Comment
I had a unique experience the other day while showing properties in one of my favorite “secret” neighborhoods. Well, I don’t know if it’s a secret exactly, but I do think it’s under-appreciated: the Riverview/Cherokee area of St Paul.
The neighborhood is a quiet little strip across the river from downtown. It has many of the amenities people look for in other, more well-known areas, including walking/biking trails along the river, parks, big old trees and most relevant to this blog, a beautiful and diverse selection of early 20th century architecture (woodwork!) . The prices, however, tend to be comparatively reasonable.
I was first introduced to this area years ago by a client. Since then, I have helped move a lot of first time home and duplex buyers to the area.
My client and I looked at two properties, exactly next door to one other. From the outside, one appeared to have been built late in the Victorian era. The other looked more like a Craftsman. Both had very good cash flows and long-term tenants with solid rents.
Read the rest of this entry »
Comment
Over the last several years, it seems as if almost everyone I meet is, on some level, addicted to HG-TV. We’ve all watched those shows and now dream of finding a fixer upper at a steal of a price. We think, “with just some paint, carpet and of course, stainless appliances…I could turn a $20,000 profit for just a weekend of sweat equity.”
OK, here are the facts. In the peak of the housing market I saw that happen…once in a while. Most of the successful rehabbers, however, were professional contractors; with crews. It was the only thing they did for a living.
So many of the foreclosures on the market are half-finished rehabs. And it doesn’t take a novelist to imagine the story behind each one. Someone bought it to flip it, and it took more money and time than they ever imagined.
In spite of this, everyone still has the “Flip This House” mentality. Even with duplexes.
The other day I showed four duplexes. All were either short sales or foreclosures, with some level of deferred maintenance. They ranged in price from $114,000 to slightly less than $260,000. All were in different, but equally terrific locations.
The least expensive was a converted single family home with some decent turn-of-the-century woodwork. As with most of these properties, the upstairs unit lacked a true living room. That unit also featured a makeshift kitchen and the most unconventional, skinny bathroom I’ve ever seen. The basement had one enormous octopus gravity furnace. And the soffits on the exterior of the home had clearly been converted to squirrel condos.
Read the rest of this entry »
