All Forum Posts by: Raven Parmer

In our neighborhood, this home as a high end single family (by the time we are finished), should be worth about 500k (optimistically); $450k easily. As a 3 unit rental, it could bring in about $2600 a month. That's not too shabby for a $1500 mortgage payment, but we need a "real" place to live (family of 5 plus 2 pets), and as I mentioned it's as much of a restoration project as an investment. We will also probably live in it for a few years after we finish it just to take a break. "Also, shouldn't you be concerned as to what problems were lurking that wasn't picked up on inspection regardless of number of units?  Or do you mean that you will be doing so much construction that most things will likely get replaced/updated yourself?" The second one. So we weren't really phased by what they found in inspection, knowing our plans to gut it all along. But with as much as they found, and the history of the house I fully expect to uncover more. Knowing it will all be uncovered eventually, gives me peace of mind. If we planned to told onto it as a rental, but didn't plan to gut it, I would probably view it as a ticking time bomb. "From a price point, I like older homes but buying anything 100+ years old scares me." For your situation I totally get it. This is my personal passion/ interest. Our next purchase will hopefully be a small buy and hold, and it will likely be 80 years or older, but that's just our preference. I definitely think that for the average person who has no desire to be elbow deep in an unpredictable situation, an old home can be a big risk.

I'm by no means seasoned at this, and I don't know much about your area, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. We bought a 117 year old duplex with a separate garage with apartment. It has been a rental since the 50's. It has not been well-maintained. There are a lot of questionable items with the electric. There were plumbing issues (the first floor tenant's toilet rained in the basement every time she flushed it). We are currently living in the second floor and renting out the first. There were a handful of repairs we had to make, just to get it livable.

However, we bought this home to eventually turn into a single family and restore. We are going to have to gut the thing, and who knows what else we will find?! We are up for the challenge because we love the architecture and it is as much a creative endeavor/ hobby as an investment. Now, if I was going to maintain it as a multi-family, I would be concerned about what problems are lurking that weren't picked up on during inspection. I love older homes, as I think they were build much more solidly and with more character than anything since the 50's. But the big issue are the "fixes" people made along the way. I would bet your plumbing and electric would be questionable unless someone recently updated. 

If you are willing to put the money and time into getting it right, I think older homes are the way to go.

*PPG fresh dough. My phone autocorrected. Brendan R.

Brendan R. We actually used of fresh dough in the pink bathroom. It is a white with a slightly pink hue to complement the tile.

@James Triano Sorry it took me so long-

Kitchen cabinets- PPG Juniper Berry

Kitchen walls- PPG Parrafin

Living Room walls- PPG Ashen (I don't love this color, but didn't want to repaint)

Claw foot bathroom - PPG Sharkskin

Claw foot bathroom floor -atlas concorde bianco winter 24x24

Claw foot bathroom wet wall - tile shop marble subway tile

Baby's Bedroom - PPG Ostrich Feather

Laundry room - PPG dark ash

Everywhere else - PPG Vagabond (my favorite neutral warm gray - looks good in every room)

Exterior trim - PPG Seaweed wrap

Exterior siding- PPG nevergreen

Exterior Doors - PPG Licorice

Let me know if I forgot anything!

I agree with the suggestion to do a window in its place. You could do something like this (on a smaller scale). Between the existing window and new window do some open shelves. An upper cabinet would look weird. Edited to add: your sill would be above counter height, and the wood infill below could have a raised panel or batten look. 

@Franklin McGuire and @irfan Khan (won't link, sorry) there are before pictures in the comments. You should see them on the first page of replies.

@Julie Marquez Thanks! I work at a commercial architecture firm, and we do commercial work. We do mostly retail, some behavioral health, hotel, apartment building, etc... I wish I worked in residential architecture as that is my passion, but it has been my experience that residential architecture positions are hard to come by. I think most people don't think they need them. For us, a live-in flip was the only option. It seemed like a risk-free way to get started. We have to live somewhere, right? We were limited on cash, and paying back a lot of student loans, so this was the only way we saw to get in the game. We have gotten used to living in the mess, and are learning so much from it. I would imagine that we will do 1 or 2 more, then pick a forever home. We can't sustain this lifestyle forever, but it is helping us get ahead and pay off our debts.

@James Triano if you want any specific colors let me know.

@Ray Dipasupil We are making it work! Its funny when your 4 year old compares the consistency of things to drywall mud, or that she is alarmed by wires because she knows they can shock you (no, we don't leave hot wires out for our kids to get into, but you get the point!). We do plan on staying in Louisville. I always wanted to live in other places, but now that we have kids, I can't imagine moving away from family and starting over. 

@Pam Gentry @Joan Defenbaugh We are under contract on the next one, which will be a much bigger project. The house is 116 years old, it is currently a duplex and has a separate garage apartment. We will convert it back to single family, but keep the garage apartment. And Joan - I am glad to see someone appreciates the pink bathroom! I tried to make it feel more current, but also preserve some of the 50's character of this house. Not to mention, that tile is better quality than anything I would put in today. Also, I believe that color is coming back in style! One of the people who walked through our house was "concerned" because the bathroom was "dated." I am a firm believer in salvaging as much as possible. Less waste, more character! I even had to hunt down 24 pink reproduction tiles to do a patch. 

Thanks everyone- just what I needed!

I have posted about this deal before, once regarding a bad tenant (resolved), and once about zoning (resolved). Now  I have another question, and I'll try to be brief. 

We are purchasing a duplex in Louisville, KY with separate garage apartment, and we will live in one unit. Our contract period was over 8/23, and we have had to extend for the reasons mentioned above. We listed our current house and got an offer right away. Now it looks like our window to close on existing and new is tightening. Like, we may be homeless for a minute.

Our plan was to own both for a month to have plenty of time to move and make a few repairs on the new house. Now we won't have that time. It's frustrating, because of the delays we missed out on leasing to students (its very close to a college), and now the garage apartment renovations probably wont be finished until around Thanksgiving. I've never rented a home before, but I am guessing December is not a busy month. 

Anyway, we were wondering if there was a way to gain occupancy (to start moving our stuff and make minor repairs) so that our schedule isn't completely ruined. I realize the seller could back out, but I am 99% sure she won't. It's an estate, its vacant, and she is ready to unload it. She is also related to a friend of ours (we didn't know this until recently), which makes me feel more comfortable. 

Has anyone ever done this? Is there some kind of document we could draw up that would make the owner (and us) more comfortable? Or is this just a bad idea all around? Thanks in advance!

I'm back for an update. On my phone and couldn't figure out how to change the original post... We listed for sale Thursday, started showing Friday, had three offers on Saturday, and accepted one. The offer was for $285,500 with home warranty, as-is, no inspection. Couldn't beat that. We weren't interested in trying to get a bidding war so we canceled the open house. We have some concern about the house appraising, so we felt no need to try to get any more than what we asked for. We still had a bunch of people show up for the open house, even though it was canceled. Zillow and realtor.com were slow to update. Some lovely person backed into our mailbox and left the scene. Now we have to replace that. Just what we want to do when we thought we were finally finished, dig up a big ball of concrete from the ground and set a new mailbox post! Woo hoo!