Hampden Homebuyers - We Buy Houses Springfield MA Sell House Fast
Heres a video update from the fire damaged multi family that we are working on. The outside is almost complete, inside all the rough is in so we are just waiting on inspections. Once inspections are complete we will begin insulating and than sheetrock.
We’ve got a couple more rehabs under contract that we will be closing on in the coming weeks so be ready for some more great updates!!
We have the home on Brooks St on the market. We repaired some water damage spots, put gutters on the house, did some landscaping and a few other odds and ends. Once the work was done we cleaned it and staged it. This home was rehabbed by the previous owner so it is a nice change from the full gut rehabs we have been doing lately. Here are some photos:
The new furnace is a high effeciency direct vent unit that runs at 95%.
Heres what the property looked look before we bought it.
Not as drastic a change as Bessemer or Hartford Terrace , but the improvements will help it show alot better.
Work is almost complete at Bessemer St. We have started showing the property and have received very positive feedback… we actually may be getting two offers before the house even officially goes on the market.
The transformation of this property has been amazing and the finished product is looking great. Have a look at the house now:
New Roof, Windows, Siding, Gutters, Garage Door, Landscaping, Etc...
New Kitchen w/Stainless Steel Appliances
Tile Backsplash and Countertop. French Door Fridge. Lots of Recessed Lighting
Brushed Nickle Hardware, 18x18 Ceramic Tile Floor, Over the Range Microwave
First Floor Bathroom with New Fixtures and Ceramic Tile Floor
Tile Tub Surround w/ Accent Border
Living Room w/ Fireplace and Hardwood Floors
Front Entrance/ Stairway
Refinished Hardwoods
Second Floor Bath
Second Floor Bedroom
Master Bedroom w/Front Load Washer/Dryer going in Second Floor Bath
This one is turning out as nice as Hartford Terrace. Once it is completely finished and staged we should have buyers fighting over it. We’ll be putting Bessemer and Brooks St on the market over the next week. I hope all the buyers aren’t on summer vacation and we can move both of these quickly.
The backyard at Bessemer St is huge. It’s about 3 times as big as a typical city lot here in Springfield. The only problem is that is was completely overgrown from years of neglect and once all the leaves started to grow in it looked like a jungle.
Heres how it looked in the spring before all the leaves grew in:
Overgrown Backyard
Overgrown Yard from Roof
So instead of breaking our backs trying to clear all this out by hand we called in some heavy duty reinforcements. Have a look at this machine….. it’s a tank.
This little tank completely chewed up all the trees, saplings, weeds, leaves, pricker bushes and anything else that got in it’s way. It also tills up the soil and leaves you with a completely clear lot… all in just a few hours of work. Now we have a nice clear, level backyard that is ready for grass seed.
This giant backyard is an awesome selling feature. Most city lots are 5,000 square feet and offer very little space and no privacy. This yard is going to be an oasis for the new homeowner!
Bessemer is wrapping up and it will be done very soon. We’ve had to wait on some of the landscaping as it’s been raining here in Massachusetts for three weeks straight. The house is coming out really nice and we should be able to move it quickly.
We spent the afternoon doing landscaping over at Brooks St. I generally don’t do too much work at our properties myself, I leave that for the real contractors, however I do enjoy doing the landscaping from time to time. I don’t go to overboard, I usually will just plant some shrubs, evergreens and an ornamental grass or two. My favorites are boxwoods, azaleas, spirea, rhododendron, and Alberta spruces. I like to throw in some ornamental grasses for color and dimension. Because I use mainly evergreens I use the red mulch to add some more color as well. The main goal is to make it look fresh, clean and not too cluttered. If I can, I will try to save the mature landscaping already located around the property, but most of the time everything is so overgrown and unkempt it is best to take it all out and start fresh.
Heres what we did at Brooks St today:
Landscape Before
Landscape After
Landscape Before
Landscape After
House Before Landscape
House After Landscape
We didn’t do too much, but it definitely helps the overall curb appeal of the house. We landscaped that whole front bed for less than $200, and most of that cost went to the three tall Arborvitaes, which cost $30 apiece. The arborvitaes are a great foundation plant, especially in this situation as they block that ugly front wall pretty good.
Sorry I’ve been slow with the updates. I’ve been battling the flu for most of the week…. hoping it’s not swine flu!!
Hartford Terrace is under agreement, we went to contract with our new buyers after only four days on the market. Check out what our prospective buyers think of the house, read the comment on this page.
We put a contract on a new fixer upper last night. Check this one out. It is a full gut that has been empty for over 13 years. The house is very old… built in 1890, and it has a mansard style roof, which I kinda like.
She’s a beauty!
Mansard style roof.
Kitchen
Dining Room/ Living Room
A little water damage
Claw foot tub.
I like the wallpaper!
This room is very psychedelic
Check out the Tin ceiling
More water damage
Heres where the water is coming in
There are a few roof leaks which have caused some damage. This house has very high ceilings, and most of the ceilings are tin, which is a real nice feature…. except alot of them are rusted out because of the water damage. We picked this one up for real cheap. It will be a nice rehab, but we may end up just wholesaling it out.
We received an offer on Hartford Terrace after only four days on the market…. negotiations are underway so I’ll let you know what happens!
Bessemer St is moving right along and we should be finishing up the rehab over the next week or so. Have a look at the progress after week 7:
We’ve hit a few snags at the fire damaged three family. The next door neighbor isn’t happy about the dust from the demo so she called the cops on our contractor for working on a holiday (memorial day) and then she called the building inspector the next day… apparently she thought we were working without permits. No big deal, the inspector stopped by and everything looks good. Then on Thursday we got an unexpected visit from the Environmental Protection Agency…. seems someone called in an anonymous tip alleging that we were removing the asbestos boilers from the property on our own, instead of hiring the overpriced asbestos abatment companies. We’ve had four abatement guys over to look at the job in the last two weeks…. I’m not sure which one took the liberty of dropping a dime on us. I guess it’s their way of insuring they get work, call in the EPA so we don’t even consider removing it ourselves (which we never did). So the EPA guy says that there is a slight chance that their may be asbestos in the sheetrock we are removing and he gives us a Stop Work order until we get some samples tested. $450 bucks later the samples come back clean and we should be able to start work again on Tuesday. Here’s a look at the progress so far:
Not too much action on the exterior
Nice Banner
This porch is ready to come down on its own!!
Heres how the third floor looked a week ago
And the third floor now
Here’s where the fire burnt through the roof
We’ll probably lose four days because of this little hiccup. It wasn’t too bad because it gave our contractor a chance to get back over to Bessemer and do some painting.
We bought another house on Wednesday. It’s on Brooks St in Springfield. The good thing is that this one has already been rehabbed by the previous owner, not to our standard… but it’ll do. Heres a look at the house;
We bought this from a hard money lender out of CT who is also a pretty well known TV star on A&E’s Flip This House . Theres a few repairs we need to make to this house, nothing major though. Once thats done we’ll stage it and get it on the market.
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