Plan for week of March 26

Escrow closes tomorrow (Wednesday the 28th), and the IP will officially be mine at around noon. No bad surprises so far, though the Vandalism & Vacancy insurance wasn't in the budget.

The goals for this week:

• Take title to the property


• Take tools over


• Re-key the locks


• Clear out the stuff the previous owners had left


• Get bids to update the obsolete electrical panel


• Repair float valve on the swamp cooler


• Decide on cabinetry


• Tear out tub in master bath

You might ask why the tub is so early in the process. Easy, I will be replacing it with a jacuzzi tub, and I want to be able to take a soak at the end of every workday!

Here's what the tub looks like. It's kind of dated, eh

Pics of the house

OK, that last attempt at posting some pics of the house didn't work. Let's try again.

Incidentally, we're calling it the IP as in investment property.

Front of house from the street:

House from the back yard:

I'll post more pics as I get to work. I started my work schedule today, and there's plenty to do.

Offer accepted!!!!

This is my first attempt at blogging, so bear with me a few days until I get this all figured out...

Last Tuesday I got a phone call from Chris. I was on my way up to Keystone, but I took his call anyway. He found a new opportunity, so I made a U-turn and went to see the place. It was perfect: fairly good shape, but very dated; a nice neighborhood; a decent price; and the potential for some profit. I made an offer that afternoon, and it was accepted.

Thursday the house inspector, the roof inspector and the sewer inspector came by and gave the house a decent bill of health. A few problems which are not show-stoppers, and lots of little things. Oh, and a leak staining the ceiling in the master bedroom closet.

Frank the handyman came by on Friday (at 6 AM) to examine the leak. He thinks it's due to the swamp cooler not being installed properly and allowing rain to get in. That's easy to fix, so I'm not concerned.

Got a call from Merchant's Mortgage, the loan is a go. We close on Wednesday the 28th. I'm excited, and nervous at the same time.

The gameplan is to put the house back on the market around June first.

Prologue

After 29.5 years in the corporate world, it finally dawned on me that I don't like white collar work. I liked using my brain, but I also really enjoyed what I was doing at Habitat for Humanity. So after lengthy, painstaking consideration (while on the chairlift at Keystone) I decided to go into the flip business.

The politically correct way of describing this business is we help people get wonderful homes at a great price. We take slightly rundown properties, bring them up to modern sensibilities, then market them. Oh yeah, we (hopefully) make some money in the process.

I made this decision in early February 2007. I hooked up with a great realtor (Chris Viets) a fantastic decorator (Alysia Viets) and a savvy mortgage expert (Kim Hubbard). Since then I've looked at about a dozen potential houses. They ranged from the disaster (completely gutted), the shaky (sketchy neighborhood), the overwhelming ("start by tearing out all the walls, then we'll figure out what to do"), and the perfect.

Made two offers, both at above asking price. Both were declined.

Oh, I'm the Denver area.