November 19, 2008

We have placed a contract on a foreclosed home located in Fayette County about two weeks ago. We just received the binding contract today and will start calling our contractors to providing final bids on repairs needed at the house. We will close the deal on November 25th and will start the repairs right after the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

 

The home was originally listed for $148,000 with a recent foreclosure listing price of $84,900. We offered a price of $76,100 and was accepted. The home is located in Fayette county and will require complete painting and carpeting. We have a budget of $15,000 for repairs. Other homes are being listed and sold in the area for $140,000 to $160,000. Rental rates in the area are around $1,100 per month.

 

November 20, 2008

We received a call from the listing broker. They lost the escrow cashiers check that was delivered to them last week. Always be sure to get a receipt when you deliver the escrow check to the broker who will be holding the escrow until closing.

We also learned that the closing will have to be moved to the first week of December. Remember PATIENCE!

To see the before pictures of the major areas for rehab, click here.

 

December 9, 2009

We finally close on the house. We had a slight delay since the title was 'clouded' by a second lien on the home. This was just a matter of the bank clearing the issue and had no effect on the price.

Now we're off to bring the home back to life. Over the last couple of weeks, a neighbor came over and told me some of the story regarding the home. Apparently a couple with children went through a divorce. The husband was granted the house in the divorce proceeding. Unfortunately, there were some cut backs at his job and he started missing his mortgage payments. He continued to live in the house until he had to leave. Apparently his situation was so dire that he lived in the home without power for three months.

We were able to turn on the electricity and the gas over the phone. We had to go into the water department to have the water turned on. It's always good to know where your utility companies are. After the utilities were turned on, it's time to see if the furnace and hot water heater works. Remember that you buy the foreclosure "As Is", which means that you get everything that you see and also everything that you don't see.

The Furnace

Before we could fire up the furnace, I had to install a thermostat. Apparently the previous owner decided to take it with them (along with several of the lighting fixtures). Once I had the thermostat installed, it was time to fire the furnace up. It fired up nicely and I had a sigh of relief. But then a loud scarping sound started coming from a fan unit until it finally stopped working and the furnace shut down. The fan unit that shut down was a Draft Inducer which is a fan in your furnace that starts up before any natural gas id fired up to insure that spent natural gas is taken out of the house. (Good Idea). If the draft inducer shuts down, then the furnace shuts down. (Also a Good Idea). A Draft Inducer looks something like this:

I took the fan off and went to the local furnace parts store about 20 miles away. Fortunately, they had a replacement in stock. As I was standing at the counter, one of the service people looked into the fan unit and then turned to fan upside down and hit it a couple of times. Out fell a 2 inch hard body Ground Beetle. I am sure that you have seen one of these monsters before. They look something like this:

The technician tested the fan and it still worked. So I took it back to the house, hooked it back up and fired up the furnace. It worked! Now were ready to repair the house.

The home came with some appliances. The stove is in fairly good shape, so we put an add in www.freecycle.org. This is a good way to donate items (not just appliances) to someone that needs it in your local area. Give them a try if you have something that you no longer need.

 

December 16, 2008

We have now owned the house for one week. I would say that we are about 1/3 through the project and everything is on schedule. I am adding a new link to show the progress at this point since it contains many pictures and may slow your browser download.

Click here for the Week 1 progress report.

 

 

December 23, 2008

The contractors have been busy during the second week and are starting to finish up in several areas. Click on the link below to see the progress during the second week.

Click here for the Week 2 progress report.

 

 

December 30, 2008

The contractors are pretty much complete. Ronda and I will now work on the house until it is complete.

Click here for the Week 3 progress report.

 

 

January 4, 2009

We are now in the process of putting the finishing touches on the home. We have to paint the three bedrooms and replace all the lighting fixtures.

Click here for the Week 4 progress report.

 

March 5, 2009

We have completed the house and have placed it on MLS. Your probably wondering what happened to the updates for the past two months. We got rather tied up in the house and other life events and just plain ran out of time. Quite frankly, we are also wondering what happened to the time. However, we did put a considerable amount of time into getting everything repaired and updated and it always seemed like there was 'one more' thing that had to be completed. The project took longer than we expected, but it does 'shine' and we have priced it right.

I did all the 'manual' work and Ronda did all the design and painting of the bathrooms. She doesn't trust me with a paint brush or a caulk gun anymore!

So here is a link to the MLS listing:

http://atl.rexplorer.net/REX$PUB/66/CHRISTIANSEB/pub/pub_261847209.htm

And here is a link with pictures of the finished project:

Click here for final pictures.

 

Please email me with any comments or questions about the project.

 

I have an email bulletin that I send out weekly that shows New foreclosure properties in the Coweta and Fayette counties. Please submit your email if you would like to receive the bulletin. I hate Spam, so you will receive a confirmation email that you will need to click on to complete the subscription. You can always quit anytime you like.