New Year, New Experiences

The end of 2012 brought with it a tornado on Christmas Day. A tornado that destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate in midtown Mobile.  A tornado that happened to make its debut while we were enjoying a wonderful break in Houston celebrating the holidays with my family. Demouy, a.k.a The Beast turned Beauty, is located in midtown Mobile and encompasses nearly all of our business capital. The tornado touched down literally FEET from our doorstep. Upon returning from Houston, we saw one street over where houses had their entire roof ripped off. Driving around our block, we saw huge sections of houses missing and debris piled high up on the side of the road. But a Christmas miracle happened...we were spared! We had some debris to clean up in the yard (random breaker box wrapped around our tree and tons of small limbs, roofing material from our neighbors, etc.) and off the roof (including a random 2x4??!). One of our windows was cracked from what appeared to be a shingle from the high school tile roof one block over. Aside from this, we weren't affected! Even the pillows in the front porch staging furniture didn't fly away! We feel very blessed and so relieved!

With this behind us, we have hit the ground running in 2013, including securing our 10th flip that we will sign papers on when Sugar Pine closes (Jan. 25th). We are about to reach DOUBLE digits...What a victory!

We are still working on Deerwood (see pics below!) and have taken on the challenge of staging The Beauty. We are hoping this will help get an offer. Once this property is liquidated, we plan on buying 2-3 more with that capital. The last 3 days have been spent hitting up every furniture, consignment, thrift, and decor store all over the city. We are on a major budget so it hasn't been the easiest task to furnish a 2200 square foot house that happens to be listed at nearly 1/4 of a million dollars...but we have found some great items! Pics coming soon!

I am looking forward to a wonderful year. Last year had many struggles trying to figure out how to manage time, finances, and relationships while trying to build a business that could support us financially. We mastered a few areas and are still working on some others. We sacrificed a great deal but feel accomplished after making it through our first year as full time real estate investors...with our marriage and sanity intact! 2013 is full of hope and we are excited to build on our experience from last year and hopefully pocket some serious dough this year! We want to pay of all our of credit card debt and buy a home for us...CASH. No bank loans. No financing. Pure financial freedom. Too big of a goal, you say? Impossible to do, you say? I believe in it. I'm committed to it. I'm excited for it.

Bring on 2013.

Master bath.

Finished wood flooring.

Hall bath.

Dave getting it done in la cocina!

The beginning of Dave's mantel masterpiece.

Another view of the master bath.

Ready for baseboards!

Master bedroom. Carpet to be installed.

Happy Dance!

Hello to all the Flipping Mobile followers! Got some great news to share with you! Shortly after my last blog post, Sugar Pine went under contract!! Let me tell you how strange it all went down...The showing resulting with an offer was our FIRST showing, on a RAINY day, after only 20 DAYS on the market, 2 weeks before CHRISTMAS, and locked in at only $1,500 under list price. Isn't that awesome???! Happy dance! Closing is scheduled for late January...prayers sent that this won't be extended any longer than that. We could really stand to get paid since it's been 6 months since our last closing!

We have started seeing Deerwood come together...and I am really getting excited about the product we are going to deliver. All new kitchen cabinets, all new flooring, all new granite, all new paint, all new stainless appliances, all new light fixtures, and the list goes on. We also changed the layout completely to accomplish a more "open" floor plan. Knocked a few walls down here and put up a few there. Here's a few pics of some work we accomplished over the past few weeks...these are not completely up to date - all interior painting is now done and the majority of wood flooring throughout the living and dining room has been laid...

There used to be a wall here. Cabs/granite/tile...check.

Fireplace to be a showstopper when complete.

Wall added where door is...another wall torn down where couch is...

Vanity & walls being painted. Granite, tile...check.

Master bath...

Kitchen view into new open floor plan!

One fun project was turning outdated brass knobs to more updated, oil rubbed bronze knobs. They look a thousand times better than before and it saved lots of $$$ not replacing them, especially since they were all already functional!

Yay for fun projects that pack a big punch!

Wood flooring going in...

Gonna try to knock out the rest of the wood flooring before leaving for Houston again because...it's Christmas time, y'all! Exited to spend a few days celebrating with the fam. Until we speak again, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night"! :)

I'm backkkk!

Hello all! I obviously took a bit of a break from the blog after our Sugar Pine Challenge. Dave and I went on a wonderful 10 day vacation to Houston after finishing little Sugar Pine on Day 41. We got a chance to relax and clear our heads of all things work! You can view the final "after" pics HERE on our Facebook page...

So far we have not had any showings in the 17 days it's been on the market. From talking to some other investors, we are realizing that the market has slowed a bit...the holidays, election, etc. may be playing a part. It's so frustrating that variables such as these can affect what would otherwise be a quick sale. Great property, great location, outstanding price...stupid variables always mess things up! It's so hard being patient - but it IS a virtue...and I do want to be a virtuous woman - and investor :)

Since vacay, we have been plugging away at Deerwood. Got the new kitchen cabinets and granite installed as well as a good bit of the interior painting done. I will be posting pics of our progress along the way!

I'll sign off now with a few pics from our trip! Thanks for a great time, fam! :)

Love these ladies!

Fun day at the lake...Dave schooling us on how to skip rocks!

Got to partake in decorating the Christmas tree with these beautiful people!

Fave :)

Swing set timeeeee!

Snap back to reality...where coffee is our friend and long days are the norm! Excited to get another property done and be one day closer to the closing table...

All set up for a long stretch of flippin' ahead!

Days 34 - 38

We are now just a few mere days away from listing Sugar Pine! We are so excited and so TIRED! At this point, I literally don't remember what day of the week it is...looking forward to a brain & body break very soon!!!!

Days 34-38 have been FULL of work. I spent most of my time finishing up the painting inside and outside, sprucing up the blah concrete front porch with some fabulous porch paint (gotta have the most curb appeal possible!) as well as cleaning the existing tile floors in the living room and kitchen that we are keeping. And by cleaning, I mean scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, and scrubbing some more....and then scrubbing some more. My arms are now jello.

Dirtiest. Floor. Ever.

Amongst a host of other things, Dave has laid the new wood flooring in the entry way and laundry room, finished hanging the last of the light fixtures, installed the toilet, hung the crown molding and installed the appliances. Love seeing it all come together! Our plumber came and installed the faucets and hooked up all the new pipes. And our tile guy finished the floors in the master bath...

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Hanging the last light fixture...whoop whoop!

We have a few more things to mark off our list and then time to pack up, clean up, and stage the house, one of my favorite parts of the process...then off to Deerwood we go to try and knock it out before the end of the year!

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

- Colin Powell

Days 28 - 33

The Challenge is still ongoing! I punked out the past few days as far as the blog goes - but gotten so much done at our Sugar Pine Challenge! Instead of going into extreme detail about everythinggggg we've done (which could get tedious...and boring!), here's a few pics of our progress.

What a difference the new windows made...all 9 of 'em! They not only look beautiful, they add value. Can you imagine having all brand new windows in your home? I can't...and would love it!

 

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New front door

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The "so-so" tile that we kept in the kitchen actually doesn't look bad since painting the god-awful wallpaper and border (Yes, you CAN paint over both! Definite time saver!) and re-doing the cabinetry. And, I absolutely love the chandelier ($25.00 marked down from $99.99!). The scale is perfect for the space and the round shade adds a bit of coziness to the eat-in-kitchen. The new granite counter tops definitely add value and a bit of contrast in the kitchen...overall, pretty happy with the transformation!

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Love this chandelier!

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The bathrooms aren't scary, nasty dungeons any longer! David framed out the existing mirrors ($$$ saver!) and I painted the vanities. More granite installed as well as beadboard (more added value!). Dave put a fresh coat of epoxy in the showers, making them look better than new, so the bathroom revivals are a-coming along nicely!

 

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So happy with the carpet a well as the installer. Probably gonna be giving him more work in the future...gotta love adding more contractors to our list!

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We've decided to hire out the small amount of tiling we need done in the bathroom so we can finish sooner...plus it's not a big budget buster on this house. Tiling is pretty time intensive so it will be worth it to spend a couple hundred bucks on labor and materials rather than push our list date back any farther.

Today was our monthly Port City REIA event! We met a few more peeps and were really encouraged and uplifted by some that saw The Beauty. It's nice to hear that people see the value in your work...even down to the small details. Yayyyy for THAT!

Made a final list of To-Do's...very excited to get all these marked off and know another one is done! Well, until it sells at least... :)

Oh, before I forget! We are up to 8 showings at The Beauty...any day now that offer will arriveeeeee...

And another thing - the Deerwood partnership is a no-go. We couldn't make it work...that's okay though, we will just push on through to get it on the market as soon as Sugar Pine is complete!

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

- Bill Cosby