Hands On Real Estate Investing

Full Disclosure — We are real estate investors, so we do not get emotional about buying or selling investment properties. However, when it’s the home you’ve lived in for 20 years, and you decide it’s time to sell and move on, it can become emotional and exasperating … We have worked with an excellent Real Estate Broker for 25 years. He is a one-man show, so he doesn’t have other agents working for him. We have purchased and sold multiple investment properties with his assistance. We have always been very happy with his services. Therefore, we decided to sign a listing agreement with him to sell our primary residence. Since our home is 20 years old, we knew we needed a few upgrades to increase the marketability of the home. It has been said that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes, so we focused our efforts on the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

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Preparing to Sell! We want #topdollar for our home so we need to #upgradecountertops from #laminate to stone. It was a difficult decision because we didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on the new #countertops but we think the #home will sell quicker if we do the #kitchenupgrade #kitchenupgrades #upgradeyourkitchen #countertopupgrade #kitchen #kitchens #kitchenremodel #kitchenremodeling #sellyourhome #sellyourhouse #realestate #realestateagent #realestateagents #realestateagentlife #sellersmarket #realestatemarket #buyersmarket

A post shared by handsonrealestateinvesting (@handsonrealestateinvesting) on Apr 24, 2019 at 7:29pm PDT

Our concern was that we wanted to limit the amount we spent on the upgrades to a $5,000 – $6,000 budget. Quartz kitchen countertops would have blown our whole budget so we opted for granite countertops at half the price.

 

 

 

 

 

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Preparing to Sell! We found #granite #granitecountertops #granitecountertop at half the price of quartz #countertops #countertop We set a #budget of $5k – $6k for #upgrades & quartz would have blown our total budget! Also #upgraded the #kitchensink #kitchensinks with #moen #moenfaucet #moenfaucets & #undermount #undermountsink #undermountsinks The #faucet was only a couple hundred bucks but the #plumbing cost to reinstall #undersink #underthesink connections was $400 All in all it cost about $3k for countertops, faucet, sink & plumbing. #sellyourhome #sellyourhouse #forsale #houseforsale #homeforsale #realestate #realestateagents #realestateagent

A post shared by handsonrealestateinvesting (@handsonrealestateinvesting) on Jul 22, 2019 at 12:42pm PDT

When we started looking at options to replace our cheap vinyl flooring, contractors wouldn’t even quote an estimate for replacement vinyl. We learned that “planks” were very popular. So we went to Home Depot and looked at “plank” flooring. We found a fantastic deal on “laminate planks” for 99 cents  per square foot!

 

 

 

 

 

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Prepare to Sell! If you have been waiting for #housing #housingmarket prices to completely recover from the Great Recession of 2008, the time is now! Interest rates are still low & #realestate prices have largely recovered. Check Zillow or your favorite #realestateagent #realestateagents to see if your #house #home is worth what it was in 2007, which was the last peak. In the meantime we are upgrading our #kitchen #kitchenfloor #kitchenflooring with #laminatewoodfloor #laminatewoodflooring for 99 cents per square foot at #homedepot … #kitchenremodel #kitchenrenovation #kitchendesign #kitchendesignideas #kitchendesigns #realestatemarket #upgradekitchen #upgradeyourkitchen #kitchenupgrade #kitchenupgrades

A post shared by handsonrealestateinvesting (@handsonrealestateinvesting) on Apr 9, 2019 at 3:18pm PDT

We spent $200 bucks on the laminate wood planks, and paid our general contractor $450 to install the flooring. Our final upgrade for the kitchen was to replace our 20-year old gas stove. It served us very well but it looked old and worn out. We went to Lowe’s for their large selection of gas stoves and found a 5-burner gas stove for $595. The rest of our budget was spent on painting the 4 upstairs bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, which cost $1,800.

We met our goal of listing the house for sale by mid-June. We checked online to see if inventory was still low in our area and it was. We also checked for other 4 bedroom 2.5 bath single family homes in our area. We found one that had 5 bedrooms 3.5 baths listed at $525,000. We felt we were ready! Our agent said the first 2 – 3 weeks of a listing are the most important. Serious buyers who have been looking will want to see the house. Excitement among real estate agents and brokers will be generated by a new listing coming on the market. During the first 2 weekends, our Real Estate Broker held 2 open houses. Of course, nosy neighbors showed up, along with prospective buyers. What concerned us during the first 3 weeks is that we only had 2 showings of agents bringing their clients. That was a signal that something was wrong. We began checking other homes in our area and price range that sold during the last 60 days. We noticed that homes with similar square footage sold for $60k less than our asking price. Yikes! Our agent had priced our home based on Autumn 2018 prices, and clearly the interest rate increase and the 35-day government shutdown had affected consumer confidence in our region. Our home was over-priced, which is the worst thing you can do when putting your home up for sale!

In the old days, it was difficult to find comparable properties for sale without going through a real estate agent. However, now, we all can google our address, click the Zillow link, and find comparable properties in the same neighborhood that have sold. Redfin also provides comprehensive information on your property, neighborhood, properties for sale similar to yours, and properties that have sold. We found comparable properties to our own and realized that an unfinished basement was affecting our marketability. We knew we didn’t want to spend $20k – $30k finishing the basement, so our only option was to begin lowering the price. Our agent disagreed with our plan because he didn’t want to admit that he overpriced the house. Regardless, we had to move forward because we already had a contract to buy a new home. We lowered the price $15k and we started getting showings by other real estate agents!

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The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the Author/WebMaster. Before taking any action, please consult your real estate, financial, and legal advisors.