Well that was Quick!! Ravenwood Finished

So I posted a semi-before video of the property at Ravenwood on Friday…. and now I’ve already got the after pictures for you to see. This renovation went real quick, and believe it or not it’s already sold and our new buyer has moved in.

We purchased this house as a short sale on January 21, 2010, had the renovation complete by February 12, and had our new buyer moving in on February 20th. That is lightning fast… but we did cheat a little bit. See ,we actually started working on the house about two weeks before we even owned it, a little risky, yes, but the rehab business is about taking risks. Also, we had been working with this buyer for a few months. She had wanted to buy our Plumtree Rd house and Lasalle St house but missed out on both those… so she was very determined not to miss this one. She saw Ravenwood before we were even done with the work and said she’d take it…. so it was an easy sale!!!

The house came out real nice… I’m not a huge fan of the color of the roof, but one half was brand new shingles (reddish brown color) and the other half of the roof needed to be replaced. So rather than tear off the brand new section we just matched what was there (the reddish brown shingle). My first choice is always a blackish grey shingle, this color looks awesome no matter what color the house is. The only time we really deviate from this is when we have to match an existing shingle… and honestly, I don’t know what some of these homeowners are thinking when they are choosing a roof color??? Shingle color is something I am very particular about, almost like a pet peeve, but I realize I am probably boring most of you so let’s get on with the pictures; (you can see the before pictures HERE)

Ravenwood St Springfield MA

Ravenwood St Front

So I just realized you can’t even really see the roof in these photos… just take my word for it.

Kitchen 1

Kitchen 2

Kitchen 3

Kitchen -- Again....

I took alot of pictures of the kitchen, I think it came out nice!! Check out the appliances, top of the line GE Profile… yes that is a Double Oven!!  We went even more over the top on the Fridge….

GE Cafe Series French Door Fridge

If you look hard enough you can see the little GE symbol on the Fridge is Red… this is the Cafe series…. and supposedly it is a step up from the Profile Series… which means it’s a real bad-ass fridge, almost better than Electrolux!!! Plus it’s a French Door Fridge… so that makes it even more awesome.

Kitchen Looking in from Living Room

Living Room

Dining Area -- Nice 18x18 Tiles on the Floor

Living Room from Kitchen

Bathroom

Tiled Tub Surround with Glass Tile Border

Shower Panel w/ Glass Tile Inlay

 We did the bathroom a little different here… We used a glass tile inlay and I think it looks real Sweet. You will see this in all our houses moving forward. Also we added one of those curved Hotel Shower Bars… a nice little upgrade.

Bedroom

Finished Basement

So, that’s about it for Ravenwood… In and Out in the blink of an eye, a real text-book flip. On to the next one!!

Bank of America Short Sale Approved…. and Closed

Everyone thats ever attempted a short sale knows that there is nothing short about the whole process…. as was the case for the short sale we just closed on today. I met with this homeowner about a year ago…. January of 2009. It took two appraisals and 12 months time, but we got Bank of America to approve the deal and we finally closed on it.  We got a really good deal on this property, as is the case with most of the short sales that we buy, so it is definitely worth the wait. My strategy with short sales is to just jam them into our pipeline and sit and wait. I never know when they will get approved, or even if they will get approved at all….. but its always a pleasant surprise to get that call or email with an approval.  

This is another one that we started work on before we even owned it. A little risky, but we actually received the short sale approval letter in December and they gave us over three weeks to close it….. which really surprised me because usually they are drilling you to close within 10 days.

Heres a look at the property, located on Ravenwood St in Springfield;

Kitchen

Dining Area

Living Room

Bathroom

Bedroom

Roof Leak.... always a plus on a Short Sale

Bedroom

Garage Full of Junk

Basement Full of Junk

You’ll notice that this house had an active roof leak, which is always a plus when you are negotiating a short sale because the bank knows that no FHA buyers will be able to purchase the house. Use this as ammunition to drive the price down. 

I think we may have another short sale very close to approval. Should be another good deal, I’ll post more about it as things materialize.