The importance of curb appeal

As we continue to work on the inside of the house, several friends have mentioned that we should go ahead and place a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the front yard to possibly generate some interest in the house. I'm not entirely comfortable with doing that at this point, at least until we do some cleanup work on the outside of the house. I'm probably just over thinking this as it's really only a sign in the yard. What damage could the sign do? Well, I say plenty! If the house is for sale too long, the property appears "stale" and buyers are less likely to show interest. We also have less of a chance of getting the price we are asking. While this is probably an extreme thought considering we were going to start the landscaping in about a week or so, it's still a thought in the back of my mind. Guess we'll go ahead and buy a sign this weekend.

The plans for the outside of the house will have to wait until next weekend, at least in the painting department. The weather calls for thunderstorms all weekend. We intend to paint the shutters, front porch and back porch. The yard will need some new mulch and a few new plants. As you can see, the roof needs some attention but the landscaping overall looks pretty good. The roof should be re-shingled within the next week or so. We're going to trim the bushes down some and plant some flowery plants. The daylilies aren't blooming fully but are full of promising buds.

Curb appeal is very important because it can make or break the sale in the sense that a potential buyer might not even stop at your house due to the appearance on the outside. The inside may be breathtaking but it won't matter if they never stop. It's important to have a trimmed lawn, tidy landscaping and a fresh, clean exterior. I intend to begin the painting portion of the exterior next weekend provided that the weather is more promising.

I feel confident that we bought a beautiful house in a great neighborhood. One key benefit for us is that our house is in a golf course community. That should generate some interest but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in a market that is flooded right now. Hopefully the added features we have in this house will create a fast sell and some cash for us.

I hate wallpaper

We've been scraping wallpaper for the past 5 nights. Finally, it's getting easier. I thought I was going to lose my mind the first couple of nights. Thankfully we've had some friends and family come out to help. Much love guys! We've almost got the main floor completely de-papered. Next it's on to the upstairs. The people that lived here before us really loved wallpaper. Sheesh...

Shopping and Repairs...

Ah ha! I found out how to edit the date that the blog was posted. Muh ha ha! Ah well though, I've already posted about the events that have happened so you guys are caught up. I was going to go back and provide more details but nah...on we go!

So, we start our home shopping on Saturday. We've decided to make the following changes to the house.

1. Remove all of the wallpaper
2. Paint all of the walls a neutral color
3. Paint all of the wood trim white (it's ALL over the house...sheesh!)
4. Replace carpet in two of the small bedrooms and in the basement - the other carpet seems to be in good shape, just dirty
5. Change all of the gold door handles in the house to brushed nickel
6. Change all light fixtures to match the brushed nickel
7. Replace the countertop in the kitchen
8. Change out the hardware on the cabinets
9. Replace the appliances with stainless steel (which we bought the Monday before closing)
10. Change all of the flat wood doors to white paneled doors
11. Clean up the landscaping
12. Pressure wash the house
13. Fix the inspector noted items
14. Finish the laundry room, we would then have a 100% finished basement
15. Possibly re-shingle the roof (it looks dirty but the inspector gives it another 5 to 8 years)

I think that about sums it up. Our biggest task right now is removing all of this wallpaper and painting. The rest of the repair work should go pretty smoothly.

We'll see...

The beginning continued

Okay, I'm also new to the whole "blogger" experience so I was trying to see if I could edit the date in which the blog was posted. I don't think I can. I wanted to take you guys back through the past month (by dates in which significant events happened) but it appears that I'm going to have to sum it all up in a post. Hope you don't mind reading a bit.

Back to the house. I love this house. I fear that my love for this house may make me want to keep it instead of flipping it but I'm trying to be strong...and make some money. We made an offer on this house that was significantly lower than what it was advertised as being sold for. After several counteroffers on both ends, our offer was accepted!! We were ecstatic and in Hawaii on vacation at the time the offer was accepted. Never in my life did I think I'd want to leave the beautiful beaches of Hawaii to go clean up a house but I was excited to get this going.

Once we got back home from our vacation we had the house inspected. Everything was great. There are a few minor things that need to be fixed and we look forward to learning how to do these repairs. We also had the HVAC system inspected as this would have been a costly repair if something had been wrong. Everything checked out great!

Now I'm wondering why this beautiful house sat on the market for nearly a year. My theory is that the initial asking price was WAY to high for the cosmetic work that needed to be done. By the time the asking price came down, the home had been on the market so long that it appeared stale.

Just to give you some insight into the condition of the property, imagine this. Ceiling to floor wallpaper in nearly every room in the house! OMG! As soon as a buyer walks into the house, the first thing they see is all of this work that has to be done! Sheesh...I think I'd have walked away too. But, considering we got the house for such a great price, I was willing to do a little scraping.

We closed on the house Friday, June 15. That was a nightmare. I've never closed on a house before, this is my first one. You're probably thinking the mountains of paper work scared me away. Nope...it was the seller or at least one of them.

There are 4 people involved in this transaction. The ex-husband, the ex-wife, the new husband and the new wife. Well, on the day of closing the new husband who's only association with this house is through marriage, decides that he doesn't agree with the terms of the offer and refuses to sign.

Great...

So, we sign all of our closing documents and the seller's real estate agent finally gets the new husband to sign on Saturday, June 16. We now have the keys to the house! Yippee!

Our next trip...Lowes.

The beginning...

My fiancé and I started looking at homes to buy and own in February. After viewing about 20-25 homes we decided that our champagne taste on a beer budget wasn't going to yield us the house of our dreams, or at least one with all of the amenities we desired. With that said and the many real estate shows we've watched, we've decided to take our money and invest it into the house flipping business. Now, you're probably wondering about our situation and how we're able to do this. Currently we live in a house owned by my father so we only pay utilities, no rent. This reduction in living cost has allowed us to save money and use what would have been "our" house payment on a house that will hopefully make us some money.

Back on track. We are both novices when it comes to flipping real estate but my good credit and our sensibility with money has allowed us to qualify for a mortgage that will cover the entire cost of a home, to include the 20% down payment.

Once we got into the mindset of looking at homes from an investment standpoint, our house shopping became much more difficult. It appears that it is very difficult to find a home with only cosmetic problems. As a general rule, a cosmetic house is a great flip for first timers. That we are! So, after looking at foreclosures that are still priced at market value and homes with trees that have fallen through the roof, we finally found our flipper. It's a beautiful home actually but has been vacant for nearly a year.

The house is 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths. The outside is siding and the home has 2 levels and a basement. The basement is nearly completely finished. The laundry room has a small section that isn't finished but we look forward to our first drywalling session.