Front of House
Acquired March 16, 2004 / Sold April 30, 2004
HOW I ACQUIRED THIS PROPERTY
This was a buy at the public auction (also known as the Trustee's Sale). As usual, the condition on the inside of the house was a mystery until the locksmith opened the door. WHAT A MESS! I wish I would have taken and kept "before" pictures on this one. Unfortunately, I have "lost" all pictures of this house and had to pull this one off the MLS.
The house was located near Arrowhead Mall. It was 1,462 sq ft with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a great room. It was situated on a cul-de-sac with a common area and office center behind it.
The paint and carpet were filthy, trash was piled high in many rooms, fixtures and fans were missing, and holes existed in some walls. The backyard was waist high in tumbleweeds and trash was everywhere. The first job was to have all the garbage removed from the premises. I hired a company for the dirty work. They used a Bobcat tractor to level and clean out the entire backyard. They carried all the trash out of the house and filled a large dumpster with all interior and exterior garbage. That included the carpet.
The house was built in 1999 and was only 5 years old at the time of my purchase. It was in decent shape except for the mess. I had the entire interior painted and re carpeted. New fixtures and fans were installed and suddenly the place looked great. The backyard consisted of dirt and a decent waterfall the previous owners had constructed. I fixed the issues with the waterfall and kept the yard "weed free" during the sales process.
The property was bought for $131,000 and sold for $154,900. The "after expenses" profit was $9,000.
