Before & After

Today, I present three of the first houses I worked on.

This house will close with a homebuyer later on this week. I superloved this house when we first saw it although it was very dated. Look at this door!


These mouldings!

All of these wonderful bones existed before the rehab. LOVE. I fought for this house because I could see its fabulousness even though it was old, rickety, had been abandoned for a while, and kind of had an odour.

This a four bedroom, two and half bathroom home is located in a golf course community in a suburban neighborhood. We fixed just about all of the major systems in the home and modernized the cosmetics on the rest.

The basement was the former owner’s fun space. The sign above the bar read “Happy Hour” in Technicolor. Charming, but not really resale-ready.

href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Crunako%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml">Here is the basement after renovation. We removed the bar, changed the carpet, and painted the walls, among other things.

The living room had dark, sad paneling and a dated fireplace.

We brightened everything up nicely, I think.

The second house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch home. It’s not yet under contract and I can’t understand why except that the neighborhood is a little out of the way.

Dining room before:


Dining room after:


Bonus room before (sad old-fashioned built-ins):


Bonus room after:

Quick Interior House Assessment Tips

I'm back with part 2 of Quick House (Rehab) Assessment Tips.

Interior:

It is of utmost importance that the house be well-sealed against the elements. I am guessing that if you wanted to be one with the outdoors you’d be at REI picking up a tent instead of looking for a house. So most of the interior checkpoints focus on ensuring the house keeps the outside out and water where it belongs.

Bathrooms

Do the toilets appear to be well-anchored or does it look like they have been leaking? Look around the bottom of the toilets and tubs for water or water stains. If you find water stains in a bathroom on an upper floor, go downstairs and see if the leak has come through the ceiling.

Throughout

Look up: are there wet spots on the ceilings? If so, are they still wet? Could be a leaky roof or a leaky bathroom upstairs.

Look down: corners and trim should not be compromised. If you can lightly kick the trim and it comes apart, that is water or termite damage.

Will we need to replace the carpets and wet room floors? The answer is probably on the carpets and maybe on the wet rooms (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry).

Unless the previous owners lived very lightly and had your decorating taste, you will almost certainly have to paint, replace light fixtures and appliances.

Check the trim around the back door. Here you are looking for signs of water damage indicating the door was not well-sealed and for signs that the door has been repaired or replaced because it was kicked in. Again, not a definite cause to walk away, but you should know.

Is there black pellet-shaped debris on the floors? Could be rat droppings, just sayin’, I've been there.

Does the floor plan make sense? Every now and again I’ll go into a house where the floor plan just makes me angry. It’s more of a fun house than a home. Floor plan changes are very expensive and I’ll usually walk away from them.

Are the floors even? I have a particular aversion to rolling hardwoods, slanted living rooms and thin carpeting covering a hard board with no subfloor. These flaws are not insuperable, but if the floor is really janky, you may be looking at an uneven foundation.

Bedrooms

Open the closet doors and check the corners and ceiling. On more than one occasion, I have seen the only evidence of mold or leaks has been in the closets. Open all doors and peer inside.

Kitchen

How gross are the cabinets? Some cabinets are great and just need light cleaning. Some are disgusting with missing parts or caked-on gunk. Missing parts can be difficult to match. On one house we threw a lot of money at trying to clean old cabinets before we just gave up and put in new ones.

Open the cabinet under the sink. Do you see signs of leaks? Is there a garbage disposal? Your inspection will let you know if it works or not.

Will you need to replace the countertops?

So there you have it: my quick and dirty house assessment guide.

A New Look and Quick Exterior House Assessment Tips

Has it really been SIX months since I last posted here? I apologize for being so absent, but here is my explanation. Since around December, I have been the project manager responsible for putting 93 houses under contract, closing on 59, completing rehab on 9, and selling 2 to home buyers (11 additional houses are under contract to close with home buyers). In the garden, I have suffered bitter defeat, small victories, and about 51 mosquito/gnat/spider bites. Mama is tired, y’all.

Still, I have missed sharing my experiences and I’m back with a whole new look!

I’ve learned a lot in the last six months, but since most of that time has been spent on acquisitions, I guess I’ll start there.

Sometimes I’ll arrive at a house while an agent is there with a home buyer. It is unspoken real estate etiquette to wait for the current party to finish before going in. Owner-occupants, however, take forevvvvvver to evaluate a house because they look at things very differently from investors. The owner-occupant is thinking, “Do I love it? Can I see myself living here? Where will my couch go? Is the kitchen big enough?” The investor is thinking, “How much is it going to cost me to turn this house around?”

I often need to see 15 or more houses in one day. Including driving time, that can easily eat up 8 hours or more. I don’t have time for the owner-occupant approach. I need to get in and out and on the next. I am not a professional inspector, but I need to be able to quickly ascertain whether a house is going to be within our price range to acquire and rehab. Foreclosed houses usually do not come with a disclosure report – they are sold “as is”. To kick things off, I will provide you with my methods for assessing a home quickly.

Please note: none of these tips are adequate substitutes for a real home buyer’s inspection. If you buy a house “as-is” without an inspection you will RUE THE DAY. Most of us will not want to climb around on the roof and cannot tell what polybutylene piping looks like (to your bank account it will look like replacing all the plumbing in the house). I certainly hate getting on my hands and knees to check if there is galvanized pipe under the sink. It’s hot, dirty and there are spiders down there. So hire a professional, please. The tips that follow are just to help you make an initial assessment when you are out and about.

Home buyer’s guide to 10-15 minute property review:

Exterior

Water

When you arrive, walk around the lot. Does it appear to be even or sloped? If it has rained recently, check to see if there is water standing anywhere on the property. If you don’t see standing water, are there spots where the ground is supersaturated? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” and the water is close to the house, take note.

Now back up and look up. How does the roof look? We’re not looking for uniform color; we’re looking for waves or other signs the roof has been compromised. Sometimes roofs with leakage problems will appear to have undulations running parallel to the ground. If these are extensive, count on a new roof. Now check your data on the house, if it’s about 10 years old and in foreclosure, you should guess that the roof has never been replaced and will need work.

While you’re focused on the roof, also check the soffit, fascia, and gutters. I could try to explain what soffit and fascia are, but this picture I grabbed from www.csgrestoration.com is worth a thousand words.

The way I keep it straight in my head is that “fascia faces ya.” Whatever, it’s cheesy; it works. Older houses will tend to have wood soffit and fascia. Untreated wood rots. Soffit and fascia often have to be replaced; usually replacement rings up in the range of a couple hundred dollars.

Take a look at the gutters. If they are all bent up and crazy-looking, you’ll likely have to replace them for about $1500. Follow the gutters if you can to see where they are directing water. Sometimes gutters will direct water along a valley in the roof where the fascia isn’t well-attached and rainwater will run right into the house. Gutters can also be so full that baby trees are growing out of them – true story! – in that case the gutters have ceased to direct water anywhere and you can almost bet on water damage inside.

Pests/Termites

If you are in the red clay termite belt of which Georgia is a part, suspect that there are termites in any home that has been sitting vacant for a while without termite treatments. My experience has been that 100% of stucco surface houses have had termites. Termites are not necessarily a deal-killer, but they do need to be treated immediately and a professional will have to assess the extent of damage they have caused.

Many homes will have nice landscaping around the perimeter of the house. If you are the gardening snob I was before I actually got into the garden, you may prefer the look of pine nuggets to pine straw. Again, if the house has not been treated for termites in a while, pine nuggets up against the house should give you pause. For some reason, termites are attracted to pine nuggets in a way they are not to other kinds of mulch.

As you are walking around the lot look for ant hills close to the house. If the ant hill is up against the house, there is a good chance the ants are inside too. Again, not a deal-killer, but you’ll want to be aware.

Pause now and again to check out window frames and window sills. If they are exposed to the elements, chances are they will need repair because the wood will rot over time. Same thing with wooden door frames. I still find it difficult to distinguish whether wood has been eaten by termites or weakened by water just by looking or handling the wood. Still, weak wood is weak wood and it all has to be repaired.

Siding

What has the builder used to cover the bones of the house? Rotten wooden siding (hard to identify, especially if the house has been recently painted) usually has to come off in its entirety for upwards of $10,000.

Hardiplank and cardboard siding come in many different varieties. Some are easier to repair and replace than others.

Brick is beautiful, but the joints in the masonry can get loose letting in water.

Vinyl siding is easy to match and replace damaged pieces.

We’ve discussed stucco. I grew up in SoCal, so I like stucco, but stucco that has not been properly taken care of will have cracks that require extensive repair, may have been bleached in the sun, and as I mentioned before will most likely need some attention to termites.

Peeling paint could mean that you need to repaint the entire house or just parts. If the house was built before 1978, you may need to do some lead paint tests.

Amenities

Is there a wooden deck or patio? Has the wood been treated? You may be able to get away with a sand ‘n’ stain, or the whole thing may have to come down if it is unsafe. I’ve been to many houses that have small 2^nd floor balconies. The previous owners often had grills on these balconies (look for burn marks where the grill was). That gives me heartburn, but your inspector can give you the lowdown.

Wow, the quick exterior checklist took up much more real estate that I expected. I’ll post the quick interior checklist later on.

Of Foreclosure, Families and Furniture

A lot of times this blog comes across as very cavalier about foreclosure. It's my job and the ho-hum of scouting empty houses can become impersonal. The reality of foreclosure's impact on real people collided with routine earlier this week. We visited a house with furniture still in it. NSP regulations require that homes be vacant for 90 days prior to putting in an offer so usually the houses are empty. However, entering the first house we encountered a pile of furniture -- a bookshelf, a chair, knick knacks -- right in the entryway. Someone had tied a small wicker basket on the pull chain of the living room ceiling fan as decoration. The basket was not HGTV-ready, but it was an authentic and personal trace of the people who once lived in that 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home on an awkward corner of a middle income subdivision just about 10 miles from my office.

The presence of furniture gave me pause. It drew my attention to the dark spot on the floor where a dresser once stood. Furniture humanizes the insane paint schemes I have seen in many bedrooms, transforming tacky walls covered in little pink hand and footprints and ceilings decorated in purple rabbits into nurseries that once held children where parents planned to raise them in safe, stable surroundings. Then the market tanked. Or the job vanished. Or the landlord went under. Or all three. All that gets left behind are walls that I am going to hire people to paint over in pleasing neutrals, carpets that I will replace because they are stained with juice, food, mud and furniture spots. I felt complicit in erasing the memory of the people who once made their homes in those places and who were caught up, as renters or as buyers, in the orgy of easy money and easier real estate that brought about a personal, national and global economic implosion.

Sometimes I feel like I'm cleaning up after a disaster: every bit left behind is a reminder of what was destroyed, yet I know that something new--and sustainable--will spring from the destruction. Those former residents have moved on and to remain viable, the neighborhood needs to ensure that vacant houses get occupied to maintain values, safety and aesthetics. So I paint over carefully-drawn designs and stickers of smiling zoo animals; I tear up heavily used carpet and torn vinyl; and I replace woodwork chewed away by the family dog, hoping that the restart I provide will create the conditions for a renewal.

No Access: 3 Dirty Tricks of Real Estate Acquisition

Ah the joys of real estate. Apparently the market is heating back up because the dirty tricks of the trade are starting to peek out of their down market hibernation.

Before the market started to turn, access to foreclosed houses was not a problem. You got the code, opened the box and sashayed on in. Sometimes, the doors were just left unlocked. Nowadays however, heifers want to keep the competition at bay. Here are the top 3 dirty tricks I've encountered:

1) Jam the only access door from the inside so that subsequent viewers can't see the property. The last person to see a house will lock the deadbolt from inside and climb out of a window to ensure that anyone coming by afterwards will not be able to get in to see the house, even if they have a key.

2) Camp out at the property and when a prospect arrives to view it the interloper proclaims (falsely) that she already has had her offer accepted and she is just waiting for the carpet guy to come by so you might as well keep on moving.

3) Take pictures of the real estate agent, potential buyer and their license plates so that you can upload them on YouTube later while claiming they are out to "destroy the neighborhood." This is not a joke; I keep my sunglasses on me for unsolicited photo sessions.

More common ploys are to remove the mailbox, obscure the house address, hide the for sale sign and toss the house key in the bushes leaving the lockbox/supra key empty. The silly thing is, in this state, only 1 of 3 foreclosure deals that go to contract actually close. Chances are that the deal the trickster is trying to shield so desperately will fall through anyway. I know it's easier to climb out of a window than to line up solid financing, but only the latter will get you title; the former will just get you dusty.

All is fair in love, war and real estate, but you know what? If you want to keep me from buying the house, just offer more. It won't be that hard.

7 tips for eliminating houses from listings

I often receive large batches of listings from the sources we use to acquire houses. There are far too many to see individually so I need to use a heavy hand to whittle down the stack to a manageable group that we can go and see. These 7 tips, particularly #5, may not be as helpful to those of you who have lots of resources to use in bidding wars and list price offers but to bargain hunters who have to keep prices very low like me, these tips have saved a lot of time.

1) Where you can see the “Days on Market” or DOM, the property should have been on the market at least 60 days. The more DOM, the better for negotiating.

2) If the house is listed over $80,000, it should have been on the market for at least 90 days (I have made some exceptions for listings over $80K that are fabulous, but I am only asking the agent to keep his eye on them to see if they go down).

3) If you are getting overwhelmed by 3 beds/2bths, start looking for larger houses and pick only very cheap 3/2s.

4) No properties with HOA fees.

5) Approach every listing with extreme disdain. Does the listing have the smell of desperation? This scent is becoming more and more faint as the market improves, but still if there is no hint of a willingness to negotiate, keep moving.

6) Size (less than 1200 sq ft and more than 2250 sq ft). The smaller properties are hard to sell; the larger properties are crazy expensive to renovate.

7) Wood siding. More times than not, it all has to be replaced and the return on the investment is low.

How Does Your Garden Grow?: With Incredible Indoor Amaryllis!

One of my best friends gave me indoor-blooming red lion amaryllis for Christmas. This is a plant I have wanted to try, but couldn't bring myself to drop the cash for it. Thank you, Santa!! Readers, this plant is awesome! It sat in a box on our front porch for a week while we were out of town for the holidays. When I got to it, it looked hale and hearty with 3 sets of foliage popping out of the top. All I had to do was take it to a sunny window, add water and wait. We started out here:


Soon we were here:


And now we are here in the land of fabulous blooms! Each stalk has 3 gigantic blossoms:


It's so perfect that it looks fake! In this landscape of snow, front and biting winds, it is so nice to watch life and color claim its space and shine.