A Wild Four Hours

I tell you nothing in this industry should faze me anymore. I got to House #2 yesterday around 4pm and left about 8pm. Here is what happened in those four hours ...

There were two things that topped my priority list: fixing the drywall repairs and fixing the doors. I wanted to get those jobs finished before anything else, so I started with the drywall. I actually took a digital camera this time and took some pictures of the area after I had sanded away the old spackle and paint. I just need to find time now to download and post the pictures. The first thing I did was spray on the spackle again. It says to let it set 2-5 mins and then to use a straight-edge to "flatten" the spackle down into the rough textured look. I used one of my old bandit signs as the straight-edge and it worked great.

While the spackle was drying, I started with the doors. There were four doors I had to trim slightly due to them rubbing against the carpet. I took each one down and trimmed about 3/32" off of the bottom which turned out to be perfect. During that time, I received FOUR phone calls. I guess the noise of the saw drowned out the ringing as I didn't know I got any calls until I checked sometime later. Three of the calls were from private numbers, and only one left a message. The 4th call was from my 1-866 number, which I couldn't check until I got home later. so, I listened to the VM and it was from a lady who saw my yard sign for House #1 and was interested. I immediately called her back. She said she lives in the same neighborhood as House #1, but is renting right now. She said what caught her eye about this house was the fact I was offering owner financing. She wanted to know more about what all that entailed, so I told her the best I could using layman's terms. She also asked if I could sell the house to them on a Rent-to-Own basis, which I told her would be a possibility (although with Texas' recent laws limiting L/O's, I would need to contact a RE attorney first). We talked a little more and I set up an appointment to meet with her and her husband tonight at House #1.

Whoo-hoo!!!

After talking with her, several things went through my mind. First, she said her current lease doesn't expire until the beginning of next year (she didn't say when exactly). That means if I were to sell/rent it to them, it would have to sit for a couple of months (at least). This may actually be a good thing, tho, as it could be a bargaining chip I can use. For example, suppose we meet tonight and they fall in love with the house. I could tell them that they could have it, but it would put me in a difficult position having to let it sit for so long when I could have sold it to someone else in the meantime. Therefore, I could ask for some non-refundable consideration upfront that could "hold" it for them. This would not only put money in my pocket now, but I wouldn't have to worry about the loan payments in the next couple of months. I'm still weighing this idea as I haven't had enough time to think it all the way through yet.

BTW, I got a call yesterday morning from someone interested in House #2 as well. They left a VM with their name and number, so I called them back at lunch. The man said he was on the phone with his wife talking about House #2 when I called him, and asked if he could call me back in a few minutes. I said, "Sure." I never did hear back from him. :-(

But it was exciting to see that my houses are getting some interest. Oh, well - getting back to the house now ...

After the spackle had dried, and painted over the areas with the NEW (i.e., correct) paint and I did a helluva job, IMHO (third times a charm?). Even close up I couldn't tell the two smaller areas were even damaged before. The larger area is a bit more noticeable, unfortunately, but still a lot better than my previous attempts and a heckuva lot better than what the original owner did. So, my two biggest priorities were now out of the way.

The next thing I wanted to do was to start cleaning. So, I started with the back bedrooms and just started picking up any tools and other debris I left behind. I also picked up any large peices of trash that I knew I couldn't vaccuum up. After that, I started with the first bedroom and vaccuumed. I then sprayed some stain lifter on the carpet stains, let it sit for a few minutes, and steam cleaned the room. To my surprise, all the rough stains came out. I then did the same for the second bedroom and dining room. Let me tell you, when I dumped the water out after cleaning each of those rooms, it looked as thogh someone had gotten two fistfulls of mud and mixed it in the water - it was that filthy. I then vaccuumed both the mini hallways between the secondary bedrooms, the hallway from the entry to the family room and the family room itself. By this time, it was about 8pm and my back was killing me from bending down with that stupid vaccuum the last couple of hours, so I decided to call it a night.

Two things caught my attention while vaccuuming/steam cleaning. First, the carpet is in bad need of stretching just about everywhere. I mentioned before how cheap this builder was and the carpet was definately no exception. I understand normal wear and tear, but this carpet was only 2-3 years old and already needed stretching. That's pretty bad, IMHO. The second thing was the fact that it looks as though I won't need to get new carpet installed. While cleaning, I got most of the hard stains out and the carpet looks great. If I can just get a professional carpet cleaning crew in to do the whole house along with restretching the carpet, I think it will be enough. Ironically, when I got home last night, my wife said we got some circulars in the mail - one of which was coupons for carpet cleaning.

So, an interesting span of four hours indeed. Sometimes days will go by without any interesting news in this venture and other times you have a week's worth of news in only a few hours. :-)