We hadn’t been celebrating our wins as we originally had planned to. We’d closed on a number of properties since we enjoyed a celebratory glass of bubbly.
A sleeping angel.
Well, that could NOT go on forever, plus we need to regroup and make new plans. We decided to have a meeting of the directors and Ray Ramirez, to talk about the lessons learned from the Oakridge project. Since the meeting was at the Bobcat Lair, Anita was also there.
Plus there was a very cute visiting dog named Pattycake. She did not sleep the whole time. She was a bundle of fun, but darned well behaved for a doggie in a strange place, surrounded with strangers.
Lessons Learned
So, Lee and Ray had a long discussion about what our profit was, and why it wasn’t just the amount of the check we got back at closing. We’ve learned that we have to pay back the expenses we incurred during the renovation that were not just what the contractor charged, such as all the holding costs (insurance, mortgage, etc.). Plus we had to pay back the hard money lender and their hefty interest. That was one of the harder lessons learned, and did not lead to great rejoicing for a couple team members.
Our team, along with GC Ray Ramirez, toast the completed Oakridge project. There were no photos where everyone’s eyes were open.
But, we learned a lot about the model of having the contractor be one of the financers of a project. Ray covered the remodeling cost, then got a percentage of the profit. This is good incentive to finish a project on time and under budget! The more you save, the more you profit. We might try this again on another project.
We also were proud of the job Carol did managing the project, using the systems we’d learned to get it done in 88 days! Two days ahead of the 90-day goal! We did spend quite a bit on staging and landscaping, but that may well have been why we ended up with multiple offers and selling above listing price.
Public Celebration!
Of course, we enjoyed our bubbly, even if some of us were driving and didn’t drink any. We even sent off the information on our “win” to the folks at FortuneBuilders. Russell got a nice email back, and it made us all feel good when he read it to us!
Onward and upward now. We’re still evaluating prospects for our next few projects. Suggestions welcome!
I’m so glad that Lee drank that whole bottle. I didn’t mean to drink that much for me since I couldn’t be there, but I know he is in overachiever.
Yeah, he wanted to be SURE to get your portion in. (Actually, he did not drink anything, since he had to drive back to the ranch, but he is a good actor.)