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Still Busy at the Hermit Haus

You can see from this why the guys need to wear masks for this work.

Currently, we’re warming up to get started on the Nash house. We have a mysterious potential buyer who’ll influence how we do the renovation. More on that later, if you can stand the suspense.

In the meantime, dust and debris still rain down on the floors at the Hermit Haus building, even while we keep having meetings there. The intrepid Mike and his some-time sidekick, Randy, spent last weekend removing the ceilings in the conference room. As always, it was a mighty messy proposition. I’m always amazed at how well Mike puts everything back together when he is done!

Ah, that’s looking better!

But, the ceiling looks great now, and really impressed the people who met in there Sunday, right while poor Mike was trying to finish cleaning up. They kept asking me if we were going to leave it like that, since it looks so cool, and I told them they’d convinced me to do it (even though that’s been the plan all along). Continue reading →

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A Numbers Game

This table presents the same numbers as described in the text.

This is a summary of the numbers presented in the text of this blog. The project does not show enough potential profit for us to take on.

When you’re looking at a deal, it’s really easy to get excited about the raw numbers. In fact, if the basic numbers—how much the property will sell for minus how much it will cost to get it ready to sell—aren’t great, run!

In this case, we were looking at a house that would sell for about $375,000. We could buy it for $225,000 and it would take about another $65,000 for renovation, based on our average cost per square foot on a house in this market. That leaves about $85,000 in gross profit. Not bad for six months work. Right?

That gross profit number means that we should take a closer look, not that this is a good deal. It’s really easy to forget about the other costs, which can add up faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100 meters. Continue reading →

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Bird Dogging

Here’s a bird dog, driving for dollars.

What’s a bird dog in the world of real estate investing? It’s someone who looks for potential properties for you. Some of them are just friends, others are fellow investors who don’t want to invest in your niche and pass along deals, and others are real estate professionals.

I recently talked to a coworker’s daughter, who is just starting out in real estate. I think she was looking for clients, and was surprised when I started handing over business cards and telling her all about Hermit Haus Redevelopment. After I answered a few of her questions and explained the kind of properties we are looking for, she set off on her career, with our needs in the back of her mind.

At first glance, we were really excited. It looked as if there was a lot of room for our renovation and other costs and for us to still make a nice profit. But then Lee took a closer look—of course he did!—and our excitement faded to disappointment. Another one bites the dust!

But I’ll let Lee tell you more about that. He’s the numbers nerd.

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Washington Closes at Last!

Enjoy the lovely house, new owners!

The only person who’s thrilled that it took so long for our buyer’s lender to get it together to close on the Washington house is our hard money lender, who got a lot more interest thanks to the extra repairs and then the financing delays. We are happy to support active service members but sometimes the government-sponsored lending institutions are in no big hurry. In any case, it’s all in the past, and lucky people will be moving into the Washington house.

Note that it also had strangely colored brick, but I managed to get good trim colors for it. I’m still angling for Lee to paint the Nash house brick.

But hooray, we can look for more properties and move forward on our current projects! Patience pays off.

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More Destruction at the Hermit Haus

Blowing air out the door. I hope they opened the window in the screen door.

All sorts of stuff went on over the weekend, but in the midst of it we got some more work done, which is a testament to our ability to multi-task. While Lee drove off for a family thing, I stayed in Cameron and supervised two fine folks working on the ceiling area of the Hermit Haus that is where we want to put a reception area for Hearts Homes and Hands (which should be opening by October 15!). Since we already got some really nice rustic furniture for the area, we are looking forward to how rustic it will look with the exposed ceiling.

Make delicately removes stuff from around the stairway. Can’t wait to replace that…

Mike led the team, and did a great job putting up plastic and installing a fan to blow OUT of the office area. That minimized the dust coming in to the rest of the basement area. It’s always a real mess dealing with ceiling removal, so the team wore lots of safety equipment, too. They learned from last time.

Our other team member this week was Joe, and even though he’s only 14, he really pulled his weight. It helps that he’s pretty muscular for his age and already does a lot of physical work over at our family farm in Yorktown. By early afternoon, they’d gotten all the ceiling torn down and the area swept and tidied. Many trash-can loads were removed, so they got a lot of stair climbing in.

Joe’s mom, Eva, read her book on the futon and I did a bunch of work and blogging (also work) while they were busy, so it was productive time for all.

Continue reading →

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Most Recent Posts

Still Busy at the Hermit Haus
09/18/19 - Commercial Buildings, Rehabbing - No Comments

Currently, we’re warming up to get started on the Nash house. We have a mysterious potential buyer who’ll influence how we do the renovation. More on that later, if you can stand the suspense. In the meantime, dust and debris still rain down on the floors at the Hermit Haus building, even while we keep…

Continue Reading
A Numbers Game
09/17/19 - Education, Strategies - No Comments

When you’re looking at a deal, it’s really easy to get excited about the raw numbers. In fact, if the basic numbers—how much the property will sell for minus how much it will cost to get it ready to sell—aren’t great, run! In this case, we were looking at a house that would sell for…

Continue Reading
Bird Dogging
09/16/19 - Education - No Comments

What’s a bird dog in the world of real estate investing? It’s someone who looks for potential properties for you. Some of them are just friends, others are fellow investors who don’t want to invest in your niche and pass along deals, and others are real estate professionals. I recently talked to a coworker’s daughter,…

Continue Reading
Washington Closes at Last!
09/12/19 - Sales - No Comments

The only person who’s thrilled that it took so long for our buyer’s lender to get it together to close on the Washington house is our hard money lender, who got a lot more interest thanks to the extra repairs and then the financing delays. We are happy to support active service members but sometimes…

Continue Reading