Lastly, the comps indicate that — despite the tremendous slow-down in the real estate market in Atlanta — this neighborhood has been fairly strong at keeping values and getting houses sold. While trying to resell is certainly a risk (I don’t deny that!), it may be my chosen exit strategy on this house. Of course, if I can’t sell, I can always rent; it would cost me $$$ out of my pocket for a while (since the rehab costs are higher), but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
* I’m starting to put some processes in place to make future acquisitions and rehabs easier and more efficient. I’ve created a “Scope of Work” template that I am using to define all the work I want done on the house, and will be using that to convey my rehab plan to my contractors. And I’ve started putting together a master materials list with products, SKU numbers and prices, so I’ll be able to quickly estimate materials costs on future projects and will be able to quickly put together a materials purchase order (or give the purchase order to my contractors for them to do the purchasing).
More updates tomorrow…
Hi J. Great Blog. I see the house was listed (Coldwell sign in yard). A question about your wholesaler. Did he double close, or did he assign the contract. Didn’t think agents would be cool with “and/or assigns” on the contract. Thanks in advance for the answer and the info.
Hi Ron –
I believe on this one we did a double close, but his closing attorney allowed my funds to be used to close his part of the purchase (sometimes called a “wet closing”). These aren’t typically allowed anymore by most closing agents (title insurers don’t like it).