Diary of a Rehab: Acquire the Property

For those of you just joining us the "Diary of a Rehab" is a small series of blog posts about a rehab project currently taking place. Feel free to go back and read the past posts to get caught up.

The last project that the rehabber took on was a complete gut rehab. There was no option for him to save any of the architectural details on that one. Still, I was highly impressed with the level of craftsmanship and attention paid to detail on the project. I gladly listed that house for sale not too long ago. For those of you interested in seeing it go to www.6525westpark.com


Now that I had found an investor with a superior team capable of completing difficult rehabs, I went on the hunt for more properties. In talking with the investor we had determined that the best houses for him to flip at the moment would be small South City Bungalows. Searching high and low we finally stumbled across one that fit the bill exactly. Another investor had too many projects at the time and was willing to sell one of his projects to us! It took forever to close the deal since it was a short sale (for those of you who don't know a short sale is when the bank allows you to sell the property for less than what is owed and they take that in lieu of foreclosure). During the time it was under contract the copper got stolen and thieves took the stain glass from the foreclosure next door. More on all of that later...

The house is a cute 2 bed/1 bath gingerbread with a one car garage and sunroom addition. Problem with it is, a lot of it's original details had been covered up or replaces in favor of hideous seventies paneling, dark kitchen cabinets, beige carpet, out of date wall paper and brass fixtures. At the time of purchase there was no way for us to tell what was under the carpet or behind the paneling. In the rehab world, nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems. We were in for some BIG SUPRISES!

The house is still currently being rehabbed, but I have to catch you guys up with where we are now. Some of these blogs will be about events past. I will let you know when we get all caught up and we are in real time.