YEAH!!!

I am so excited! I can't even contain myself! I have been trying to buy a house in foreclosure, or distress, or anything cheap for that matter, for over a year now! The first offer I made was on my old house in Centerville last May. The poor little house needed so much help, and I was so willing to buy it and fix it. Unfortunately, they accepted an offer for WAY more than I offered. I was so sad, but I think it was a blessing in disguise.

Since then, I have followed foreclosure auctions religiously. It was my new job. I only went to one auction, though, because I could never find the funds to buy the properties. With the auctions, you have to make a $5,000 down payment that day and then give them the rest the next day. I couldn't find a lender that could give me that amount of money in 24 hours notice, so it wasn't working that well. I also realized that if the house had a second on it, sometimes you wouldn't even know until the day that you purchased it...I wasn't too keen on that.

So in August, or so, I believe it was, I had given up on the whole thing. I had gone through four Realtors that year, and they just weren't able to help me. I don't know if it's because they thought I was high maintenance, or what. I must admit, they had daily emails.:) I had given up, but then realized that my new aunt was a real estate agent, and I decided to try her out. I am so glad I did! I can't even express my appreciation for her!

Monica McQueen has been an agent for awhile, and has flipped I believe four houses in the last two years. She has the experience I need, and I wasn't even aware of it. We made offers on multiple houses that were in short sale, but none ever came through. I became discouraged again, and then with the market like it is, I got really worried and stopped looking.

Well, last week, her husband called me and told me that they had just gone through a wonderful property the night before, and even though I had stopped looking, I should check it out. The house was an REO (bank owned) and the bank hadn't even put it on the market yet. Monica knew the agent and got the heads up. I won't go into figures here, but the listing price compared to what it was worth is only 60%, or so, so there's a lot of money to be made on this house. And I just got a call from Monica and they accepted my offer! Yeah!

It is in a beautiful part of Sandy. Apparently one of my cousins lives like four houses away. Here are some pictures of it...
















This is a picture of some work that they've done on the outside. This is going to be a great patio area. It's kind of hard going through these houses, because you know that the people lost them. I feel bad. This one they were trying really hard to make great improvements.















This is a picture of what it looks like below the patio area. The yard is HUGE, and I think here, the kitchen and the bathrooms is where I'm going to do the most work.














This is a picture of the front. It doesn't have a garage, just a carport. That will bring the asking price down a little, but I think it still has great charm.














This is another picture of the patio area (behind the fence.) I couldn't take pictures of the inside on this trip, because I was by myself, and I didn't want to break any windows.:)

So, my faithful readers, that is my project for the next couple of months. If you have any contacts for cheap labor, feel free to let me know. I will need some sheet rockers, mudders, tilers, landscapers, and even masons (hint hint family members:)).