Closing timeeeee!

We closed on Pocahontas yesterday! It yielded our biggest payday to date. We can BREATHE a bit while we finish up The Beast, which by the way is looking fabulous! David finished the cabinets, trim, and crown molding and it all looks so beautiful, so custom. While he worked on those, I got to painting the 1800 square feet of ceilings - during which my arms were a kind of tired that I'd never, ever experienced before! But I can now say they are completely done and not a day too soon!

Today we put color on the walls...a major, major, I repeat MAJOR victory for us! We have spent months working on getting this property to the point of being able to put color on the walls - months of  demo-ing, peeling, sanding, scraping, sheet-rocking, skimming, caulking...to see color excites, motivates, and encourages us to keep pushing because we are almost there! Our 6 month anniversary is coming up with The Beast and most of our flips are rehabbed and sold within 3 months - so you can imagine what putting color on the walls means to us!

Tomorrow our landscaper is coming to level the backyard with new dirt and plant grass seed. Hopefully by the end of the week our front flower beds will be made and the yard completely done - with enough time before listing to allow the seed to grow and our new plants to fill-in a bit. And the best part about it is, we don't have to do it! That definitely hasn't been the case on this house...or I guess the latter either! At this point, I can't imagine not being hands-on with our properties...or what it would be like to not wake up everyday thinking, "The Beast is waiting...". That day is approaching...and we will embrace it utterly and completely when it comes!

Progresssss!

Sooooo, the kitchen cabinets are up at The Beast and look oh-so-good! Dave did an amazing job installing them. They were special order cabinets so it took them awhile to get here but it was definitely worth the wait! They were delivered yesterday and we got them all installed TODAY, which was a surprise.  It's nice when that happens! If only everything worked that way...

Here's some "before" and "after" pics of the kitchen...it's definitely come a crazy long way from that awful, tiny, pink-trimmed, paneled, disgusting, old mess of a kitchen that it was...

Eeeekk!

Yuck!

Staging Day

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend! Friday, the UPS man made my morning alot better when he showed up at my door! My new chairs I bought off EBay came in! And perfect timing too...We have a new house we are staging for Lawrence and I needed them to furnish part of the master. I sold some of my staging furniture (2 used Craigslist "finds") to the woman who bought Pocahontas - so I was able to use that money to purchase 2 NEW matching club chairs, with money left over to go estate sale shopping with...I scored! Here's some pics of my staging from Friday (and my new chairs!)

Staging is a lot of fun for me. I find enjoyment in showcasing a home's value...and it give my creative side an outlet. I love finding an old piece of furniture and putting my spin on it, giving it new life and in turn using it to make money - over and over again. Staging creates a "feeling" in the house, and feelings about the home either help you or hurt you as a seller! Staging maximizes value and minimizes flaws...a tool that more investors, realtors, and "for-sale-by-owner"s would greatly benefit from...

PS - to the best husband, thank you for your "eye", your help, and your picture hanging skills!

Great news! But it's a secret ;)

Sorry for my absence! This week has been fulllll of everything business AND personal but I have some fun pictures to show of "The Beast". I finally finished the exterior painting downstairs...whew! The hubs was oh-so-sweet to help with the last few tricky spots ;) 

The inside is looking really WHITE as we are priming the walls! It looks like an insane asylum now but before it looked like something out of "Saw" or "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" so we are making progress!

 But back to our great news! I didn't want to jinx it by sharing but it's so exciting I can't help it! After being victims of the market and having to short sale our beloved 3000 square foot home of 5 years, we have been renting a little "cabin" as we call it, for the past year...700 tiny little square feet. We decided to see about being pre-approved for a home loan...hoping that our dream of home ownership would again become a reality. Well, we found out today that that dream WILL be a reality as we are pre-approved for an amount well over what we need :) :) :) God is good! All that being said, we have placed an offer on a precious little house built in the 50's with enough charm to make you want to hug it! A house that does not need much work and would be a great property to start our rental portfolio with if/when we decide to move again! Say some prayers...we are pumped!

Does this Tyvex suit make my butt look big?

Today felt like Monday after taking the day off yesterday for 4th of July. We haven't taken a day off in the middle of the week in so long. Quite refreshing I must say - although I really missed my Texas family! For all those reading this who have family close enough to celebrate holidays with, do not take for granted! 

I'm now inside at Demouy beginning the long process of painting the interior...2200 square feet of priming, caulking, gloss-ing, and color-ing!  However, our amazing paint sprayer makes the job lightening fast compared to rolling and brushing! The only downfall is you're covered in paint speckles from your head to your toes. Soooo I decided to invest in a Tyvex suit. Me in a Tyvex suit = hilarious-ness. Enjoy! :)

Investor Carpool Tour

We just finished up the investor carpool tour! There was a great turnout of about 20 people from all walks of life. It was a good networking event where we met some new folks and were able to discuss our properties as well as market my staging! I got a chance to sneak some pics during the tour...

And, THIS guy is our mentor, Dr. Lawrence Roberts. He has walked us through the process of flipping...in a hands-on, practical way that a real estate book or seminar won't. If you are ever interested in flipping, GET A MENTOR! Lawrence guided us in the right direction on each house we bought and prevented us from making mistakes we otherwise wouldn't have known about. We plan on working with him well past our "graduation" from the coaching program. Thank you, Law, for investing your time, knowledge, and experience in us!

Tomorrow we go back to Pocahontas to do some repairs prior to closing. Looking forward to closing in a few weeks for the following reasons:

1. Payday (Hallelujah!)
2. Free up our lender's money so we can jump right into the next deal...5700 Deerwood...aka the house with no front door!

No worries, we happen to love ugly houses...they're cheaper and oh-so-fun to transform ;)

Friday Happenings

The past few days at Demouy have been really productive! I finished up the bulk of exterior painting downstairs and Dave worked his carpentry magic inside (I can't wait to show you the fireplace he's been working on!) Man, I am ECSTATIC I will no longer be on a 12 foot ladder for a very long time! I realized my fear of heights was worse than I thought...which is no bueno when you know that is where you will be working for several weeks!! But, facing your fears is never a bad thing...right??

My perch for way too long...

Anywho, forgive my detour...Back to our productive week! The electricians spent most of the week with us working on all the rewiring (and rewiring, and rewiring, and rewiring...did I mention rewiring?!). All of our custom windows came in too. Quick tip when placing orders with major manufacturers...play them against each other for better prices. We got a quote from Lowe's then took the quote to Home Depot who says they will beat any prices. We took Home Depot's quote back to Lowe's who also guarantees they will beat any prices. We saved $1,200 on our windows by using this method. When you are buying 19 windows like we did for Demouy, any price cut helps! (Oh! Andddd we used that method for our kitchen cabinets...saved a boatload of cash on those too! Try it...it works!)

To end our our productive week, we got Demouy all cleaned up and the last bit of furniture out. The crabby neighbors came out like vultures, trying to inquire into the furniture and "school" us on our rehab. I must say, after spending several months (and filling seven...I repeat SEVEN forty-five foot dumpsters) reviving that carcass of a house just to be scolded on not keeping the original windows (that, mind you, are rotting, broken, and covered in nearly 100 years of gunk), it was hard not to go "cray-cray" (a.k.a crazy) on her ass. Maybe my patience level will increase as a result of dealing with these nosy neighbors...but don't hold your breath!

Moving on...tomorrow Pocahontas and Demouy are being featured on a "rehab carpool tour" which will bring people interested in flipping. David and I went to one 3 years ago when we were aching to get in the biz. Should be fun! Pretty exciting (and odd) that we are now on this side of things and can give advice to people wanting to learn what this flipping business is all about. Dave will do all the talking...did I mention I have a fear of public speaking too??... ;)