All Forum Posts by: Raven Parmer

Congrats on your second deal. That's exciting! I hope to start BRRRing once we get settled in our new live-in flip. Sounds like you're like me- tempted to over improve. Good luck!

@Erik Hitzelberger thanks! We hope it will sell quickly, as it is the only renovated home in our neighborhood on the market right now. We think it is priced fairly, especially compared to the others in the neighborhood. Our realtor does have a little concern about it appraising though. we are a little nervous about that. Fingers crossed. 

@Michael O'Connell Hindsight, we would do it again. But we'd be much more efficient. We did the downstairs bathroom tile twice because it looked bad the first time. We skim coated the basement walls because they were textured. My husband swears we will either demo and put up new drywall next time or laminate 1/4" drywall on top. That process took shamefully long. We probably should have tried to get the purchase price down a bit lower, but overall, it was a good experience. We have gotten used to living in a construction zone, but sometimes it is frustrating because I am also a neat freak. There is definitely always a mess. Our house has been clean about 5 times in the last 3 years! We have learned so much and loved our neighborhood at the same time. We are sad to go but super excited for the new adventure. Our next house will be much more challenging. 

@Kelly Bankes some before photos:

It was owned by a 94 year old man who lived alone. He maintained it fairly well; it was just really dated. There were some rotting soffit boards on the exterior, old gutters, overgrown hollies. But mostly it was just ugly - the easiest thing to fix!

Luc Boiron thanks! The market in Louisville is pretty hot. The neighborhood our house is in is very desirable and fairly low in inventory. We have 4 showings scheduled for tomorrow, and another for Saturday. Hope one pans out! If not, our open house is Sunday.

Well, after 3.5 years, we have listed our first property! It was a live-in flip. Our goal was 2 years, and we almost doubled it... We did have a baby in the process, we did 90% of the work ourselves, and we learned as we went. We purchased for $170K, put about $35K into it and are listing at $285K. We are hoping for a quick sale. After photos below (some seem to be coming in at weird sizes, so apologies if it looks funny). We should be closing on our next deal in the coming weeks. Can't wait to get started!

I just got off the phone with planning, and they said I need to prove it is "legally non conforming." Meaning it has been a duplex since 1971, or before the zoning change in that area (which could have been 80s or 90s). He directed me to pva for tax records to see how long it has been taxed as a duplex. Time to jump down the rabbit hole...

John R. Thanks for sharing your experience. If you don't mind my asking, what's the zoning change going to end up costing you? And how much time have you put into it? Our plan is to sell as a single family; however, I'm not sure about the carriage house. If the buyers want to rent it out, I suppose it will be "illegal." I would think their loan should be for a single family though.

James Mc Ree thanks for your informative reply. My goal today is to talk to someone in zoning about this. Our realtor has left them a message, but I know you have to be more aggressive than that to get any answers from them. I'll call a few times and stop in if I have to.

Michael Seeker thanks for the reply. I think that these changes were made before the zoning took place. I have not seen the pva but our realtor said it was multi family. The appraisal said zoning compliance isillegal", "Highest and best use is single family residential based on legal permissible use per zoning regulations. Home is zoned single family residential only." We are told zoning overrides pva. We have a call into zoning to try to get some clarification. Our main concern at this point is when we sell, although house will be single family, will carriage house be a problem for buyers?