Hermit Haus Redevelopment

Meadow Arbor 1

We closed on the sale of this house on July 23, 2019. Good project!

The Meadow Arbor 1 house is in a suburb of San Antonio. We acquired it in March 2017. It’s near an Air Force base, in a quiet neighborhood. It was definitely a sad house. The rather old Google maps picture looks all happy, well maintained, and loved. The picture from when we first saw the house shows that the intervening years have not been kind. But that’s OK, it’s what we like!

The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and checks in at a cozy 1,205 square feet. It’s in a zero-lot-line neighborhood with garage access from the back.

The initial strategy for this house was to clean up the interior and landscaping, and use it as a rental for a couple of years. We had been looking to add to our rental inventory, given recent market changes. After that we thought we would resell it as is, or fix it up for a higher resale, once we saw where the neighborhood is going.

However, the renovation came out so well, and the market was looking so good that we instead decided to list the house for $135,000 as soon as the rehab was completed.

But, as is so common around here, for some reason it didn’t sell. Instead, we went back to the rental idea in August 2017, and have found a good tenant for the house. This will bring us in some good money every month.

The original kitchen doesn’t compare to the new one!

Backstory

If you follow us on Facebook or in our blog, you know that we like to help people. In this case, the owner had moved out of state a few years back and had rented it to a friend to keep the mortgage up. This year, the friend had the opportunity to move into a larger house—I don’t know if the friend bought the new house or not. Rather than handle the rental long-range, the owner decided to sell us the house. We paid a fair price, and the owner didn’t have to worry about getting the house ready for a retail buyer or even doing the minor repairs needed to bring in a new tenant.

Progress

We didn’t make a lot of changes to the house, but there have been some needed repairs to plumbing, electrical, and some exterior porch posts. That all had to be done first.

After the structure was good, Frank’s team got to work covering up stains and repairing hundreds and hundreds of holes in the walls. Someone must have had a LOT of pictures!

This large brick hearth with wood accents
is the focal point for the great room.
And now it is much more attractive.

One other thing that’s going to make the house good (and safe) was that the brickwork on the fireplace was repaired and sealed. It’s such a nice feature of the home, and now it will stay in good shape for a long time. Next it was painted! (See the “after” photos.)

The interior walls were painted a neutral color that Carol chose, and you can see that the house looks so nice all one color. It looks brand new!

What’s Next?

This is the wall color for the house interior.

The new flooring for the house was ordered and was installed the next week. Also the exterior was painted as soon as the rain stopped, a three-color job, like many of the other houses in the neighborhood.

One of the bedrooms, showing trim and wall color.

The Final Touches

As soon as Frank’s team finished with the exterior painting, Carol and her friend Alba, who is listing the house, came over and did some light staging and took photos for the listing. After looking at the photos below, I’m sure you’ll agree that the house came out much better!

We love the red trim and the shiny floors. The highlight of the house, though, is the fireplace, which Frank painted himself, with many trips up and down a ladder. We think it was worth it! It is quite a feature now.