Second Flip Journal Part V

Day 14: The week started with another deal. Homeclick.com and Wayfair.com have programs for real estate businesses (as long as you can provide documentation, for example your EIN number that you get when you register your LLC) to score major deals. Wayfair has significantly lower pricing for a business account than for the normal consumer. Homeclick not only has lower pricing, but it also provides a $50 discount and $100 coupon for taking a few additional steps when you register for your business account. So, how much did we save? We purchased a glass surround and base for the master bath shower, and with the two discounts and the business pricing we saved almost $250!! With respect to the house, the floor guys finished today. They only have to put on one more coat of polyurethane when everything else is finished with the house. As the floors were being finished, and PM was not able to be in the house, he made a few trips to HomeDepot to finish getting the tile for the baths. In the afternoon, he was supposed to meet with a roofer, who not only was a no show, but never called. This roofer is someone who was “highly recommended” from one of the forums for which I am a member. He has said on multiple occasions he was going to come out to the house. Just another lesson, that not all “highly recommended” people are good. Bad news is we now have to find another roofer.

Day 15: Checked in with PM today on his thoughts for achieving the deadline of February 29 (with first showing March 6) and we should be good! We also have been going back and forth about a stager. Our budget is pretty tight on this house, and the rooms are pretty well defined and it is easy to imagine furniture layout. What do you think? (Reminder: our selling price point is mid-high 400's). The price range we have received for staging is $3,500-4,500, and then approximately $600-$700 per month holding. Back to the house happenings. We selected the paint color; walls are Accessible Beige and the trim is Marshmallow (both by Sherwin Williams). PM finished removing all of the old cabinets. I listed the cabinets for sale on Craigslist with a disclaimer that they need to be gone by Friday (as we are running out of storage space). Another way to get some money back:) We also have a double wall oven and a stove top we are selling. PM went around the house and checked and nailed down all of the quarter round (which will be painted with the trim). He then met with the Electrician. You might be saying to yourself, wait what is this about an electrician??? Initially, we did not think we would need an electrician, but with some added changes (for example the full renovation of the kitchen) the laundry list of electrical updates needed grew. Finally, the appliances came today. Interesting story about the appliances. PM had to drive his truck down the driveway, and load the appliances on the back of his truck as the delivery truck could not get up the driveway. He then had to unload them again into the house. Thank goodness PM was there at the time of delivery!

Day 16: The Electrician came today to give a bid, and it was ridiculously high! This is the same Electrician who did our last flip, so we were shocked with the price. We prioritized the items we needed him to fix, and PM is going to cover the simple changing of fixtures. The painters continued and are doing a very good job. One challenging point for PM is the language barrier. While I speak Spanish, PM does not. With me not being able to be at the job, and no English speaking painter (as the boss of the painters is at another job), communication is proving to be difficult. I have yet to mention that every few days I do a budget check-in to see where we are. We are currently almost $6,000 over our renovation budget. A few things to note about this: 1) We originally had a reno budget that was $10,000 over what would make the numbers work, and were sure we could make concessions to bring the budget down, 2) We did not know they would take the refrigerator, the stove was not in good condition, we would need to replace all of the kitchen cabinets, and a few other minor fixes, and 3) we still have some areas where we can hopefully find savings. Lastly, I scheduled the open house for March 6th!

Day 17: Lets start today with the challenges we faced. First, one of the shelves in the garage broke. It was holding the tile, grout, and thin-set. Fortunately for us, the tile did not break. While speaking with PM about the backsplash, specifically the quantity needed, he realized he ordered the wrong size cabinet for one of the cabinets. However, the bright side is the correct cabinet will be ready tomorrow morning, but he needs to go to New Jersey to get it. Why is this good news? The granite template cannot occur without all of the cabinets installed, and as the new cabinet will be ready tomorrow the granite template can still occur according to schedule. This really has been an ongoing challenge, but we continue to struggle to find a roofer. We only have a few minor fixes that need to be completed, but we can not seem to find someone. I made about five calls to roofers yesterday, and I hoping at least one can work with us. I mentioned earlier that we looked for kitchen backsplash. I sent PM seven options I found. I also ordered three mini pendant lights for over the kitchen island. PM scheduled a HVAC tune-up for next week. The tile guys began tiling the main bath and laying out the master. And the painter continued to paint. Considering we have some nice weather coming up, PM called the painters' boss and confirmed they will be working outside on those days to get everything outside completed on time. Keep in mind this is Pennsylvania in February!

Day 18: “Call me asap”. Three words I never like to see when reading a text from PM. A million different ideas of what “Call me asap” could mean, from family related (remember PM is my Father) to house related. When I finally hear it is house related, I am relieved. I am sure this infuriates PM a little bit, as he is still concerned, but I am just happy it has nothing to do with my family. I mentioned yesterday that he was going today to the cabinet warehouse to pick up the one cabinet he ordered in the wrong size. When he got there, they gave him a box that said “White Shaker”. PM brings it to their attention that we did not order white shaker, and they happily exchange it. PM then followed-up with the original sales person to confirm that all of the other cabinets were the correct style. Guess what? They were not correct. A few hours later the company called to confirm the delivery for Monday afternoon (three day delay). As a result, this will hold up the granite by a few days, but we should still be ok for scheduling.

Day 19: More tiling and more painting today. PM did some work to prep for some of the subs. Still on the hunt for a roofer. And our Realtor went around the entire neighborhood and handed out our referral flyer. Our referral flyer includes a bonus for anyone who refers someone who ends up purchasing the home, and it also includes information about the Open House. Our Realtor also posted the “Coming Soon” sign. We hope this will build awareness of the upcoming listing.

Day 20: Today the weather was really nice, so the painters moved outside and began to power wash the exterior. PM laid the tile design out in the Master Bathroom. It looks very nice and should be memorable. We are in the final push! Keep your fingers crossed that in two weeks we will be receiving an offer!