Mom Time on a Dime

So I finally took all the "before" pictures of the condo now that it's finally cleared out, and of course, can't find my camera cord to upload the pics.

Ugh. My struggle is real.

As soon as I track that sucker down, I will post all pics soon! (Just didnt want you to think I was being a dead-beat blogger... aka: me for the past 6 months)

Thanks, and hold on.

Good news!

As of Tuesday, we OWN the condo!!!

But, to back track a little bit, something happening during our appraisal previous to closing: our condo appraised for only $90,000.
(dramic: Duh, Duh, DUH!!!!)

(reminder: we got in a bidding war and were under contract to pay $105,000... thats a difference of $15,000)

So, the good and the bad of an under appraisal:
the Bad:  the bank will only give us a loan for the appraised amount of the property... so we have to come  up with the extra $15,000 out of pocket! YIKES!

the Good: Sometimes, the seller is willing to negotiate.  Split the difference 50/50 or, in very rare cases, drop the price down to the appraised price.

Our realtor told us that the sellers were more than likely going to ask us to split the difference, but we might as well ask to come down to the appraised price and work up from there.

We waited and feared the worst but when we got a call from our realtor, we were SHOCKED to learn the seller AGREED TO THE NEW PRICE!!!

Dude, we just saved $15,000!!! That's like our entire budget for this flip!!!

So, this past Tuesday, we wrote a check for $23k (just being honest about how much money you have to put down, even in a "lower price point" property, and include closing costs), but we are now the proud owners of the ugliest little condo we have ever seen.
Chris and I went by the condo to see how it looked without all the furniture in it and were amazed by all the space.  I am working on actual "before" pictures and should have them ready by Monday.

In parting for the weekend, I'm going to leave you with this awesome little discovery Chris made on Tuesday:  The wallpaper in the bathroom? Yea, it's covering more wallpaper.  Feast your eyes on this

So, now that you've seen what we're dealing with (as walked through in a post found here), I wanted to let you in on what Chris and I are exactly thinking about this property.

Originally, we were going to find a place (done), fix it up (in the process of), live in it while the house is being redone, then sell it after for a profit.

However, upon finding our little blue-shag-carpeted beauty, I googled the address and found another property also for sale.

Same complex.
Same floor plan.
DIRECTLY next door (we even share a wall).
And was pending for $160k... $55,000 MORE than what we are paying!

I snagged the pictures offline to show you guys a little example of how beautiful our unit can truly be if it turns out ANYTHING like this one:

Opened up the kitchen and extended the island into the dining.  Honestly, for the size of these condos (both 1,033sq ft), this is actually a genius idea.  Less furniture, a good place to mingle and eat near the kitchen without being IN the kitchen, and opening the wall gives it even more space.  Well done.

Beautifully redone kitchen and I love their granite choice.

Nice back patio, free of clutter.

View from the kitchen:

Again, that granite! Wow! Am I right?!

Living room:


Bathroom #1:

They just put new granite on the boxes with new hardware and had the flooring run throughout.  I don't know if you really want hardwood in your bathroom though... at least thats what it looks like (personal side note: become friends with neighbor and ask to poke around her property).

Updated shower in Bath #1:

Master:

LOVE. THIS.
The room is a weird shape (I think Chris and I measured it at 18" long by 11" wide but this is a great use of space.

Master bath:

They removed the door leading into the bathroom.  We're probably not going to follow suit on this only because the bathroom area already is open to the master and there NEEDS to be privacy somewhere.  I have never woken up in the morning longing to see Chris sitting on the toilet while I'm in bed. NEVER.  Doors people. Keep the mystery alive.

And the same awesome storage closets:

So yea... with this selling for $55,000 over what we are paying, Chris and I ran through some options in our head.

1.  Keep the course. Fix it up, stay in it, and then make a nice little profit when we sell.
2. Keep this as a rental.  Its in a great little area of Dallas and really close to shopping with easy access to the freeway.  We could have someone else pay the mortgage AND make about $500-$600 extra a month!
3. Flip it and get it back on the market in a few short months.

After much consideration, we have decided on....
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(cut to commercial)
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(I'm watching too much HGTV)
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We have decided on OPTION #3!!! We're going to flip it!!

We made this choice for a couple of reasons (Im really into making lists today if you haven't been able to notice):

1. The Dallas market is HOT and this area is even hotter.  Might as well capitalize!
2. We loved the idea of renting it out until we needed it, but a down payment on $105,000, not including closing costs, is $21,000... add in expenses to remodel and that is A LOT of money out of pocket that would take a few years to recoup back in rent.  Im a numbers person and rather have money in savings.
3.  Once we sell, we can put our money back in savings (yay), and use the profit to get another property and go from there. (Yes, we are well aware of capital gains tax and will cross that bridge when we get to it.)

We also figured this would be an excellent property to start with since we KNOW what others are selling for in the area and it would give us a chance to get our feet wet without getting in over our heads.   We also want to make sure Chris and I get through it too with our marriage still in tact lol.

ANYWAY, have any of you guys ever had any experience flipping a property?  Any advice?  Is our neighbor's condo not so stinkin' cute?

See ya on Friday!

Well, now that we are officially under contract, there are so many decision to make and Im so excited to get started.

I thought I would use this post to really give you a lay of the land... all 1,033sq ft of it.

If you would like to see a video walk through, I took one the first day we came to look at it

If you DON'T want to get sea-sick, or listen to my voice say "Here's a bathroom", I have some pictures here below and can walk through the floor plan with you.
Dining room that leads into the galley kitchen... Note the wall to the right of the doorway... that will come into play during a later post :-)

Washer and dryer in kitchen area... haven't really decided what to do with it or just leave it be... kitchen area also leads out to patio.

Decent sized patio!  Cute to have a little herb garden or something back here.  Gates opens to a covered parking spot.

Turning around...
Back facing the kitchen.  At least there are stainless steel appliances.  According to our inspection, they are all good and in excellent working condition, so we will probably keep those.

Now, back through the dining area, past the living room, into the hallway and the first bedroom.

At least it was well used?   I don't know why everything was drawn to make the room so dark but I can't wait to open them up.

The blue shag continues throughout but its actually decent sized.

A nice wide and deep closet too.

Back down the hallway.

On of the bathrooms on the right.

This bathroom wallpaper is so old, if we waited, it might be in style again.

Good storage behind the door though.

Keep going down the hallway and you'll run into the master.

Sorry for the panoramic shot.  Its not a terribly wide room (maybe 12-13ft?) but very long (20ft+)

The bed area.

And facing from the bed a sitting area and the ensuite master bath.

The sink and vanity need some work.

Also, probably my favorite thing I noticed during our walk-thru?  See those blue pots above the light in the picture above?  Not pots... CUT OUTS of PICTURES of pots... Thats just fantastic.

Separate shower/toilet area.

Can't wait to give it a full gut. Not to mention have Chris serve an eviction notice to the little cockroach friend living in there... yea, there will be NONE of that. YUCK.

Now, here's one of the cool things about the master.  This is ONE of the walk-in closets.

And here's the other.

Yea, this place definitely has TONS of storage, which I think is awesome... Chris and I are even playing around with the idea of turning one of the closets into a laundry room.  I dunno... what do you think?

And with that, we head back to the living room and out.
So there you have it!  When Chris and I did our first walk through, I knew the minute we opened the door that THIS was supposed to be our place.  Its perfect and is the perfect size and condition for a couple of novice flippers such as ourselves. After we saw the property, I nearly started tearing up with tears of joy saying "It's so ugly, I love it".

I plan to take better "before" pictures with my better camera and maybe open up some windows to make it a little brighter, so more to come on that later.

But for right now, please allow this amazing Key and Peele gif to represent Chris and myself... (I'm on the left)

via GIPHY

Can't wait.