After a few stressful weeks working on the Avenue House and our day jobs, the trip we planned to Savannah, GA came just in the nick of time! Since Brian and I have always wanted to visit Savannah, we decided that my 30th birthday would be the perfect excuse for a little weekend getaway! There are already so many great guides out there on places to eat and things to do in Savannah, so I thought it would be fun to share the favorite spots we found for interior design! I love traveling and find so much design inspiration in new places. Since you gals and guys are design lovers as well, I thought you may find these places we explored as pretty as I do!
House Flipping: Avenue House - Weeks 4 + 5
Guys, these last few weeks have been a STRUGGLE! We were making pretty good progress with paint and some of the systems (HVAC and plumbing are in!) but we had a pretty big setback with one teeny tiny mistake: using the wrong type of paint. Uggghhhh. We learned a very valuable lesson with this mistake, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.
House Flipping: Avenue House - Weeks 2 + 3
Weeks two and three have come and gone quickly but slowly at the same time, lol. We have been tackling some of the time-consuming - and a little boring - projects off the bat. Brian got all of the walls nice and smooth by scraping, patching, and sanding ALL of the darned cracks in the plaster walls of this house. None of them were very deep or concerning, but we know that buyers can be really scared of cosmetic cracks in walls so we wanted to make sure the potential buyers didn't have any concerns about the structural integrity of this little house. If you do this in your own home, just be aware that this is a very messy process. You will probably be sweeping, dusting, and mopping for weeks. Here are some of the rougher areas before we fixed them.
House Flipping: Avenue House - Week 1
Houston, we have a house! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that we just closed on our next project! The Avenue House (see more info on this house here) is a really cute craftsman house that just needs a little TLC. While we are very excited, I am also a little nervous because this is the first flip we are managing just the two of us. We are acting as our own general contractor, so I hope that we do not have too many surprises along the way.
Flip Hunting: The Avenue House
Our real estate agent had shown us a few houses last week but they were either going to be too expensive to repair (like the hoarder's house - I might have to write a separate post just on that for you guys) or the seller was asking too much to make it work. To be honest, we were getting a little discouraged on our house flipping endeavors. In fact, after seeing the last house, we had decided to take a break from actively looking (aka stalking MLS and Craigslist and Zillow like it's our job). Then, after a dud showing, our agent said there is this house that hasn't gone on the market yet - would we like to swing by and take a look? She also mentioned it is in great shape. Um, yes, yes we would.
Flip Hunting: Update
I know it has been crickets around here lately but that is because we sadly have not been able to get our next flip under contract! Inventory is low and what is available is selling pretty quickly. Great for flipping when you sell! Bad for when you have no house to sell. :(
Since selling Dalton, we have looked at five houses and scouted out about a dozen more. See the five we viewed below.
Those top four we ended up not offering on because they either had too funky of a layout or needed way too much work (check out that bottom left photo). However, this little gem shown below... You guys, I made the ultimate flipping mistake. I kind of fell in love with this house. It was immaculate but completely outdated. Inside it was nothing but brown trim and wood paneling but had so.much.potential. It had been on the market for 200 days, so we made an offer thinking we had a pretty good chance. We had to offer significantly lower than asking because while the changes were mostly cosmetic, we had to get the house for a certain price for it to make sense. Unfortunately, there was another offer that was accepted (what are the chances after being on the market for so long) so we lost out. We were actually pretty bummed.
It is more time consuming than I thought searching for deals and then crunching the numbers to see if the house makes sense. However, Brian and I have found a system that works well for us so far.
- Once we find a house that seems interesting, we do a drive by to check out the neighborhood and see if we can inspect the outside of the house from the car. Often photos will be misleading (in a good or bad way). Some houses look way worse in person but often they actually look better.
- If the house looks promising, we will schedule a showing with our real estate agent.
- Before the showing, Brian will do some research on comps to figure out what it could sell for once renovated.
- During the showing, I take notes on the condition of the house and try to take photos. Do we need to replace the roof? Refinish hardwoods? How many doors are in the house? This lets me go back after the showing and come up with a ballpark renovation estimate.
- We then determine based on comps and renovation estimates if we can make an offer.
We're still new to this whole flipping business and are probably a little more cautious right now than most. Actually, I think that is just me. I'm pretty sure Brian would buy anything if I agreed to it. :) We are also learning that we can't drag our feet on offering on a house if we like it. A good deal will move fast. I am trying to be more diligent about searching the MLS, foreclosure listings, and Craigslist regularly. I think our next tactic soon is going to be "driving for dollars" to see if there are any opportunities that aren't on the market yet.
I know this isn't a very exciting post full of before and afters, but I want to be as completely transparent as I can about house flipping. I am starting to think finding a deal is half the battle! Hopefully we will nail down our next project soon and I'll have more to share with you guys. :)