After all the craziness with The WTF House, I’m happy to report that as of this morning, it’s officially ours…
Demo is expected to start today, and we anticipate this project to take between 4 and 5 weeks. We’re planning to do a full cosmetic rehab, with some upgrades: granite in the kitchen, hardwoods throughout the main living areas, some reconfiguration of the kitchen, etc.
Here’s what our preliminary budget looks like:
My goal is to keep this one below $35,000, so hopefully we can find some savings here and there…
J Scott – congrats on finally getting this one! For landscaping, i noticed that you only budgetted $100, and it’s labor only. Is this yard in fair shape to begin with, or are you just going to work with what’s already there? I tend to spend at least a hundred bucks buying basic mulch/flowers for a small front yard…not to mention labor for the install…
Some interesting choices in there…
Kitchen cabinets look nice in the pictures, what’s driving the change for $2,500?
Curb appeal looked solid in the pictures, why the $2,500 repaint?
What’s the $2,500 for HVAC, just a place holder?
You don’t give years built on your homes that I’ve read but based on the style it seems newish to require exterior painting and major HVAC work…
Hey T,
We generally don’t do any planting of flowers, etc. Landscaping for us generally entails mowing the lawn and trimming the bushes. If necessary, we’ll do the heavy stuff (taking down trees, etc), but we almost never do any planting.
Hey Nathan,
The house was built in 1998.
At first I thought you were joking about the cabinets, but then I went back and looked at the pictures — they are MUCH worse than what the pictures appear to be. Rotten food caked on the insides and the sink cabinet is completely destroyed and rotted through. So bad that even my wife didn’t ask if we could save these (and she ALWAYS asks)…
We generally need to repaint all our houses as there is usually a decent amount of siding work that needs to be done. In this case, all the siding up the chimney is rotted, as well as 10-20 boards around the house and the stucco in the front is cracked and needs to be repaired. So, once the repairs are done, it’s easier to just repaint then to try to match the color and touch it up. Looking back at the pictures, I realize I only got a pic of the front (the stucco) and didn’t put up anything on the siding, which is in much worse shape than the stucco.
And the HVAC budget is a place-holder. While the condense is only 14 years old, the house doesn’t seem to get cool. I don’t know if it’s a bad condenser/coil or something much more simple, but I like to plan worst-case, and $2500 will get me a new condenser and coil.
Congrats on getting this done J. What is your projected profit?
Hey Cliff,
I don’t like to talk too much about projected profit prior to sale, but this one should come in above our average of $20K…
J Scott, how cool that you are tracking and sharing all of your numbers on each deal! Anyone sitting on the sidelines can watch you make it happen and hopefully jump in the circle soon!
Hi J. I have a question about your tub refinishing. I’m assuming the house has fiberglass tubs/surrounds. Is your $500 budget for resurfacing two baths? Have you resurfaced in previous rehabs? I had one done earlier this year for about $300 that looked great when finished. It had some holes from the shower door and needed repair, and I changed it from almond to white. I wonder though how long lasting the resurfacing is.
I have a new property where the AC does not appear to be cooling (built 1996) and I’m using the same $2500 place holder. But hoping for a cheaper fix.
Hey Kristine,
We’ve used our refinisher probably about a dozen times over the past couple years, and it’s a great solution when the tubs are in decent structural shape, but have stains that can’t be removed or small chips/gouges/etc. The $500 should cover the refinishing of 3 tubs and the polishing of 1 tub (it may be closer to $600 for everything now that I think about it).