Deal: Work In Progress Ugly House

As you saw from the original pictures the “Ugly House” certainly earned its name as it didn’t look like much of a house.  Let alone look like something someone would want to rent for $775 a month even if it was in a nice area of town surrounded by nicer homes.

The Front of the House: 

The first thing you should notice is we painted the outside a nice neutral two tone light brown and white.  In addition the white room that was on the right side of the house has been removed and replaced with a nice patio area.  We decided to fence it in as a value add feature to future tenants or owners.  They now have a nice and secure play area for little kids and a large front yard if they chose to use it.  I suppose the last thing to recognize is the boards are off the windows.
 


The Patio (Ex-White Room):

The white room is gone and replaced with a side patio that is fenced on both sides with access gates.  The left side of this picture is where the carport is and will allow easy access for moving groceries, etc.  The right side of the picture leads to the large or better yet very large front yard.  We decided to add a window to increase natural light in the house and to provide easy visibility to the patio area for parents to watch their kids if they choose to let them play there.



Carport, Fence and Rear Garage:

Every project has its own challenges and wrinkles that add costs and extend timelines and the Ugly House is no different.  First the good news; as you can see we added a brand new fence the entire length of the property.  In the original pictures the fence was falling over.  Next the carport that was built poorly and looked like it would fall over with a strong wind is gone. 

Now for the bad news, we originally planned to convert the rear structure into a garage by cutting in access and adding two swinging doors.  Unfortunately this was not an option after the city got inside the rear unit and started marking off all the issues and things that would need to be addressed to bring the unit up to code.  So we decided to just scrape the storage area and build a nice and secure carport.  The city is working with us and even provided plans for the structure (See initial frame in this picture).  I am very pleased that the city is working with us but the days seem to tick by so fast as we need to schedule signoff’s almost every day and we can’t move on to the next step until they see and check each item.  I get it and I am glad they do it but as an owner the delay does cost me a couple of weeks of rent.  

The Neighborhood:

We should only be another week away from completing all the city issues and the house already looks a lot better than it did several weeks ago (I Hope you Agree).  I am convinced that someday in the future we will stucco the house as it will better match the neighborhood. New paint is nice and all but it doesn’t match the area.  However, our plan is still the same finish the city issues first, get sign off and then move on to the other items like painting the inside, replacing a broken window, etc.  

I expect to have this project completed and the property rented inside of two weeks.  We actually have 3 applications already and we haven’t even allowed anyone inside yet.