Flipping 101, Part 2

In Flipping 101, we were exploring the posibility of buying this little house to flip.

Yes, you guessed it. We are not going to buy this little house.

We could not get the numbers to work. We are just devastated.

Here is the original foot print. This is a modest, 1963 ranch with a carport and an outside entry laundry room, 1000 square feet. We were going to convert the carport to a bedroom and turn the laundry into a bath, adding 200 square feet.

Here are a few Things we did not count on:

• Rewire the house - $4-$5 per square foot - $4,800 to $6,000.
• Install an LVL- that's a beam.
• Plumbing costs- about $5,000

Add that to demolition and framing, about $12,000

That's over $20,000 and now there's

• interior painting
• exterior painting
• kitchen cabinets and counters
• some HVAC work
• bathroom tile work
• some landscaping...

We were going to do some of this ourselves, but there's still cost of materials.

We had a contractor give a preliminary estimate. He  said "Moving Plumbing is easy''. I heard  "Moving Plumbing is cheap''. ..

He gave an initial estimate of $15-18k and that morphed to - mid twenties! Then the final came in at $35,000!

So, we can't buy the house, because as a flip, the numbers don't work. If your going to live there, it would be fabulous. And actually, you may he able to buy it with an FHA 203K (not KS) loan. You can't do the 203ks because there is some structural work and that loan type does not allow for structural.

Moral of the story: insist on full, accurate figures before you buy the house. We had a due diligence period in order to check everything out and, unfortunately, had to terminate the transaction prior to the end of the due diligence because of our budget.

It would have been nice, don't you think?

The measurements are pretty accurate -just trying to give you a quick visual.

Flipping 101, Part 1

I've watched all the rehab shows. So have you. Flipping Boston,  Flipping Las Vegas, Flip or Flop - more titles than I can remember. Hours and hours of TV- ideas, successes & major problems.

I am a real estate agent. I've been in hundreds of houses. I've been through countless inspections, I'm a major DIYer. My good friend Essie is an excellent decorator & loves "the idea" of doing a flip. We looked in earnest for a couple of months last year & couldn't find anything.

Then there it was. Another friend listed this little, old house-only 1,000 sq.ft. I looked at it for a client. It was a sad little house, my client didn't like it. It hung around. My friend had some nibbles, but no one bought it. The owners eventually lowered the price & after much thought & planning Essie and I decided to buy it.

We are being careful. She talked to her financial planner. I researched the market. I talked to an appraiser. I had a contractor look at it to see if we could make the changes the house needed & still make the numbers work. Possible sales price minus purchase price minus rehab costs, should give us SOME profit. It SHOULD work.

So, we wrote an offer. It was accepted! YEAH!

Contactor called ... he thinks he is off by $3-5K! what???

It's O.K. we got it for a good price. Had the inspection today. Went pretty well. Found out the HVAC is pretty new -YEAH! Found out we might not be able to remove some walls
without extra support, yikes!

It's O.K. still in due diligence phase.

Stay tuned. It's going to be so pretty when we're done! We're refinishing hardwood floors, new cabinets, granite counters, new windows, adding a bedroom & bath. Oh my goodness!

I really hope it works, it will be so pretty when it's done....

See Flipping 101, Part 2

Easy Off Oven Cleaner to make your shower shine

My husband and I own a small rental property in Morrow, Georgia. The tenant moved out after having stiffed us for rent. Of course we had to repaint, put in new carpet, fix the bathroom floor (it had developed a crack) and then found out that the master shower walls were in need of repair.

That's okay though, we have good people to call to do the work that we can't do like installing carpet. We can paint, but don't like to, so we hired a painter. We've got a great handyman and he took care of redoing the tile floor in the hall bath and he is fixing the walls in the master shower.

I've pitched in with some cleaning. I don't know why I get stuck cleaning somebody else's filth! Seems like some people have no concept of how to clean the house! My husband ran the self cleaning oven. Normally there is a light film that you just wipe out, but when I opened the door after the cycle, I kid you not, there was two inches of ash! I don't know what he burned up in there! The shower doors in the master shower were just disgusting. I did those the hard way, Scrubbing Bubbles, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Dawn Power Scrub and A LOT of elbow grease.

The wall in the hall bath surround was positively BROWN. This is a 1970's era house and the tile is white and harvest gold speckled. With the new tile floor, it really doesn't look bad. But boy, was that tile dirty! Take a look at this picture below.

Thank God for my contractor, Mike Waldner, who mentioned the best way to get the wall clean was with Easy Off oven cleaner in the blue can which is lemon scented. I couldn't believe how easy the wall got cleaned. It saved me hours of scrubbing! All I had to do was spray it on and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Then I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and gloves and warm water and just wiped it down.  I followed with scrubbing Bubbles, but probably really didn't need that. What a miracle! I wish I'd had that to clean the shower doors which took me hours to do.

Try it. It will save you lots of time. The tiles are ceramic and the oven is enamel. So, if its safe for the oven it's safe for the tile. You won't be disappointed.

Also Google it. There are many more testimonials about this method.

But, while my mind was wandering while I was cleaning, I wondered, do the companies that make these various cleaners also make the soaps that leave all this residue? Must research that.....

Pay for college or retirement - why choose?

Buy a piece of real estate for each child and avoid the dilemma...

I watched this story on the Today show today. (If you are on an ipad, you may need to
click here).

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It's a debate on how or if  you should fund your child's education or your retirement fund.  I submit to you that you can do both!

This has always been a sore topic for me. I am first generation Italian.  I am the last of 5 children.  I would have loved to go to college.  But, my parents worked very hard, my father was a steel worker and my mother was a seamstress in a factory. Although I wouldn't consider us poor, I certainly wouldn't consider us rich. I didn't want to be a drag on them - they were in their late 50's and early 60's when it was time for me to go to college.  For some reason, the State of New York said they made too much money in order for me to qualify for any tuition assistance.