This house closed back a month and a half, however my family and I just got moved to NY so life has been hectic and I haven't had the chance to post up. On top of that, my laptop decided to crash and I lost al of my progress photos, and worst of all my spreadsheet. My numbers are going to have to be rough as I have no way to get back the detailed report I had on file.

The house was a 4/1.5 colonial in the town I spent some years in (5th grade through college). It's a very nice town and one I wasn't sure I would ever find a deal in. The house was listed for $175,000 when I found it. It had been for sale a while so I made a call. The agent had just been assigned the listing and said come take a look, no offers and the garage floor scares people.

Upon arriving the house was surrounded by fending front and back, tons of trees and you would barely know it was there. The neighbor next door also had a myriad of cars, vans and portable garages in his front yard that had me thinking it could be an issue when selling tilm came. I drove my wife by and her response after was "what neighbor house, I didn't even notice it". That bode well, I like to get opinions on things that stick out to me, but others would t notice or care.

The house was neglected but the bones were there, newer very nice boiler, and had tons of potential. The garage floor was heaved and broken and the rear foundation wall pushed out a good 2-3 inches. I sent my mason by (with permission of the realtor, as the garage door was broken and open) and he gave me a quote $25,000... with that included my numbers were coming in around $90-95,000 rehab. At the same time this happened the price was lowered to $165,000.

After some discussions I more or less determined I was stuck at $110,000. I have to hand it to the realtor, he was able to argue with the bank, submit the quote from the mason and I got the keys for $110,000. The ARV I was anticipating was $275,000.

As I began the project the first deviation from my plan was to change from a 4/1.5 to a 3/2.5. Losing a bedroom but gaining a 11x11 master bathroom seemed the right move. The dining to kitchen wasn't opened up, door to garage moved, new door to the deck added, renovated the other baths, coupled with all the other cosmetics and yard work.

All in all I ended up putting about $108,000 into the house.

I listed it for $319,900 anticipating it to sit, lower and sell around $300,000. Day one had 4 showings. I had 5-6 more scheduled and an open house in two days after. One of the day one showings wrote me a $320,000 offer but asked for a few items plus glass in the master shower. I countered at $323,000 to cover the glass, and they agreed to $320,000 no glass.

All went well, other than the appraisal. The appraiser (who I was not at due to running to NY) asked my wife to ask me over the phone to tell him the countertop materials in the bathrooms and how the house made hot water (umm... the boiler boils water...). In his report he noted it had a furnace (he seemed confused). The appraisal was $295,000... the buyer agreed to $310,000 and I accepted after we both did our homework.

The numbers roughly worked out to:

Buy: $110,000

Renovate: $108,000

Closing: $12,000

Sold: $310,000

Before tax profit: $80,000

So as you can see, it was a very good deal in the end. As with all of my houses, took longer than I'd like. During the renovation I finished another house (detailed in my last Success post) sold my personal home and moved (into the house in this thread for a month!).

Photos will follow. I only have what is left on my phone sadly.

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