This is the story of my latest project, a base hit of a deal. It all started with an overheard conversation at the office. Two rows over, a woman was venting about their tenants. I promptly introduced myself as someone who understood her situation and may be able to solve her problem, as I am a part time real estate investor. The reception was warm but the deal went cold for a few months, while she waited for the tenant to get their act together and assume the loan. I would occasionally pop over to bring up the conversation and offer some landlording tips. In October 2015 we signed a contract for the amount of the loan, $139k.

A home with one parking spot housing five trucks and two motorcycles. Two actually ran, all leaked oil.

I inherited a problem tenant, which I realized when the rent for month #2 didn't show up. I started the painful eviction process always offering a way out given that they wanted to stay. In the end I got possession mid-January and lost 2/3 of a month's rent and had to eat the cost of a few un-repaired items. Remarkably the place was not trashed, he even mowed and trimmed the bushes, thanks!

I went into rehab mode immediately with a 10K budget. Here's how it looked before:

Not terrible, but not good. There was evidence of heavy insect and rodent activity, and I could see why. There were holes and openings everywhere!

I'm not sure what is going on here, but I found this in the unconditioned laundry area. The living room is on the other side.

An industrial sized Corn Flakes box covering a 12" hole in the ceiling since 2011.

Kitchen demo revealed huge openings behind the cabinets where the critters had been living.

The highway to heaven. multiple openings into the crawl space.

The electrical needed some serious help. The original '59 Federal Pacific breaker panel was still there, but not doing much other than looking, well ugly.

An old glass fuse box. Dare you to pull it.

Zap!

The rest of the house was a little beat up, but still serviceable with some touchups.

These two trees had grown up from nothing over the last decade. The Ear tree has what you call "snap wood," because that's the sound you hear before the branch comes though your roof. They had to go.

See that big dead branch just hanging over the roof?

Here's the final product:

I didn't really mention there's a spring fed lake in the back. It was just too nice to put in the before pictures.

Here are the repair numbers. I should add in the appliances cost since I bartered for them.

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Conway, FL Rehab

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