469 square feet of rental house Baltimore, MD

[M Marie M.]

This is a story with drama, drama I did not want. And I can't say what kind of ending it has as this rental property is still on the market and has not caught a renter. But (I know I should stop starting sentences with conjunctions, I skipped college English) there is a redeemed house that is back from the dead up to rejoin the living.

This story starts in 2015, October or November. A house on a street that I liked in a neighborhood I checked out in Baltimore came up for auction. I went to the auction, I did not win the auction, but that was okay. Because little did I know that same house would reappear at auction 3 months later, but 1/2 demolished. It seems the person who won the auction started to demo the property before closing. For some reason he did not close and thus the house came up for auction. In the sideways photos above, you can see the state the property was in.

So I went to that auction, and this time I won it. Stuff just got real.

First thing I did was insured it.

Then I hunted and found someone to do the title work. Auctioned properties seem to be funny things and not everyone does title for them.

Then I sat on my hands for a month, paid for the property with cash (money came from various sources, including savings), and then tried to clean up the property.

Then I gave up on cleaning it myself and looked to have someone else clean it. One guy wanted $2k to clean up this very small house. Then I found a company on Angie's List that did it for $500-600.

Then I had some minor work done. I had a plumber put in an interior water shut off valve. I had a roofing company investigate the roof and put a reflective coating on it. That all cost about $2K.

I looked at the property and I tried to reimagine the space. I drew drawings and had trouble seeing how things fit, so I hired an architect. I know I'm loosing money on this thing, but decided that this was going to be a learning experience. He cost $3K.

So it's about 5 months since winning the auction and I have drawings and a plan and I have to find a contractor. 

Tune in next time when I continue the story, with contractors.