The Ugly House Pictures (Day of Closing)
This house needs some serious attention. We have several city issues that we must correct before we can turn our attention to all the little things that will make this unit pop and rent quickly. It is in a nice part of town and is the ugliest house for e several city blocks. We estimate that it will require three weeks of labor and 8-10k in repairs, and a final rent of $750-$795. The purchase price was $25K cash and had to be closed inside of 10 days.
The Front of the House:
The house will get a new exterior paint job, and the white room on the left side will be replaced with a nice patio and seating area. The wood on the windows is to protect them from being broken as squatters have been occupying the house during the last 18 months.
The soon to be patio:
The white room was built without permits and had been flagged by the city for removal. It was built right on the ground with a few wood planks for the floor. The patio will be a nice addition and increase the practicality of the area, as it will serve as a nice seating area and provide a convenient way for tenants to enter the property.
Carport, Fence and Rear Garage:
There is an unsafe and poorly built carport that will be removed along with the fence that is leaning on the rear unit and has almost completely collapsed. To the right of the picture you see the rear of the white room that is being torn down and replace with a nice patio. We will create a walkway from the parking strips to the patio for ease of use. The final thing we plan on doing is creating a garage door for the rear unit, thus turning the storage space into a functioning one-car garage.
The Neighborhood:
The second best thing about this property (the first being the purchase price) is the neighborhood. As the pictures below indicate this house is clearly the lowest quality house on the block. We will perform basic cleanup as described above. If we ever choose to sell the house, we will likely stucco the house in oreder ro math the aesthetics with the rest of the neighborhood and increase its value. However, given that the unit will start as a rental, we will just clean it up with new paint; the added expense for Stucco will not increase the rental rate and instead will lower our cash on cashreturn, or yield which is our main investment driver. The two pictures to the right are houses directly across the street and indicate the quality of the homes in the neighborhood.
The Interior:
I don’t have pictures of the interior just yet since all the windows are boarded, there is no electricity, and we only had one flashlight. It will require the basics: new carpet, paint, etc. The kitchen seems to be in decent shape, but the bathroom will need new fixtures and flooring.
I cannot wait to refurbish this property as we are already getting interest from perspective renters.
