Bessemer Update

May 27, 2009 by 1 Comment

Bessemer St is moving right along. We are starting our sixth week over there.  We’ve gotten all the inspections for the rough plumbing, rough electric, framing and insulation. The bedrooms and bathroom have been framed out in the new dormer and sheetrock has been hung. They should finish taping and mudding tomorrow than we can start painting. All the exterior work has been done except for landscaping, which we usually leave till the end of the job. Have a look at the photos… it is coming out really nice;102_5337     New siding, roof, gutters, windows,etc.

102_5341  A look at the full dormer

102_5340  Shameless Marketing

102_5360  Kitchen looking at new archway

102_5354    Living Room

102_5353   Looking back into Kitchen

102_5356  First floor bathroom

102_5347   New second floor bathroom

102_5349  New HUGE upstairs bedroom

102_5365   Basement finally cleaned out

102_5367   New 200 amp electrical service

102_5366  New high effeciency direct vent furnace

 

All the finish work should take another 2-3 weeks. I hope it is closer to the two week point so we can bring this to market in the middle of June…. if we haven’t already sold it prior to completion!

Filed Under: 17 Bessemer St Springfield MA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Let the Fun Begin

May 22, 2009 by 2 Comments

We finally purchased the fire damaged three family this week and work is underway. This is a huge project, we are going to be gutting all three units to the studs and going back in with all new electrical, plumbing and heating systems. Outside the roof will be repaired and reshingled, we’ll do new vinyl siding, new windows (45 of them), demo the side porch and repair the front porch.  This house is 3,720 square feet, it’s huge. When we’re done we’ll have three very big four bedroom apartments that should rent easily because everything is brand spankin new. Heres some photos of the demo work;   

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We’ve got four dumpsters on order just for the demo, but I’m thinking we may need more. The timeline for this job is 12 weeks. The first step will be to gut the house. Once all the walls are open the electrician and plumber can begin running all their rough plumbing and wiring. While their doing their thing inside the outside work will be getting done. This ones gonna be fun.

Filed Under: 37 Mansfield St Springfield - Multi Family Rehab Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Hartford Terrace, finished and staged

May 18, 2009 by 14 Comments

Here are some photos of the Hartford Terrace house all completed and staged. We generally do some light staging of the kitchen, bathrooms and any other points of interest within the home (I love fireplace mantles). The house came out pretty freakin sweet!!!! Check out the photos:

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Alright, don’t those photos make you just want to buy this house!!! It is gorgeous and in an awesome location; on a terraced street across from a school and a park. I’ll get some before and afters up so you can see the transformation we made to this property.

Filed Under: 71 Hartford Terrace Springfield MA, Finished Rehabs Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Closing… my favorite seven letter word

May 9, 2009 by 3 Comments

Every real estate investor knows that closing days are very special….. whether you are selling a finished rehab, or closing on that great deal you just spent the last few weeks negotiating. It’s the culmination of all your hard work, endless phone calls, restless nights, and dealing with attorneys, lenders, buyers, sellers and agents….. and hopefully they result in nice paydays.

On that note, we sold our short sale rehab on Arnold Ave today. We put together a short little case study video on the deal…….

This property was a rehabbers dream …. a cosmetic renovation that we were able to purchase at a big discount, rehab quickly, and sell the first day on the market!

Filed Under: Finished Rehabs, Rehabbing Tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Hartford Terrace

May 7, 2009 by 1 Comment

Heres a look at the house on Hartford Terrace with the floors refinished, nice and shiny!!  They look much nicer than they did before.

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Next up will be the staged photos……

Filed Under: 71 Hartford Terrace Springfield MA, Finished Rehabs Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Completed Rehabs

May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I’ve added a page for Before and After photos and videos of our finished projects, as I know everyone loves these. I will post more as time permits…. but check out this property we just finished last month.

Atwater Rd

We got a buyer for this one at our first open house…. and should close any day now if Bank Of America would get their act together.

Filed Under: Finished Rehabs Tagged With: , , , , ,

Friday Already?

May 2, 2009 by 2 Comments

Dang these weeks are flying by…. Well as expected we hit some delays on a couple of our closings, and only ended up buying one property, the other four are on hold due to banks and appraisers mucking things up.

Bessemer is still moving right along. Here is a video update:

Here’s a look at the front of the house with the new roof, new windows, and stripped siding.

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Filed Under: 17 Bessemer St Springfield MA Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Five Closings and Stainless Steel Appliances

April 26, 2009 by 2 Comments

It’s a gorgeous day here in Springfield, MA. Right now the thermometer reads 80 degrees.  My partner Dominic just made me aware of something I didn’t realize, we could have five closings this month week. If it happens it will definetly be a record for us. A few years back when I was starting this business I would have been happy to have five closings in a year!!!  Things tend to come up last minute which may delay one or two but what should happen is; we sell two of our finished rehabs, we purchase one pretty house sub2, we purchase one rehabbed house at 70% of ARV, and we purchase the fire damaged three family. We’ve been FLAT OUT BUSY this whole year…. I love this depressed RE market.  

  One little tip I wanted to share is about Stainless Steel Applainces. We have been adding them to all our finshed rehabs, even the lower end starter homes… and the feedback from buyers has been awesome. It is an added detail that puts your finished rehab way ahead of the competition, and is one of the major reasons why I think our houses have been selling so quickly (less than two weeks on market).  Now stainless steel can be expensive so what we do is frequent Lowes and buy all the open box/ display models/ returns that they put out on the weekends. The key is to make freinds with the appliance workers and get them to call you when any good ones become available. We’ve made freinds with associates from both the Lowes near us and they will call us when they’ve got something good. We usually pick up stainless or clean steel appliances for a little more than the brand new white appliances.

Check out this kitchen:

Arnold Ave Kitchen

Arnold Ave Kitchen

This is an 864 sq. ft. ranch. We sold it in one day for above asking price at $121,000. We kept the original 80’s style cabinets that I always like to replace. However once we added the stainless appliances and staged it you don’t even notice the old cabinets anymore!! 
Well I’ve got to run to Lowes, they have a stainless steel Bosch dishwasher that retails for $540 dollars that we are picking up for $315. This will be going into the house on Bessemer.
Filed Under: Appliances, Rehabbing Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,