Nasty Cat House BRRRRRR!

Ok, this is going to look a bit insane, and it probably is.  But it was so AWESOME.I can’t wait to find another disgusting house, renovate it, help preserve our town, teach the kids more about money, and increase our cash flow.  Thanks BP for helping provide so much knowledge!!

The Deal

Property Type: SFH, Built 1920s, 4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2100 SF

Purchase Price: $88,000

Total Renovation Price: $52,000

All-in: $140,000

Current Appraised Value: $215,000

Rent: $1,750/month

How did we find this?

This property was listed on Craig’s List.  It was offered by a Wholesaler who was looking for an all cash deal with a quick closing.

How did we finance this?

All cash from our savings and a lot of family sweat equity.  Now that we are all finished, we are looking to pull out our money and buy another.

The Renovation Story?

From the second I stepped into this house, I knew I wanted it.  The lighting was amazing, and it was one of those old homes with beautiful bones.  It was also the most revolting house I have ever set foot in.  To paint a picture, the house was most recently inhabited by a hoarder whom had left nearly everything for the next person to deal with.  They had also let their cats live in the house, unattended, for months.  The place reeked of cat urine and was packed with cobwebs.  The worst part was the litter box.  I am not kidding when I say it was stacked up with feces at least a foot high.

The house itself was beyond rough shape.  Clearly, the previous owners were not able to care for the house.  Leaks had been fixed with duct tape leading to entire beams needing replaced, electrical solutions were sketchy, and the kitchens and baths needed a complete gut job.  One of our friends joked that the downstairs half-bath looked like a movie scene for a horror film.

Oddly enough, even in this hot market no one had bought this property!

My husband and I are both engineers and are used to industrial construction scenes.  We’ve also fixed up our own homes along the way.  We felt fairly confident we could manage the rehab.  We did a great job estimating the repairs but really underestimated the time commitment as we wanted to do most of the work ourselves and teach our kids along the way.  Both of us work full time and have crazy jobs that put us on planes frequently.  650 hours stolen from weekends here and there and one year in we are done!  I can’t wait for the next project.

Here are some before photos.  Just imagine these with the stench of cut urine.  The third photo is one I took while my husband was demolishing the kitchen.  The water damage from the duct taped repairs were extensive.

And here are a few after photos!

What Did we Learn?

Tons!!  I would paint while listening to BP podcasts.  It was pretty awesome.  Our kids learned so much regarding the mechanics of a house and home repair skills.  My teen even earned himself a Boy Scout Merit Badge in Home Repair at summer camp so he could help us out even more when he got back!  Most importantly, our kids are really learning some solid business principles and some cash flow savviness.  We have gone from them not really understanding money to them earning pay, establishing their own Vanguard accounts, and budgeting for all of their own expenses.  Their growth has been phenomenal.  Did I mention they've profited over $150/month this year on their new E-bay business?  THANK YOU BP and BP MONEY!

We learned to keep a sense of humor through everything.  It can be quite humbling to go from working for a company with Global name recognition and an impressive sounding title (aka – everyone calls you back), to cold calling contractors and hoping they can make some time for you.  We also learned to not underestimate building relationships with the neighbors.  They were amazing, helping us with the landscaping and one even re-roofed our front porch!

Biggest Mistake?

We did not snake the sewage line out to the street.  Took it for granted that as we had used the bathrooms after renovation, everything was good.  Day 2 for the new tenant the sewage backed up into the basement.  As I type this, we are incurring a $9,000 repair to replace that line.  Ouch!  I guarantee we will never forget to inspect the sewer lines again :)