My First flip... High $$ in my home town. Follow along

[Carson Wilcox]

Well, After almost a year of looking, getting $ lined up, networking, reading BP and basically freaking out... My wife and I have taken the plunge, we sign tomorrow and close monday on a flip in my home town... 

I live in NorCal.. very $$$ area where people pay stupid prices seemingly way out of line with reality. It has taken me looking at probably a dozen MLS and pocket listings to find one that would pencil. Basically everything on BP turned out to be true. Dont force it. Find the right house, with the right seller, at the right spot... and GO.

This house was listed in July for $850,000.  Built in 1972 in good shape overall.  90's kitchen remodel, but otherwise original.

https://www.openlistings.com/p/517-cleveland-ct-davis-ca-95616 Lots of pics and data there..

I went and looked at it when they dropped it to $650k, a 200k drop in 45 days... I was thinking wow, this house is gonna be TRASHED.. bad foundation, mold, termites, SOMETHING that is causing people to walk away.

Turns out no... nothing wrong with it.  Just a garbage realtor.  No staging, no paint, nothing but a little new sod was done to the house.  Still crap all over the yard, crap in the garage, crap in the driveway.  I offered on it at $620 just to get in under contract.  they countered 630, I countered 625.

2 weeks of inspections, and I knew that with holding costs...(likely have to wait until spring to sell it) and the rehab it would need, I couldnt pay $625 and be safe.  

I am borrowing 100% and the rehab between my heloc and conventional financing on the house.  I had my contractor write me up a $30k deferred maintenance bid, dripping P traps, the small amount of termites, all the usual dry rot for a 45 year old house etc.. and countered them down $50k to $575.  thinking they would come back at me and I would have a decision to make.  And to my shock... THEY TOOK IT.  

I have a contractor I am working with I need to tighten up his bid a bit... we will be at about $70k for full baths and kitchen and flooring and paint interior exterior... new lighting, hardware.... and one structural change to un ink the living room....  I will update this thread as I go!

[Carson Wilcox]

Kitchen!  We are very proud of this transformation!  The only real change was taking a foot or so OFF the end of that peninsula, it allowed better flow.  Shaker style cabinets that DW picked out....

another view of the kitchen... this home has lots of great light, so we wanted nice light colors!

and the front!  This house sits on a corner.. culdesac to the left as you look at it... but busier street on the right.  They were smart in that they put the driveway deep in the culdesac, and the entry on that side as well... but the landscaping and curb appeal was GONE.  We pulled everything out of the front and side front except the larger foundation plants, landscape fabriced it, dripped it, and planted some california natives...  Front door got painted and two nice pots with citrus in them sit on the stoop.  We knew the curb appeal was going to be huge, as this house is unique... so to get people to get past the wierd (for this area) modern flat roof design... it had to look clean and presentable!

the family room off the kitchen. not much change here... updated the cans, flooring, and redid the fireplace.  fireplace is just MDF and trim from my GC, and tile over the existing hearth.

My wife has gone nuts with the pictures... totally spamming our facebook... but we hope to get action on it fast!