Striving to create a better life for everyone by sustainably solving real estate problems

(512) 807-8777

Tag Archives: Villa Park

OK, NOW It’s Cold in the Office

The finished ductwork. You can sort of see two vents.

You have to hand it to Felix. He got all the air conditioning woes taken care of as fast as humanly possible. Our Villa Park B casita had a frozen compressor, which thankfully was still under warranty (nonetheless it cost us $700 for what was not covered). Rental properties aren’t for wimps. But we need to put our tenants’ needs before ours, so that one got fixed first!

The new Internet thermostat. Lee says it has a better interface than the Nest.

Felix then trekked up to Cameron and checked out why the brand-new system wasn’t cooling. Thank goodness it wasn’t the brand-new compressor! It was, instead, the brand-new thermostat.

So, Lee took the opportunity to get a different kind of thermostat put in, which he can control via his phone. This will be handy later, when we are working in the Gillis house and renting out this space. If someone leaves the thermostat at 60 in summer or 80 in winter, we can take care of it!

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
66Shares

Positive Cash Flow!

It makes the world and our businesses go ’round!

Yep, every business wants some positive cash flow (at least every ethical business does). We’re happy to say ours has increased twice this week.

Chaparral/Roadrunner

This house is finally and completely closed, so we are no longer renting it to the family who lives there. They own it! We wish them many happy returns and many happy years in the lovely neighborhood. I’m glad we were able to be patient and wait until their financing worked out, but it sure did seem like a long time.

Villa Park A

You may have seen that Lee and I had put this property back on the market, and the front unit was for rent (we were sad to lose some great tenants). Carol has been working hard, and we now have an approved rental application, so the cash will start flowing from that soon. Plus, there is a fellow investor interested in buying the property so THEY will have some cash flow. We’ll let you know how that works out.

Of course, now I’m thinking that would be an ideal property for rain gardens, but let’s move forward and do that on a new property, OK?

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
1Shares

If You’re Buying, We’re Selling!

I sure love these floors.

Want to live among huge trees in north Austin? You can! Lee’s decided to put the Villa Park houses up for sale for $525,000. That price includes TWO houses, one of which is rented by really great people, and provides income that could help pay your mortgage! The main house has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus multiple living areas.

Would you rather lease the main house? It’s $1950 a month and a perfect family home on a dead-end street that backs onto a park with great trails to walk (Anita and I miss those trails). Of course, if you know anyone looking in the area around Parmer/183/620, please pass this opportunity on to them.

Carol has made a really nice slide show about the properties:

Click the picture for more information on the property and some beautiful photos of both houses.

These properties have been well updated over the past few years, so if you buy them, you can relax and experience quiet living in a great north Austin location. Call Carol at 512-587-0208 and talk to her about the house!

 

 

 

Hermann says please like and share!
1Shares

Carol Saves the Day at Villa Park

You may remember our Villa Park casita, where Anita and I lived last year, and which had the most disaster-fraught renovation in history. We rebuilt this little house completely, saving only the shell of the outside (the city required we keep the dimensions and roofline). We even installed a new, real, foundation to replace the three slabs with no rebar and no plumbing it previously had.

We had a hard time renting it out last year, because we were unable to stage it once we moved to the Bobcat Lair, and people being unhappy that it shared the yard with the house in front. But, when we did get a fence and all that, we got some really great renters who were settling in nicely. One of them even got an award at the local elementary school.

Unfortunately, the other renter got a great job promotion that required moving to scenic Bentonville, Arkansas (there are other companies besides Wal-Mart there). We certainly didn’t want to force them to stay, so Carol jumped on getting it rented again.

Why it worked this time

We were motivated, because if we couldn’t get it rented, the renters would have to pay until we did, but if we rented it quickly, their initial deposit would cover that. Carol got to work and made this nice Facebook ad:

You get a screenshot, because I can’t make it play here.

Click the link to see it live, I hope.

https://www.facebook.com/BigAustinHome/videos/1800913923318570/

We all shared it everywhere we possibly could. People lined up to see the space (literally, four families went to see it in 15-minute intervals), and it was rented in just a few days to some other fine folks with no kids and no pets! Hooray!

It worked because the tenants had decorated the casita nicely, which showed how well it “lived.” The current tenants cleaned it up (they were motivated) to perfection, so people just loved the place.

That’s a real lesson to remember: staging truly helps sell or rent houses. I now really wish I’d done a better job the first time.

We sure appreciate Carol’s hard work to get the casita rented so fast! Lee and I won’t even notice a drop in our cash flow. Win!

Hermann says please like and share!
18Shares

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The large yard before fencing.

Every homeowner knows that work on a house is never really done. There’s always something that has to change: things break, improvements need to be made, times and styles change, and so on. We rehabbers know it, too.

In the case of the Villa Park main house and casita, changing market forces meant our original rehab exit strategy had to be altered to making the houses into rentals. With that change, we were faced with a dilemma—we’d have two separate tenants and only one backyard. It was fine when Carol and Russell lived in the front house and Sue Ann and I lived in the casita; we’re all friends and enjoyed the spacious yard together, even with the occasional lacrosse ball flying over the back fence from the youth sports field on the other side. It doesn’t really work when two or more strangers have to share a yard.

 

The strings make sure the fences are straight.

One of the first things that come to mind when you’re going to have two sets of strangers sharing a space is privacy. Everybody wants to feel as though they have space they can call their own and to determine when and with whom they share that space. Some people need more privacy than others do. Some people are introverted. Some people are extroverted, but don’t necessarily want a wide-open view into what their neighbors are doing all the time. As landlords/rehabbers, we get it. As Hermits, we really get it.

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
14Shares