I'm proud -- first rehab

[Jessica G.]

Tenants moved out of our first investment house in DFW, which we're selling for a few reasons. The left it dirty and battered. We wanted to turn it over as quickly as we could to reduce holding costs, yet we both have demanding full-time jobs (teacher and mortgage industry) and two little kids (5 and 2).

Despite that, we managed to turn the house over in eight days using our lunch breaks, afternoons, and one weekend to coordinate the project. We are exhausted, but I am so pleasantly surprised by how well we worked together on an intense, stressful project like this. I feel like it bodes well for our futures in RE investment.

Here's what the house looked like on May 1:

And here is what it looks like now, after granite, flooring, paint (walls, trim, ceilings, garage), appliances, light fixtures, and dozens of other small-to-medium fixes.

Edit: Hat tip to @jscott -- I had no idea what color to put on the walls, but I remember reading he uses SW Realist Beige in all his flips, so we used that, too.

[Jessica G.]

@George P.

I got the painters off AngiesList, and I got quotes from three granite guys who have storefronts in our neighborhood. I got several quotes for flooring from local businesses I Googled, but ended up finding the guys we used on Craigslist. They have a storefront across town from us.

When it came to a handyman, though, everyone was booked way out, and I really wanted the work done quickly. So I posted in "gigs" and in "skilled trade" that I was looking for a handyman TOMORROW, listed the scope of the work, and mentioned that I preferred someone bonded/insured. I listed my phone number and asked people to text me because I was at work.

Pretty soon, my phone rang, and it was a guy who hadn't seen the "text only" part of my postings. I talked to him quickly, noted he seemed very competent and experienced, and ended up asking him to meet me at the house that afternoon. I deleted the postings in an act of faith, because I couldn't have the phone ringing all day while I was trying to teach.

I showed him all the work, he told me how he would approach each task, and I was impressed enough to hire him. He worked much cheaper than the handymen I've used before via AngiesList, and he was much better at his job. We could have been horribly burned, but he ended up doing an AMAZING job. So we were lucky.