Diary of a $3,900 house ... wait, what? $3,900, yes that's right!

[Dawn Anastasi]

Okay, so this one is a little out there even for me!

What on earth could I possibly be talking about?  $3,900 for a real house, not a Barbie doll house right?  Where am I -- Detroit???  (See what I did there Josh, you know you were thinking it.)

No actually this is a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom single family house in my primary zip code.  It's a tax foreclosure, and it took a while to get in there because there was someone living there. They of course left a mess, but luckily it wasn't as bad of a mess as you'd think a $3,900 house would have.

Now, normally I'd never buy a 1-bedroom house and I think it being a 1-bedroom house may have deterred other investors away from it.  But my goal is to turn this 1-bedroom house into a 3-bedroom house!  

And just to be more ambitious, this is the list of everything I want to do:

- Clean all the junk and debris from the house and yard and demo the shed in back

- Replace the roof and fix the gutters/soffits

- Landscaping

- Replace all the windows with double-pane vinyl windows

- Replace all the floors in the house (ceramic tile for the kitchen/bath/laundry room, and vinyl plank for the living room and the upper level)

- Re-do the bathroom with new everything -- plumbing, tub, shower surround, floor, sink/faucet, toilet, mirror, accessories

- Re-do the kitchen with new cabinets, counter tops, and sink/faucet

- Paint the entire interior (white ceilings, beige for walls, white for trim)

- Replace all the light fixtures, outlets, and switches

- Replace the front and back doors and put in new locks

- Add smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors as required

- Finish off the upper level (that was begun by someone else)

I want my rehab budget to stay at or under $30,000 and I want to complete everything within 2 months from closing.  I would ideally like to rent this property out for at least $825/month.

I didn't do the best job on my last "deal diary" in terms of keeping it up to date, so I'm hoping I can stay on track with this one.

Step 1 - Make offer. Submitted today.

Step 2 - Get accepted offer. This also happened today!

Stay tuned for more as this story unravels!