Louisville, KY - 3/1 Buy and Hold in Shawnee

[Chuck B.]

I bought this as a buy and hold a month ago. It's located at 371 N. 41st Street, a great (quiet) little part of Shawnee in the far Northwest corner of Jefferson County. It was a HUD foreclosure so I had to wait out the owner-occupants first look period. Last day of that a contract was submitted (and broke my heart) but a few days later it came back on the market and I submitted a full price offer on their ask price ($35K) at that time.

I tend to fix up my buy and hold beyond what a lot of investors will do in these low income areas.  I'm very selective about the houses and the streets though and I'm very comfortable with what we've done here.  All told, I'll be $7K in when the last bits are done (tomorrow or Monday), so total purchase and rehab will have it at $42K. 

I listed it a couple of weeks ago (section 8 OK) and have a great couple signing a lease Tuesday for $850 monthly.  

It had hardwood in the main living area and they were in great shape.  I had them screened and two fresh coats of fresh poly laid down which will hopefully help keep them in good shape.  

The kitchen as in very good shape.  Since this photo was taken I've had a new hood vent installed and the back-splash behind the stove has been repainted.  Other than that, it just needed a good cleaning.  

Half the basement is this kinda/sorta finished room.  About half the floor was covered in ancient tile.  We scraped all of that up and put concrete paint down.  Now it's a bonus room for someone.  There's also a furnace room down here and a utility room with W/D hookups, a wash sink and a big stack of built-in shelves.  

This is the smallest bedroom and one of two on the first floor.  It needed some fresh paint and the carpets (dirty in this pic) were cleaned today and came out nicely.  

The upstairs bedroom.  This has also had the carpet cleaned since this picture was taken and the walls have been repainted.

We put in new towel bars and cleaned up the bathroom.  The tile and tub however have been previously painted (WTF!?!) so that's getting stripped today and the tub will end up being refinished and the tile simply cleaned of this paint and left in their natural state (avocado). 

House had a high efficiency furnace when it was purchased but the AC looks pretty dated.  We'll find out in the spring if it's OK.  I've had an alarm system put in, two new security/storm doors (old ones were missing), some new blinds, a couple of new light fixtures and I had most all of the plumbing gutted and replaced including a new hot water heater.   Plumbing was a big bite at $1,200 but that's a lot cheaper than retail for all new pex, new spigots and shutoffs and new water heater.  

If anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer them.   I'd love to see some more Louisville posts in this forum too (hint, hint!).  

Best,
 - Chuck