We make sad houses happy again

(512) 807-8777

Tag Archives: St. John

It’s Almost Over at Saint John…

Hello again! We hope you had a nice weekend, and if you were celebrating Easter or Passover, that you had some good food and time with family and friends. We did, from various places. But now it’s time to get back to work.

This was my holiday greeting this weekend. Alfred sends his springtime love.

Today is no April Fool’s Day! Unless something really weird happens, we should close on the Saint John house today, and get that little bone of contention off the books. We’re really grateful for all the work everyone’s done on the project, from Larry’s first renovation, to the things Russell did via sweat equity, Frank’s checking up on the house periodically, to Carol’s attempt to use a new service to sell the place, and to Bobby’s hustling to get that thing finally sold as our local agent. There have been struggles and issues galore (remember the dude who tried to live there and burned the carpet?), but the end is in sight.

Lessons Learned?

Oh yes, we have a few of those. One big thing we’ve learned is that, no matter how much experience you have, there’s always something new that comes up to stump you. This house was full of surprises. Here is a partial list of painful lessons we got from this house:

  • Renovating too far away from your home base is challenging without a local person with eyes and ears near the property. We are glad Frank, and later Bobby, helped us out.
  • Renovating in a “transitional” neighborhood can be very risky. We got into this neighborhood too soon, and the drug deals near the home scared people off at first. But, by waiting until more of the neighborhood was improved, we were able to safely sell the house.
  • Also, it was humbling to be reminded that not everyone in an area is thrilled when “flippers” come in and fix up houses in their neighborhoods. Gentrification can make homes unaffordable to the traditional residents. And this makes us uncomfortable (although, do remember that this house was originally purchased to help an elderly woman get the care she needed).
  • General contractors need to be supervised closely. Because Larry was unable to be present while the house was being worked on, he wasn’t able to see that the contractor situation changed, and the quality of the work went down as the job progressed. Those folks disappeared and we haven’t heard from them since.

There are others, and maybe Lee or someone can add to the list. There is always risk when you renovate homes. And there is always a chance you will not make the profit of your dreams. That’s how business works. On the other hand, someone has a nice home to live in or rent out as of today, which is good.

Now we shall go kick today’s butt.

 

23Shares

One Step Closer for Saint John

Someone likes this shiny kitchen!

We’ve had so many interesting “challenges” with the Saint John property in San Antonio. Because of that, we are taking NO step forward for granted.

At the end of last week, we found out that the house had appraised. This is really good, since we’ve dealt with houses not appraising before (happened on the first house we did as a company), and the last time we did get Saint John appraised, it was for a lot less money than we sold it for this time.

But, whew, it all came out well. We’re really grateful to our San Antonio agent friend, Bobby Nix, who has been an invaluable help with the sale of this property. He’s had a few challenges to deal with, and we’re really grateful for his perseverance and flexibility!

Now that it’s appraised, we will install the air conditioning, which is our last duty.

Hope the closing goes smoothly. Then we can breathe!

12Shares

Contract on Saint John!

We’re not lost! We just took a break.

Hey there! Did you miss us?

Sue Ann took a little blog vacation. Sometimes you just need to take a break and get perspective. Also, it lets news build up for more exciting posts!

Now THIS is news! Thanks to our local agent, Bobby Nix, we have accepted an offer on the Saint John house in San Antonio. It really helped to have someone to show it and answer questions.

We did have to lower the price a bit, but we are happy to do so just to stop all the holding costs. We gave an appliance allowance and will install the air conditioner before closing. We did that, because the house is in a “transitional” neighborhood. It will be fine once people are there all the time, and lots of really cute houses are on that street now.

Other Property Good News

We can also report that the Oakridge house sale is sailing along smoothly. That’s a first! It easily passed inspection and appraisal, so we’ll have a happy closing day pretty soon.

Of course, we are still looking for another couple of properties to work on. Any ideas?

 

12Shares

What to Do, Saint John?

We still haven’t managed to sell the Saint John property. There was some interest recently, but more than one person was turned off by the transitional neighborhood. That’s too bad, since the neighborhood looks better with each passing week.

It’s still a really cute house, and in such better shape than it was before!

We considered renting it out, but when we found out the amount we could get for the house, combined with the fees we’d have to pay to have a company manage it, we’d end up losing money every month.

This house may be the biggest lessons learned project EVER if we ever finish it.

So, we’re going to see if a local real estate specialist can help us sell it. Let’s hope the local expertise, membership in the MLS for the area, and the ability to be personally involved will help get this one going. It should be worth the investment.

To be honest, we did not have a very good experience with the ListingSpark service, though we think it might be good for a different type of property. Another lesson learned.

More cheerful post next time, we hope!

0Shares

Happy 2018 from Us!

Hermann says don’t forget us if you have a deal!

It’s a new year, and we are full of renewed energy after a little break. We want to send all of our readers good thoughts for the coming year. May all your projects go smoothly, and may you make a profit! We wish that for us, too.

Our projects are marching on, of course! Here are a couple of quick updates:

Chaparral: We had someone Carol knew come in and quickly repaint the “pink” walls on the second floor and power wash the driveway to get rid of plants growing in the cracks. He also put in some nice perennial plants where the flowers had been in the fall. That’s good. But even BETTER is the full-price offer we received last week! Of course, there are interesting features to the offer, but we are working on getting a family with ten kids into this big house. They are a great fit!

Oakridge: The exterior color is better, and the trim should look great when done.

Oakridge: The exterior painting is complete and they’ve moved on to the interior. We have an in-progress photo to share right now, but will add a finished picture later today, so come back! Carol is busy on a marketing plan for this house. Know anyone looking to buy in Round Rock? Let us know!

Meadow Arbor 2: That should close any day. We put on a new roof, which of course had a permitting glitch, but we’re dealing with it. And we are waiting to hear on the insurance for the roof.

Taylor: It’s on schedule to close. Yay.

Chaparral: That is NOT pink. Ahh.

Blue Ridge: We are negotiating the replacement of the HVAC unit with the renters who would like to buy it.

Saint John: Still looking for the ideal buyer for that one.

12Shares