All Forum Posts by: Jessica S.

I like the built-in, although it is a little odd. Do you think it had cabinet doors originally? I'm going to take back my suggestion to strip and refinish. It would look awesome but it's a huge pain. I always forget how bad it is until I'm halfway through and cursing myself for starting another crazy project. Instead, paint it trim color and call it good.

My experience is that nothing about fireplaces and chimneys is cheap. I was kind of teasing you about that : )

BTW, do you have a chimney and did you have it inspected? Make sure you do so you don't have any nasty surprises during closing.

I know what you mean about over-improving, it's been a problem for me. (You should see the last rental we did, it's nicer than our own house.)

A realtor said something to me that's been really helpful with this. He said that there are improvements, such as a new bathroom, that will increase the selling price. There are also improvements, such as new flooring, that won't increase the price but they will help you sell faster. It's important to remember this distinction and let it guide your choices.

Here's something a little different:

I love hundred year old kitchens but they're not very functional. This kitchen is from a craftsman bungalow with original everything. It had beautiful built-ins that I wanted to keep but the sink area was a disaster:

It did have a cool vintage backsplash which we salvaged.

We built this so it would match the rest of the kitchen and also accommodate some modern conveniences

These built-ins are the reason I didn't want to gut the kitchen:

My favorite thing about this kitchen is the mint green vintage stove. I rescued it from a house around the corner that was being flipped. The contractor was just happy to be rid of it. Later I found out that these stoves are quite sought after and it's probably worth about a thousand bucks.

Hi Alexander,

I am new to Bigger Pockets but not to real estate. I'm pretty sure that there is no way for you, or anyone probably, to know if that is a good deal just by looking at a Craiglist ad.

I read your other post and know that you are new to wholesaling. Have you made connections with investors or anyone who might be interested in buying this property? If you have, that's a great first step. If not, I hope you will think very carefully before trying to put this under contract. If you tie it up and then are unable to find a buyer you could make life difficult for the seller. I know you're eager to get started but you don't want to cause harm in the process, do you?

Thank you!

Sometimes I get chills now when I walk into the house, remembering what it used to look like. It's really a great feeling.

Matt, I met you at the meet up! My husband and I were sitting at the table with you for the first part of the evening.

To answer your questions: the house is in Concordia. The location is really nice and the house is quite typical for the neighborhood. I had total beginner's luck acquiring it. I saw an ad on Craigslist, no pictures, gave the guy a call and ended up with a deal. It was only the second house we looked at. I kind of doubt that will ever happen again.

We started work in May but didn't really get geared up until June. Then we worked straight through until the beginning of October, so about four months. We don't have day jobs, we were both working on this project full-time.

I kept a really close eye on spending because I've learned the hard way what happens otherwise. We were right on budget until the last month which is when I started to get nervous about our timing. I'd hoped we would finish in September but it just wasn't going to happen. I didn't want to miss the selling season so I started bringing in extra labor so we could finish faster which took us way over budget. I'm still not sure I made the right decision but it seems to have worked out fine.

Wow, what an amazing house! Your project looks both super-fun and super-frustrating.

Would you be sacrificing a bedroom in order to enlarge the master? If so, I would think carefully before making that decision. In my area, a 4/2 will almost always sell for more than a 3/2 even if sq. footage is similar.

It sounds as if you're working hard to maintain the period feel of the house, nice work. I'm glad you're going to keep that clawfoot. I just hope you have some really strong friends to help you carry it up the stairs! Did you decide what to do with that built-in in the dining room? Can you strip it and refinish? I'd suggest posting a closer picture if you want more input.

Were you able to find a cheap solution to get the fireplace working again?

What made you decide to drop the ceilings in the kitchen?

If you get this whole project done for 45k, I'm going to be very impressed!

Thanks so much for your help!

@Dave Grosse, thanks for your kind words. I was concerned about using my real name because I wouldn't want our buyers to google me and find a post in which I talk about being a first-time flipper. Seems far fetched, but not impossible. I know I googled them when they put their offer in : )

EEK! This is my first post and I didn't realize it would come up showing my full name. We are still in closing and haven't even finalized this deal yet. Can some kind soul please delete this for me, or tell me how to delete it myself?

Sorry!!

After successfully rehabbing two high-end SFR rentals, my husband and I decided to do our first flip this summer. We weren't really sure we wanted to do it because we'd put ourselves under a lot of stress on the first two projects. However, when a perfect little fixer in a great neighborhood showed up on a FSBO ad on Craigslist, I forgot about our hesitation and snatched it up.

We bought the property for $255k and originally planned to spend about $30k for an ARV of $310 - $320k. After consulting with a real estate agent who works with a big rehabber in town we decided to increase the scope of work. Once we decided to finish out part of the basement to create a new family room and second bathroom our rehab budget jumped up to $45k with an ARV of $350k.

In the end, we went over budget, and past our self-imposed deadline (we always do, it's really frustrating.) but we also ended up selling for $360k.

Here are a few pictures of what we did:

Here's the exterior before:

And here's the exterior after:

Here's the basement before:

We turned it into a family room:

We had a lot of space to work with in the basement. Here's where we put the new bathroom:

And here's how it turned out. Pretty nice, don't you think?

And here is my favorite before and after, the kitchen:

Before:

And after:

We learned so much stuff on this project. We learned that kitchen soffits will usually have a bunch of stuff in them that you'll have to deal with (rookie mistake!) We learned that good tile guys are really expensive, but they're worth it because good tile work is like an art form. But most of all we learned that it's usually not a good idea to try and reinvent the wheel. We ran into problems when we (meaning I!) decided to ignore the conventional order of work. There's a reason for the "floors last" rule, isn't there? If you ignore it as we did, maybe the newly finished floors will get messed up during painting and you'll find yourself refinishing them for a second time (sigh...)

I'm happy to answer any questions on this. Oh, and if you need tile work done in the Portland area, I've got a guy : )