I distinctly remember the first time walking into this property. My REALTOR (Mallory Kuiper, HEGG) definitely earned her commission on this one. It stunk SO BAD. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was an animal shelter with how badly it stunk in there. 

I had a great crew of friends come help me tear out carpet, paint Kilz on the floors, prime & paint every bedroom, the hallway and living areas. The basement was pretty gross, so we spent a few days getting that cleaned up.

I only had one tenant in this house. It was a family who I knew from church that was going through a hard time financially. They had to foreclose on their family home, and I felt bad for them. (Lesson #1, don’t rent to people you know) Throughout their time in the home they were decent tenants. One of their first checks bounced, so they were cash-only rent payers. I helped them setup a payment plan so they could pay rent 2 times a month (each time they got a pay check). Most of the time that was successful, but by the time they moved out, they were behind 2.5 months. There was a time I had started the eviction process, but they “begged” me to be patient with them and find a solution. So I did. (Lesson #2, when you begin the eviction process, follow through with it.)

My biggest lessons were learned when they moved out. I found areas of mold in the home – including the bedrooms where their CHILDREN were sleeping. They weren’t using the exhaust fan in the bathroom when showering, water was leaking into the bedrooms from the windows when it would rain or the snow would melt, the roof was leaking. And they never informed me of any of these issues. (Lesson #3, do quarterly inspections of your properties).

When we did the walk through of the property when they moved out, we made a verbal agreement that they WOULD NOT be receiving their security deposit to help get them caught up on the rent payments they were behind on. I did not have them sign any kind of agreement, nor did we have this conversation via text or email. (Lesson #4, always have agreements in writing) Two months later, I received a notice that they were taking me to small claims court because I failed to provide documentation and notification of their security deposit within 30 days of them vacatating the property. (Lesson #5, always send a certified letter with the final documenttion of a security deposit refund, or otherwise.)

When they finally vacated the home, I assesed the situation with the water and the mold, and decided to just sell the home “as-is.” Which is why I don’t have much of a profit on the actual sale of the home. I ended up selling the home to a single mother who wanted to get a home for her family, one she could afford but also had good bones to put some sweat equity into. It felt good to know my frustration turned into something very positive for another single mom. 

I fell in love with this home right away. I saw the potential. I loved the wood floors, the floor plan and the neighborhood. It had easy access to 41st Street and the 2 big colleges in town. But it needed some serious love. And it also had issues with water in the basement. A few different times.

I rented this home 4 diffrent times. The first tenants were 4 college guys. Let me just say these guys made me feel like a Super Woman with the things I had to go over there and “fix” because they didn’t know how to. When they moved out, the house was left with well loved mattresses, garbage, food, gross appliances and more.

I paid cash for this property, which allowed me to take a small loan out against the property to do some improvements on the home. For about 9 months I did not have any tenants in the house and I did all the things. New roof. New siding. New exterior paint. New concrete patio. Tore out the basement utility room and turned it into a bathroom. Sealed the basement foundation. Put new windows in. Refinished the hardwood floors. Painted all the wood trim white. Painted every wall in the home. Put new carpet in. Painted the countertops. Fixed the grading in the landscaping to help the water flow. Tore out the plants & shrubs. Dug in new edging. Planted new flowers. The home was BEAUTIFUL. It was perfect. If it made sense, I would have moved into the home.

The final 2 tenants that lived in the Blue House were delightful. They loved the new look of the home and it was so fun to see how they decorated the home. One couple made the basement their primary suite with the new beautiful bathroom and the warm and remodeled living area.

My only lessons from this property would be when it came time to sell it. Use a REALTOR to sell your property. Because I was able to get through the sale of The Cliff House pretty seamlessly, I thought I could do the same with this one. Especially because I was working at Keller Williams Realty and could spread the word pretty easily. However, looking back, I think I under priced the home and would have loved to made a bit more money on this one.

This property was another one that had some water issues. The first one, there was a tree root that grew into the sewer line, causing it to backup into the lower level of the home. We had to cut out 2 feet of sheetrock, replace the carpet and trim in the entire lower level. Thankfully the tenants were not home at the time, but unfortunately were displaced while these repairs were made.

I had 3 different sets of tenants in this property. The first ones were a lovely family that own a local pizza restaurant. Absolutely no issues. The second family was also wondereful. They were the ones who unfortunately went through the sewer backup, but they were fantastic through it all. The final tenants were supposed to be a “rent to own” situation, but they ended up being super shady about their intentions and when they moved out (with very little notice) I ended up putting the home on the market. With a fabulous REALTOR named Courtney.

The property took a while to get an offer, but we finally did. I will never forget the week of closing. Courtney went to go do a walk through the home before the other agent brought the buyers through the home. She walked into water all over the home. Unsure of where it was coming from. It was February in South Dakota – which means it was FREEZING. So of course, a pipe burst because the temperature in the home was not warm enough to prevent this. I had just left town for my babymoon. We no more than landed in Florida and I turned my phone on to a video and a lot of photos and texts from Courtney. Thankfully I have amazing people in my life and a contractor went over to the home (even though it was LATE at night) and he assessed the situation and took the project into his control and handled it all! Within 2 weeks, the flooring was pulled out, sheetrock cut out, mold treated, new flooring put in, painted and ready for the new homeowners to move in.

Lesson learned: even if a property is not occupied, you need to leave the furnace on between 55-60 degrees to prevent the pipes from freezing, causing this to happen. In the end, it was a blessing in disguise as the subfloor and walls in the kitchen and bathroom both had mold that had been present for quite some time. The new homeowners were able to pick out the flooring they wanted throughout the main floor, which they were happy about.

The properties I own in Alabama and Georgia I purchased with Spartan Invest, a turnkey investment company that has taken very good care of me since I bought my first property with them back in 2014. In total I have purchased 8 properties with them, and this and Barrington (below) are the only 2 I have sold so far.

When I decided to sell these two properties, I first reached out to my sister to see if she would like to start her investing journey with Spartan as well. I carried the note for her for a few months in order for the purchasing numbers to work out in her favor, and Maureen (Director of Wealth Building / Founder at Spartan) was instrumental in helping to ensure the process was seamless.