Long and short of my first rehab coments welcome

[Mark Hawthorne]

My First Rehab the long and Short of it

( feel free to just scroll down to the end !)

This house was my Girlfriends house and her son was living their during the first part of the rehab, so the going was very slow in the beginning ( I was trying to get him to buy the house ,but it didn’t work out with his job) after he moved I spent the next 3 mo. Doing the rest. For the most part I worked alone , I have all my own tools and equipment and my knowledge on fixing up a house isn’t bad , I worked on my uncles rent houses for years so I have more than basic experience in doing plumbing , electrical, Paint ,woodworking ETC.

The House
Located in Oklahoma city, Oklahoma
1538 sf.
Built in 1978
3 bed 2 bath
2 car garage
Brick
Cathedral living and master bed
Ranch
1 fireplace

First Look

This house looked pretty bad, totally outdated, nothing had been done in years and what was done was done poorly. The lot its self had problems also , it was on a hill so the driveway was steep, if their was an ice storm ,no way to get up it, the back yard was worse, on a hill so mowing was a pain, it had a row of shrubs that were out of control.
5’ high X 4†wide X 40’ long . this acted as a retaining wall and took up at least 800 sf of the back yard ( and looked like hell) stockade fence ? what stockade fence, we will call them sticks.

This is what I did over the 3 months

What was removed and replaced with

Removed the drop down ceiling in kitchen and installed canister lights.
Took out approximately 6 ft. of walls between the dining and living room.
All popcorn ceiling texture and did hand texture throughout .
Changed out both the front and back doors and replaced them with leaded glass and internal blind doors. All other hall way doors replaced with raised panel doors. All door handles ,pull handles and hinges on cabinets and storage replaced with brushed SS.
Changed out the old kitchen counter tops ( thay were green and white tile) with pre made granite look alike laminate , put in SS sink and faucet. Added crown molding to the top of kitchen cabinets and fireplace. Removed old floor tile ( dark green ) from kitchen, dining and utility room and put in 18†neutral color Tile. Took out all old carpet and replaced with new in a neutral color . ( off white with sprigs of darker in it) re stained the kitchen cabinets with “ Minwax†Polyblend all in one using Bombay Mahogany ( I love this stuff ,no sanding clean with mineral spirits, and paint on, 2 coats usually does it $12 total) this is a dark redish color with black in the grain look. Painted all other woodwork in bright white, painted all the interior and exterior of the house and put in a new stockade fence and removed all the over grown shrubs that were the retaining wall.
Both bathrooms put in real granite counter tops with under mount sinks and SS faucets.
Picked up a great deal ( paid $450 for all ) that’s the big stuff.

So hears the short

House again
Located in Oklahoma city , OK
1538 sf.
Built in 1978
3 bed 2 bath
2 car garage
Brick
Cathedral living and master bed
Ranch
1 fireplace

She owed $69,000
I did all the work and had all the tools .
Only big tool I bought was an airless paint sprayer ( $400)
And rented a “ pogo stick “ to remove tile ( say $100 )

Total out of pocket was $9,500

Sold in 9 days FSBO ( craigs list , spent $90 on newspaper add no one came, put signs all over some big and small, only 3 ever looked and the last 2 got into a bidding war , this house Is located in the middle of a one square mile area full of neighborhoods and at the end of a street.

By the Numbers

House is 1538sf

Owed on house $69.000 ( $44.86 psft.)
Spent on rehab $9,500 ($6.18 psft.)
Sold in 9 days $122.500 ( $79.65 psft.)
On the last 10 sales in area 1-18-08 thru 9-1-08
Highest psft. $80.59
Lowest psft. $52.21
Average $72.82 ( 10 sales )

What we ended up with was $114.00 ( $74.12)
After paying taxes , taking off $1000 for not finishing the retaining wall ,paying closing etc. we also had to pay mortgage and utilities over that 3 mo. For $2,700

So after taking $69,000 + $9,500 + 2,700 = $81,200
From $114,000 we end up with $ 32,800 in the bank. (minus 3 mo. Of me not fishing)

Where I lost money and saved money

I lost big time on being to much of a perfectionist, ( that’s just the way I am) I used better than builder grade on everything, doors had to open and close perfectly , better paint in a lot of places, redoing work over and over until it was up to my standard was the worst.
And doing more than was most likely needed to sell. But I was afraid of not getting top dollar and being able to sell quickly in this market, their were 10 or more houses up for sale around me all the time, most had been up for 3 to 4 mo.

I was not planning on removing the tile floor, but after removing the walls , we had a few extra tile but ended up being 3 tile short, this required removing all the tile floor and that I wasn’t planning on doing, so more time and money.

Where I saved was using habitat for humanity as much as possible, buying paint (5 gal $40 , paint brushes ($2 , rollers $1) etc, the paint by the way was Sherman Williams just relabeled. And using craigslist.org and using “big trash days†for getting rid of every thing.

Well I didn’t mean to write a book, but their it is , comment if you wish good or bad,

One last thing, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SITE!!!
I found this site just before starting to do this project, and haven’t had time to
Read until now, spent the last 12 hours reading and learning .

My main interest at this time is wholesaling , Im hoping with my latest experience it will help me in the future with estimating not only the expense but the time it takes to complete a job from start to finish.

Markus AKA Penetrater