A little help? 1st flip not selling!

[Matt Friesz]

I'm writing this to vent a little, because it's been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I know that the first one is usually the hardest! Here's my little saga...any help would be appreciated. 

I bought a 1923 wood framed home in West Tampa back in September 2020 from a wholesale real estate company. I've had contrator problems from the get go. The contractor who was at the house the day of the sale, told me that he could rehab the place for $50K. That was exactly the number that the wholesaler had put in the package. This particular contractor had been at three of the other homes I had looked at prior to this one, so we had talked, and I was feeling like he was a straight up guy. 

OK..There were two other investors at the property the morning of the walk through, and the house had six people (tenants) living in it. So we only had about a half hour to look at the house. One of the other investors at the showing had brought properties from this particular wholesaler in the past. He said that he wanted to buy the property. I had told my realtor that I wanted to buy it as well. So we stood in front of the house for a couple minutes and talked about the process when two investors want to buy the property. The other investor had decided before me that he wanted it. The realtors asked him if he had his "bank check" for the $10K down payment, and he said that all he brought was his personal checkbook. They told him that he knew it needed to be a certified bank check. Remember that he had bought homes from this company before. So the house was mine if I wanted it... I bought it! Looking back in hind site, this was a little fishy, but it's a thing of the past. 

The contractor said that they were just finishing a project and they would reach out to me the coming week to set the SOW up and go over the pay schedule. I heard nothing from them all week. I called, emailed, and text them late in the week...nothing. They finally responded on Saturday via email, saying they were busy, and they would contact me early the next week...nothing. I had called and left messages asking them to PLEASE respond to my messages. They finally sent me a half written SOW. I asked them to please complete the SOW with pricing so that I could keep track of the budget. This went on for almost three weeks. So I had asked some friends if they new any contractors, but everyone was already busy with rehabs, or didn't want to work in West Tampa because of the neighborhood, which is a little rough. 

So I reached out to a friend of mine who I had helped do some kitchen and bath remodels in the past, like ten years ago, and he agreed to help me out, but let me know that he only had a month and a half window, being that he had another project that he already had lined up. He said that he and his crew could complete the job in that time. 
He had told me that "we" should gut the whole house, redesign and reframe the interior. I'm a business owner (home inspector of all things) and having the busiest year ever last year, I was not able to get to the house and manage as often as I should've.  I said yes, if you think that would be best. Well...after opening up walls and floors, we saw that we were in way over our heads. The month and a half was up and he had to leave the project, only half of it was completed. I had to find someone else to help. By this time I've been at the house trying to keep the process moving day and night going into December. I finally found another friend to help out. We have worked our asses off to get this place ready for sale. Fast forward to today 2-21-2021... I've been under contract twice, the first fell through because of the neighborhood, the second because there was some termite eaten floor joist and a few other things that needed to be addressed. I just had $2K of work done underneath the house this weekend. So far I'm $38K over my original $49K rehab budget. I'm using hard money and I'm starting to feel the chokehold. My realtor is telling me that the longer this house sits on the market the less chance of selling it I have. My wife and I have been talking about when do we stop and put the place up for rent. 

Like I said in the begining of my story, any help would be appreciated. 

Thanks, Matt