Ready or not, carpet is coming tomorrow.  There are lots of things to do and it seems the list only continues to grow.  For example after putting in tile one of the doors upstairs now drags.  So time to take the door off, sand it down and try again…  Painting will never end, though most of the house looks great.  I have tried to avoid painting the entire ceiling and have no idea what to do.  I wanted to do touch up paint but it only looks worse now as I was unable to match up the colors.  I bought four different whites to see if I could find one that was close, and didn’t

 I am ready to put the house on the market and get things moving.  There was a recent house listed in Raleigh for 37 g’s, 1200+ sq ft.  Granted it is not in the best neighborhood, it has me motivated to move on to new things.  Hopefully this weekend will be the last work weekend on this house. 

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I am happy to announce that I have almost finished the tile.  All I need to do is patch up a bit of grout and put down some sealant.  I also almost finished with the shoemolding.  Needless to say I have not had much time for anything else.  It has been grind, grind, grind…

If all goes well, the house will be on the market either this weekend, or next Monday.  I am not sure of the difference if we don’t plan on an open house for the weekend.  It is getting almost too late to have open houses this year, but we might do one before Christmas.

I was feeling extremely good today to catch up on tile and be done with quite a few items (replacing a gutter, putting down grass seed, doing some touch up paint, cleaining, shoe molding, etc…).  I then went around the neighborhood to see a bit more of what was going on further down in the development.  I came across a house roughly the same size as my house but for sale roughly 9% less.  Hopefully it sales this week…

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I am posting a bit late in the day for me.  Tomorrow is a big day and I will be doing tile all day, so I figured I would try and get a post in today.  I am putting tile in 4 rooms, the kitchen and 3 baths.  Not to mention vinyl in the wash room.  I am hoping to get it all done early tomorrow so that I can grout the tile on Sunday.  If this is accomplished I will still be on schedule…

 I am still doing tough up paint and it is almost making me suicidal.  Seems every time I pick up a brush I have more to paint.  I have not found a color that matches the ceiling yet, and I am trying to avoid having to paint all of it.  I have also put on my third coat of paint on the trim in the house.  I have a few hard deadlines to hit.  The next big one is carpet on Thursday.  So I have to have a few things done by then, and the spots on the ceiling is one of them. 

This should be a big weekend.  I am wanting to cross some things off of the list so I can concentrate on other projects.  I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  I know I did.  I was feeling it today trying to move around. 

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I am trying to stick to my budget. It is not easy. I am also trying to stick to the timeline, which is also not easy. I am definitely “learning” too much. Do not skip and buy cheap paint to cover used walls. Seems the cheap paint is just to cover new drywall. Getting decent paint might also save time in not having to do various coats.

Time to make up time and get the house sold. I was listening to music while working this weekend. (Quick sidenote, listening to XM. I have both XM and Sirius. I am a much bigger fan of Sirius. I am going to be taking Sirius to the site the next few weeks. Raw 66 has nothing on shade 45. Granted both overplay paper bag boy orwhateverbs . Sirius has more of what I need. Either way, grinding 14 hours straight with XM was rough. I have the programming schedule down. I was predicting the next song, not good, G-Unit Saturday was what I needed.) Anyhow the power for the outlet I was using went out. The whole wall went out. Went to the breaker and tried to flip it, it was not help. Was not what I needed to start out the weekend.

I am working on a 2100+ sq ft house. I painted with one other guy and almost got the whole house painted, got all but the trim painted. Actually got the trim painted, but have to do another coat. Definitely a grinding weekend. Have to finish paint soon, because tile is coming up which has carpet following quickly. I also want to get it on the market asap and sold asap. I do not want to find more problems that cost more and take more time. I do have a little bit of room in both the budgetandtimeline, but this is it… Keywords for week are Budget and Timeline. And if you were listening to Raw 66, “deep in the south” is stuck in the head.

I am also looking forward to the next deal. I am in Raleigh but I am looking to either get a house or two in Durham or land a bit east. Will weigh those two options over the next few days and post the positives and negatives of both from my view.

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What a weekend.  Put in a bit of time prepping the house for future projects.  Got all the vinyl and carpet out of the house for new carpet and tile.  There were a few holes in the walls so we went through putty quick.  We had to do a few sheetrock cutouts to cover holes.  All fun things to do.  Anyhow, here is a break down of a few things we got done.

• New doorbell
• New thermostat
• Fixed a cabinet drawer
• Put tape on ceiling for painting
• Fixed leak under kitchen sink
• Started cleaning oven

Not a lot of huge items knocked down, but that is to come.  Paint and tile is coming up.  Carpet will be done by another group.  Lots of good stuff.  Got a few rough things coming up (finding once piece of vinyl for the house, figuring out how to patch the counter/replace all if needed).  Back to the grind…

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Today was the big day.  The house is now in my posesion.  Tomorrow all the work will begin.  First take out all carpet and vinyl floors, prep for painting (big holes in the walls), and some other minor things.  Mostly a weekend of fun getting to know the house.  I should be getting some photos soon for the whole before/after look.  We are looking at three weeks to finish, at most four.  So keeping to the schedule is going to be critical…

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This blog was inspired by the Wu-Tang song C.R.E.A.M.  This song is very inspiring in many ways.  I am in the initial phases of a flip.  I am flipping this house with cash.  I sent in a low ball offer for the house and was told that there were multiple offers.  I was asked if I wanted to make a higher offer.  I declined for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I do not like to play games.  Try to avoid games at all costs.  No reason to lose your profit before you start. 

 I ended up getting the offer even though there were other offers for more than 5% more.  People were willing to pay 5% more for the house.  I could have taken their offer and sold them the house at closing, thousands with the flip of the pen, with no investment.  It would have been less work and easy loot.  Thing is I want a bit more money.  I got the offer because I was offering cash and the other offers were contigent upon loans.  So to sum it up, Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

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The inspection period has passed.  We had all the utilities turned on and noticed a few more problems.  Nothing too large though.

The closing will be on the 9th of November.  Not that far out.  We are working on a tight schedule of three weeks for the flip with a week for carry over (incase something blows up).  I have to get the schedule as tight as I can and the budget tight as well.  Without sticking to the budget and schedule things could get messy quick.  Once more happens I will update.  They say it is always extremely quiet before the storm hits, it is definitely quiet right now.

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Well the house will soon be under contract.  Things move slow in different industries.  Most of my work has to have a quick turn around, but I seem to find myself waiting on others a bit.  Anyhow.  Papers are signed on my end, waiting for the seller to sign the addendum.  Here is what is up next…

• Get my attorney up to speed and ready for closing.
• Get the money tight/right.
• Get all the utilities turned on before the inspection period is over.
• Get a home inspector out there to inspect the property.

That is the basics of what will be happening this week.  I have 6 days for inspection so all of this has to happen quickly.  If all goes well, we will close 2-3 weeks from right now.  There are other things on the plate to get ready to do.  After closing I will need to have insurance on the house, cover the utilities, and flip the house.  The house should be straight forward to flip.  I will post the details as they get done.

 If you have any questions, do ask…  I should be able to answer most of them. 

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I have been wanting to flip a house for a long time.  I found one recently that seemed to have lots of potential.  I look at most foreclosures in the area and just have not seen any deals with enough of a margin to make money.  There is no reason to cut things too close. 

So I put a bid in on a house this past Monday.  There were competing bids for the house.  I made a solid offer.  They asked for the highest offer by 3:00 p.m. today.  I ended up standing by the original bid.  Should find out tomorrow if they accept.  If so I will post more details and give a general break down of what we plan to do.  If it is not accepted, expect to see another post similiar to this one soon. 

Asking buyers to make a highest offer is a unique strategy that appears to have become standard in the real estate industry.  It takes out the individuals ability to negotiate directly.  There is no reason to lose your profits before you start.  This is not like ebay where if you bid over the other guy, your bid stands as 25 cents more than the other guys bid.  Your bid is what you bid. 

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