Rental Houses

Stephen and I took advantage of both of our rentals' leases ending in April and May, plus a decent housing market, to try to get rid of the two houses we've rented for 9+ years.  While they've been a great investment, they've also been a huge pain in the @#$.

The first house's tenants moved out April 30th after being there for ~5 years.  With 4 kids, two adults, and a grandmother, you can probably imagine the condition the carpets, floors, walls, etc. were in.  Our handy man luckily didn't live too far from the house (while it was a 45 minute drive for us) so he was able to take care of it.  (Home Depot shopping, paint getting, etc) It's a great house in a cul-de-sac with 3/4 of an acre lot, and the light gray paint, dark hardwoods and new carpet made it look almost new!

The original big wall mirror had a big crack in it, like someone had thrown a rock at it.  (??) I liked how these mirrors ended up looking!  

We flew back from Disney Saturday afternoon (after the suitcase and car seat fiasco: quote from the blog- "Day 6 was travel home day... when we landed in Atlanta, only 2/3 of the car seats arrived with our plane, and 0/4 bags arrived.  They were all on a plane coming 4 hours later!  Plus, my phone wasn't working because it got some moisture on it from Friday.  Back to reality! ;).") and literally went straight to the house to do some finishing touches.  The house had gone on the market that morning and we had a full price offer on Sunday!  Hallelujah!

About 30 days later, this house closed.  Easy peasy.  The next house will be this easy, too... right??

So... the next house!  This house was one we bought in 2008 as a foreclosure to specifically be rental property.  It's a much older house- I believe it was built in 1962- and it's much smaller- almost half the size of the other one.  And the school system sucks.  It's in a lake community that was probably really rocking back in the 80s.  2017...?  Not as much.  But there are still some cool amenities out there for people who want that sort of thing.  This house was a little closer to us, so between that and our handyman going on vacations, Stephen and I did a lot more work at this house.

This house had a lot of the original (or if not original, much older) things in it- hardwoods, cabinets, countertops, doors, light fixtures, etc.  Things were just in bad shape after the last tenants, who had been there for about 4 years.  Our realtor, who is AMAZING- if you could've seen the look on her face when she came by to check the house out after the tenants left.  It was priceless.  I don't know if she knew what she was getting herself into!  She gave us some good tips and we ran with it.

We kept Home Depot in business for a couple of months.

Before and Afters:

Before

After

Before- light fixture

After

I had a BLAST scraping paint and other stuff off these original hardwoods.  A total blast.

The finished product:

New walkway, our realtor's idea.

The kitchen walls used to be yellow, the cabinets and countertops were all brown.  And the lighting was low.  This new kitchen is so bright and clean looking!

Effects of working at the house:

Poison ivy...  that spread... everywhere.  And WOULDN'T GO AWAY.

This was right after the lice episode, which I wonder if we got it from this dang house, too.

This was fun getting off.

When I was working on the garden area one day, I lifted a brick and under it was a HUGE SNAKE.  I literally threw the tools down and left for the day.  I was done.

This house has been on the market now for  about 5 weeks.  We've had 5 offers and been under contract now for the 4th time.  Two were cash offers that, days before closing, the funds didn't come through.  One was a normal loan and the guy had tax issues that were found later, so the mortgage company denied him.  We're under contract for a 4th time presently, though Stephen and I are not holding our breath.  

If you're ever on the fence about having rental properties, read this.  And if we ever get the urge to buy another property, I will read this.  The answer will be a big fat NO!  (Although I may have a better attitude about it all if/when we sell this house). ;). Fingers crossed!