The Brown's Scrapbook: November 2012

Thanksgiving Thursday, around mid-day, we hoped on a plane and headed to Flagstaff by way of Phoenix, to spend it with my dad's side of the family watching my half sister, Danielle, in her annual Thanksgiving Weekend collegic basketball tournament. It was so much being on vacation in the in the cold weather, all together during the holidays! We loved dining in a hotel Chinese restaurant where I chose to eat a hamburger instead of the traditional feastings. All that was important was we were all together on Thanksgiving having a ball together!

The kids definitely have the traveling thing down.

That night at the resturant is where we surprised Danielle and told her we were pregnant in person! Needless to say, she was SHOCKED!

Our "Black Friday" was spent at the best possible place, far away, from a single store... The Magnificent Grand Canyon!

The kid's still refer to it as the BIG HOLE!!!

For two years, Blake and I had seriously talked about getting into the real estate investment world by buying our very first rental property. We spent those two years getting my real estate license, reading TONS and TONS of books, talking to as many people in the industry as we could, attending seminars and researching on line. In early July, once we knew our third bundle of joy was on the way, we decided it was now or never and the baby news provided the huge motivation to make the scary leap towards being landlords.

Even though I have my real estate license, we made the decision to use a fellow agent to help us on this initial buy. He could spend the time we didn't have, searching for the great buys and walking us through this first purchase. I was SO hesitant making that initial call to him, putting it off for weeks and weeks but within a couple of weeks of contacting him and him realizing we were serious, he found a few properties in a few neighborhoods we had already narrowed it down to.

Based on the research, I was prepared to look at tens of dozens of houses and submit SEVERAL offers before we had one that stuck knowing that there was no emotional tie to this house, unlike our family's home purchase eight years ago. It was a bottom line financial decision and if the numbers didn't pan out, then we were walking! I LOVE this process!!! (Even more when my heart isn't attached to the home!)

However, the reality vs. my mental preparation surprised me and one Wednesday night, when I was on my way home with the kids in mid-late September from church choir, I got a call from Blake telling us to meet him at a VERY close and incredible neighborhood close to our own home. We had never considered that neighborhood, thinking it was WAY outside our budget. It was one of those MLS listings with only one picture of the outside that had hardly any information about it, said "buy as is condition and priced accordingly."

It was nearly dark when we pulled up in the small cul-de-sac, a realtor and other man was there viewing the house. It was clear to see the house had not been lived in in some time, bushes overgrown and house cluttered with stuff everywhere. It even had signs of being infested by some furry friends in some of the rooms. Their asking price was somewhat lowered for the lack of upgrades from the 1984 house and probably could have been fair for a family who was looking for their first home as a fixer upper.... but now that we were investment owners, a mere 8% off potential market value wasn't going to cut it! For our own records, let's say the house in the condition it was, was worth $158K. If we had put $12 into it to upgrade it, it would have equalled the exact floor plan of the same house that sold one street over the same week at $170K. But since I wasn't okay with an "okay" deal, we gave them an offer of $132K and since it was our first offer ANYWHERE, we weren't really expecting a response, thinking that we had totally offended them. When the phone rang three days later stating they had countered at $145K, we went back (Sept 29, 2012) and looked around more closely and even met a contractor over there to see what a ballpark idea of cost we would be looking at a remodel.

After seeing that a new garage door, water heater, newer microwave, stove, dishwasher, and complete new exterior painting had been done, we decided to counter some at $138K and walk away otherwise, knowing we were already outside our ideal investment house budget but prepared to dish out a little more for the much sought after location and schools! Would it pay off?

Either way, with the lack of emotions tied to the house, we were ready to walk. But the three children who lived far away of the deceased little lady that lived there before her passing, were not ready to walk away, and accepted our offer around October 4, 2012. WOW, were we surprised to get the very first house we made an offer on!!!! That was $32K LESS than the IDENTICAL house one street over sold for in the same week!!!! (However, ours was much less clean and updated than the other one, so we had ~~some~~ (a ton) of work to do.)

We found out during the closing process that the children of the lady didn't want ANYTHING in the house so it was up to us to clear the house full of junk in a timely manner. We closed on the house two weeks later on October 19, 2012 and held a HUGE estate sale the next day on Saturday, October 20. It was insane but oh so much fun! The house was 99% cleared out on Sunday, October 21 and the painters and dry wallers moved in and started on Monday, October 22 scraping the popcorn from all the lower ceilings and repainting nearly every single inch of the house over the next 8 working days.

Our to-do lists had to-do lists and it was an intense 2-3 weeks in and out of that house and therefore our lives. Blake spent every waking hour in the evenings and weekends installing new laminate wood floors throughout half of it, laying Saltillo tile, installing 2 new toilets, fixing electrical and plumbing issues, sprinkler systems, sealing Saltillo tile in the other half of the house... just to name a few things. (Blake was absolutely AMAZING and I can't believe I married such a handy man!) Blake found an awesome helper, Jose, and even our brother-in-law Sean came to lend a helping hand and take down the front entry prison bars blocking the patio! Blake loved every second of it except towards the end when he was wore out. But just a month after getting his first paid rent, he said he "was ready to do another one!") My role had been the logistical planner and coordinator of all contractors, probably 12-14 appointments total at the house including inspectors, pest, roofers, four painters, electricians, tile cleaners, etc... Much of it, we opted to do on our own after getting estimates because of how awesome Blake is. I even cleaned the entrie thing on my hands and knees when my cleaning lady had to cancel last minute!

Besides a list of tiny last minute to-do items, the house was completely done and sparkling clean just SEVENTEEN days after closing on November 5th, 2012. I was in charge of marketing and I had eight hand made signs up around the neighborhood and the immediate main intersection as well as a listing on Craigslist. The signs went up Wednesday, November 7 and we held an open house on Saturday November 10. The signs, over a 7 day period before they were all stolen) resulted in over 80+ calls. The Craigslist listing probably brought in another 15-20. The Open house was a bit of a flop with only 5-6 viewings and hardly any serious tenant candidates. On the second day of marketing, I received a call from Nebraska with a lady that who later would become our very first tenant at the ideal initial price we listed it at. She moved into the house just ten days later surprising us that we rented the house just 30 days after CLOSING on it!!!! Whooo hoo!

A date to the bank to deposit our very first DEPOSIT and RENT CHECKS!!!!

So in conclusion, on Sunday November 18 at 25 weeks pregnant with our third child, we became LANDLORDS and couldn't have been more tired, excited or thrilled at how it went! We put in TONs of hard work and long hours but can't be happier at the results!

And our tenants moved in!!!

On another important last note, Blake and I couldn't have done this, muchless so smoothly and underbudget, without the help and serious mentorship of my step-dad Joe and step-brother, John. Between them, they own a million properties and answered the phone the thousand times I called with questions.

So here are the AFTER pics....