Real Estate Plot Twists

I hope that the twists and turns of the last month in our real estate saga are not indicative of what we should expect for the future.

The flip house that we couldn’t keep on (or off) the market? The one that had three offers/withdrawals in the space of about 6 weeks? Yeah, that one. It’s now under contract, again. We’re leasing it to our daughter and son-in-law (and 2 grandchildren, but we didn’t make them sign the lease).

We repaired all of the nitty-picky items identified in the first buyer’s inspection. These are not items that would typically need to be repaired for a house to be rented, and are not investments that will necessarily have any ROI down the road when we eventually sell the property. After all of that hard work, our rehab efforts will hopefully be appreciated by the new tenants. Our children. And pre-school grandchildren.

Does anyone else smell the potential for more drama? Could there possibly be any problem lurking in this arrangement?

I suppose it’s no coincidence that while all of this was going on, the tenants in our Hutto rental property moved out. Now we’re rehabbing that house, so we can put it on the market. For sale. Yep. We’re “flipping” the rental property.

We’ve owned it for about 18 months, which means there’s an unexpected financial benefit: the taxes on the transaction will shift from short term capital gains to long term capital gains.

So, the house we were renting, we’re now flipping; the house we were flipping, we’re now renting. We need to sell one before we buy another; so, Mr. H. is busy tearing out linoleum and putting in tile, contracting a painter, etc. prepping the Hutto house for sale. We’ll need to start looking for the next house soon.

Oh, and, we are sliding into the worst months for Real Estate transactions:

February appears to be the WORST month for real estate (at least according to this data). I think it’s a buyer’s market in winter and a seller’s market in Spring/Summer. Since we’re buying AND selling, I’m not sure how this will work.

About Fran Hart

Disciple of Christ, earning a living as the director of US-based operations for a Taiwanese company, managing an engineering organization while carving out time to write. Wife, Mother, Grandmother.
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2 Responses to Real Estate Plot Twists

  1. Bernie Davies says:

    Engineering Graphs can look fairly impressive, and at times actually mean something of significance. However, especially since I have one real estate family member and another friend in the business, nothing matters until closing papers are signed and the deal is done. That said, and this I have personally witnessed, when God is involved, charts, trends, markets, etc. do not matter. Having His Hand seal a deal comes with much peace. Blessings.

    • Fran Hart says:

      Amen! I’m trusting God’s got our back in these dealings. The path we’re on is twisting and turning so much we can’t see down the road and we MUST trust Him.

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