As of this afternoon we’ve taken one more step toward ownership of a house that we intend to flip. We’ve had this idea in mind for a while, and we’ve been trying to find a good candidate. We made an offer on this house about a month ago but couldn’t settle on a price.
The house went off the market, then came back on at a reduced asking price. Perfect! We made an offer and they accepted. In this case, “they” is HUD. Now, we wait. Apparently, it will take them a few days to sign the contract and they have up to 45 days before closing. Nice, right? Our government in action. Slow, but it’s progress.
Meanwhile, we will begin working on our plan of attack. Obviously we want to minimize the time required to turn the house around. To do this, we need to hit the ground running as soon as we assume ownership. I’ll be managing the business side and Mr. H will be doing the work. I’m also in charge of helping layout the plan. He is responsible for executing according to the plan, including schedule and budget. Heaven help us! We have 45 days to get this figured out.
Here are some highlights of what needs to be done:
It seems pretty typical for a flip. The house needs paint (end to end, inside and out), a kitchen make-over, and perhaps new carpet. I’m hoping the steam cleaner (with appropriate chemicals) will be adequate to salvage the carpet, but we’ll budget for worst case. Since there’s only one bathroom in this three-bedroom home, I think our investment dollars will be well-spent in the “room of the throne”. It’s small, so some magic may be required.
Stay tuned, this promises to be quite an adventure. And a learning experience for all of us.
UPDATE: Our cashier’s check was made out to “HUD Homes” instead of plain old “HUD”. Also, the realtor’s wife (the broker for the transaction) used green ink instead of blue for her signatures. Our agent caught the error and had her sign in blue, but this was not adequate for the powers-that-be at HUD. We will need to get together tomorrow to provide a new cashier’s check and to sign a new set of documents. It’s reassuring that we’re off to such a smooth start, right?
