All Forum Posts by: Matt Taschner

Thank you for all of the feedback everyone.  It has really helped clear things up for me.  Many different points of view and a wealth of information. 

Thanks @Joel Owens , the cabinets are not a real high quality, but they look like they have been take care of over the years.  Staining a different color may work also.  Thanks for the feedback

That seems like a great way to have it set up @Steve Olafson , It is definitely something I may have to consider going forward.

@David Friedman , the decision between 2 people is much harder I would have to agree.  Moving forward I plan on getting things laid out the way we will deal with these types of  situations before we get to this point. Thank you for the feedback.

Yes @Dawn Anastasi , I think in this case, with the comps considered, that white is the way to go.  I will have to come up with a sold comp list and also houses that are currently on the market that are outdated and use the facts to help with this one.  Thank you for your feedback.

Thanks @Kerry Smith , I would have to agree and I do think updating is what the customer would want.  I think if we left them the way they are the customer would view it as something they would have to change and may deter them from going with our property.  Thanks for the feedback.

Hello @Jean Bolger , Yes, we do use a listing agent.  I think that is a great idea to use a third party as a tie breaker.  I think I will definitely bring that up as they would have the best insight and possibly go through their brokerage to ask other agents opinions as well.  Thanks for the reply.

J. Martin

Thanks for the response.  We did not have this in the contract.  This one will be a flip,  I should have clarified.  Recently we  flipped another house in the neighborhood which we had to replace the cabinets because the were in rough shape.  We agreed on that one to go white and it turned out great with the rest of the color scheme.  As far as the other houses in the neighborhood some have been updated, but the ones that have sat on the market are definitely outdated.  I think that by making this stand out we should be one step ahead of the rest without pricing us out of the area.  Thanks for the insight and oddly enough it may come down to that coin flip.  LOL.  

@J. Martin 

Hello everyone,  I'm looking for some feedback regarding deciding what to do with cosmetic changes.  My partner and I recently purchased our 3rd investment property, a 4br 2br that needs some cosmetic repairs.  It was built in 1994 and as you can imagine the trim, doors, and cabinets are the older golden oak finish.  I feel like we could salvage the cabinets by refinishing them white as they are in good shape, paint the trim and replace the doors.  My partners view on this one is that because the cabinets are in such good shape to leave them and just replace the counter tops.  I am not a huge fan of the golden oak look and I feel like our buyers will feel the same.  He thinks the house would not benefit by changing it to white.  My question is have any of you had similar conflicts when dealing with partnerships or what would you do in this situation?  Thanks in advance.

Yes, I was definitely nervous thinking that it would take a long time to see a response. To my surprise it only took them 4 days to approve the offer. The original list price was $197,000. We came in initially at $145,000 which they had rejected. We made a 2nd offer 2 days later at $150,000 and with that they countered at $161,800 net to HUD. Looking back and seeing that they came back so quickly we probably could have stayed at that number, but I did raise the new offer to $152,000 net to HUD. Today they accepted the offer.

There is a comp in the area that mirrors this property and sold in just over a month for $237,000. The only difference is that the sold property was not updated. Don't get me wrong it was in nice shape, just outdated. By the time we are done we should have roughly $25,000 into the rehab. I would estimate the ARV @ $230,000 on the low side, at least that is where we will list it with hopes that it will move as quickly as some of the comps have recently.