First rental taking more $ to get ready than predicted

[Denise Mayo-Walley]

Hello All,

I am a new REI in the Houston area and I closed on my first property on June 26th. The sellers leased it back until August 8th and therefore I've had it for 2.5 weeks. My initial post giving the figures and asking for help analyzing the deal is here.  

I purchased the property after viewing it once, especially given the ridiculous number of offers, and I felt like I got a good deal. The rent to purchase price ratio is 1.22% which is good for Houston from what I see. Of course with all the furniture removed from the home I started to notice things I had not planned to fix in the home. My initial budget for repairs was $2500 - as I was planning for carpet, paint and elbow grease to clean the bathrooms.  Well 2.5 weeks later I looking at about $4000!  The two big ticket items were paint $1500 (1200 sq ft home with peeling paint on door frames and new paint needed for all interior doors) and $1100 for carpet ($0.85/sq ft @ Home Depot). Other things include changing a light fixture, installing GFCI outlets, new range, repairing a broken window, purchasing 2 new mini blinds, securing gutters and changing locks on the doors.

I say all of the above to ask whether this amount seems average for a 1200 sq. ft. home in decent condition though it was built in 1980.  To add to things, there are now more rentals on the market in the neighborhood with nice upgrades and asking for the rent I thought I could get. I presume that those properties were purchased as foreclosures or off-market.

Did I over do things for my first rental or did I not follow the ideal of 'money is made when you purchase the property?'

All comments are welcome!!!!!

Thank you!

[Denise Mayo-Walley]

Thank you @Joe Villeneuve  and @Christian Bors for your responses! I guess I was being hard on myself as usual. Perhaps I should celebrate actually taking the first step of buying my first investment property.

Thanks again!