First, let me say that I am very happy now that I have quit my old job at the college. I do miss my office friends, and still consider them my extended family.
From time to time my posts may sound bitter or whiny, but know that I love what I am doing now as my own boss. This is what I was meant to do! ....well....that, or be a nomadic beach bum with my wife.
I am very excited about 2012! I hope to make some changes in how I run the business to be more efficient and capitalize on what I already have. No new property purchases. Just focus on improving profit margins on what I have. I went a few years focused on buying properties. This can be a good thing, but right now I have determined it to be more beneficial to not purchase more.
However, you may have noticed that the title of this post is "A New Project." Before you go and think what I just said in the previous paragraph was a bunch of malarky, let me explain. I said I was not going to "purchase" anymore properties. Didn't say I wasn't going to take a free house.
My father offered my brother and me an unusual Christmas gift this year. A house.
As you will soon see in the photos this house was free for a reason...it needs work. Plus, I feel my dad may be using this as an opportunity to teach us, test us, and possibly use it as a tax write-off.
I have learned much over the past 5 years about maintaining and repairing homes (plumbing, electrical, etc...), but this will be a great opportunity for my brother and I to get our hands really, really dirty. It requires the most work of any house I have ever owned, but I hope to spend less money on it than the last remodel I did by not hiring help, except where absolutely needed. One reason we do not want to spend too much on this home is the fact we will not be able get much for the house when we decide to sell it in a few years. As they say, "Location, Location, Location." This ain't a good location.
Call me a glutton for headaches.
Pros about the house:
1. FREE
2. Income producer someday soon.
Cons:
1. In a struggling neighborhood near an area that has seen better days (not the safest city around)
2. Hole in the roof where rain has been coming in for a couple years.
3. Broken windows
4. Wood rot
5. Damaged sheetrock
6. Milldew
7. Everything stolen from the inside (including the kitchen sink)
8. The pictures below may help show Cons.
9. Not much money to get the job done right now.
This will be a team effort between me and my brother, and we are very excited about it. We are in a bit of time crunch, because my brother's lawn care business will be picking up in a month or two, and our time to work on the house will be very limited.
Can it be done on a small budget, as a learning experience, and in a short period of time. We will see.
So far we have two days of work devoted to the house. Here are pictures from days one and two.
The next 5 pictures show how we found the house.
The first day we spent most of our time working on the yard and bleaching the exterior.
The following pictures are from the end of day two:
This is after bleaching, pressure washing, scraping, and putting a coat of primer on the house. Plus, we had to pick up litter that was all around the yard and garage. The neighbor next door was nice enough to let us used his water and power for the past two days. We gave him $20 for the use of his utilities.
Bad weather is supposed to be moving into the area tomorrow, so we will wait to put more primer on the trim, paint the exterior, and remove the window awnings.
So far we have $242 in this project:
$121 from each of us.
Yah! =)
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