Happy New Year!
I haven’t written much the past couple weeks, as I’ve been traveling and working on finishing up the book I’m writing (stay tuned!)…
I did want to provide a quick update on all the houses:
The WI-1 House has gotten a decent amount of showings, and a lot of interest. We currently have three potential buyers who are on the fence. The first is a single guy who just can’t pull the trigger on a house purchase; the second is a couple who aren’t quite pre-approved for enough of a mortgage and are trying to “figure things out”; and the third is a buyer who will be returning this weekend with their parents for a second look.
I’m hopeful that one of these buyers comes through with an offer, but regardless, with the amount of traffic and interest we’re getting, I’m sure an offer will come along sooner rather than later.
We’ve had three offers on The WTF House so far (both at or above list price), but neither of them worked out. The first was from a woman who was in the process of selling her own house, and she wanted a ridiculously long financing contingency. The second and third were from buyers who refused to use our mortgage broker and we weren’t comfortable with her ability to buy.
We’re still getting consistent traffic through the property and great feedback, so I’m confident we’ll get an offer to stick pretty soon. We’re just waiting…
The Rot House is still under contract to sell, and we’ve completed all inspections and appraisals. The file went to underwriting today and we should have a clear to close by next week, and a closing by mid-month.
House #39: The Rent-Back House
I didn’t realize it until just now, but I never mentioned the fact that we officially own The Rent-Back House. We purchased it back in November, and the sellers are staying in the house for 2 months (renting it back from us). They’ll be moving out on January 15, at which point we’ll start the rehab and look for a buyer. We’re not sure if we’ll do a full renovation and look for a retail buyer or if we’ll do a small renovation and sell to another investor — we’re going to play with the numbers and see how they shake out.
I’ll have more to say about this one (including some pictures) once the tenants/sellers move out in a couple weeks…
We listed The Power House for rent back in November, but haven’t gotten much interest. The price may be too high, and the time of year is certainly not optimal. We’ll be reducing the rental price this week and will also start doing some marketing. The goal is to have it rented by February 1.
We closed on the purchase of the WI-2 House before Christmas, and my architect has been working on the drawings for the past two weeks. We finally finished reviewing the drawings today, and will be filing for permits tomorrow. Turnaround for permit review in that city is 10 business days (2 weeks), so we’re expecting to get permits issued and start the rehab in mid-January.
That’s about it for now…back to writing the book… 🙂
So glad for an update. I’m betting on Buyer #3 for WI-1 House. I know kids have been getting help from their parents for down payments, loans and co-signing since …. forever. But something seems to have shifted for young adults that were middle class as children. So many simply can’t buy without parental help. Hope it works out. Happy New Year!
J, I would consider not lowering your rent yet. I have found that if I have a vacancy in later part of a year, it usually does not get filled until income tax refunds come out. People are a bit strapped around this time for year and often do not have the money for the deposit, to move, etc. Unless it got moved back with the Congress deal, the earliest people can file is January 22, so it may be a bit longer until it is filled regardless of price. Some food for thought anyway.
Excited for the book!
Thanks Kristine! Happy New Year to you and your family as well!
Thanks for the tip, Sean!
In general, I agree with you. But, for this property, I think we listed it a bit too high to begin with, so I doubt we’d get much interest at this price even in the spring. We’ll probably do a small drop in price to get it to where market rents are in this area, and then just wait, as you suggested…
Book! Can’t wait, will be happy to buy once you are finished with it.