A Journey of $15,000 Ends With a Single Step

Hick said there were a couple things he wanted to do at Cheap House before calling Realtor Guy. Surely this is the last step! I hope Hick wasn't lifting, or climbing. He said yesterday that he understands why his doctor told him not to be mowing the lawns/yard/field, even on his zero turn mower.

"I sat on a board for Old Buddy to saw off the end, and the vibration from the saw almost killed me! I won't be mowing the yard for a while, that's for sure. I can imagine how that would be painful."

Anyhoo... here is the latest picture of the sprucing up of Cheap House to make it good enough to sell as a flip house.

That's the room Hick was changing from a bedroom to a living room. The wood along the top is where the new roof was put on, after changing the roofline from tearing off that back porch room. This is where all the wood with mold from the constant leaking was cut out. Hick put up this section to cover the gap where the new angle of the roof left a space. So an interior wall, and the ceiling, can be drywalled.

Anyhoo... we're butting heads over the impending listing. Hick has the wacky idea that he wants to sell for $50,000. In this location, that's pretty cheap for a flip house. You can't even find one anywhere in the county these days for such a price. Even the really bad hoarder houses. The cheapest listing I've found for a flip this week is $85,000. And it was under contract within four days. 

You may recall that we got cheap house on a tip from a loan officer at our Savings & Loan. No loans for us, but Hick has kept in contact with him over the years since he built our hillbilly mansion. Cheap House was a foreclosure, and we got it on June 1st for $15,000. We have around $33,000 in Cheap House right now. That includes $12,000 on the new roof. Plus there's the subfloor that's been re-done, and all the trash cleared out, and the rotting porch torn off. I think a flipper would jump at it for anything under $70,000. It's a block from the main street in town, and within a quarter mile of the elementary school, and two blocks from the middle school.

Hick seems to want an immediate deal from Realtor Guy. Who has said he has a flip buyer who is always looking for flips at around $50 per square foot. Which would be $50,000 on this house. HOWEVER, I doubt other flips he's bought came with a brand new roof, and already stripped inside.

In fact, Hick even said, "I didn't really think about listing it. I thought Realtor Guy would call his buyer." Which is poppycock! I imagine Realtor Guy would enjoy a bigger commission himself. AND, Hick had said a couple months ago that one of his storage unit buddies said he was interested, if Hick would give him a price before he listed it.

This will definitely need to be discussed with our flippin' partner, The Pony. I'm not trying to be greedy, but I see no harm in listing high. If there's no interest after 10 days, it's a simple thing to lower the price. I'd hate for it to sell in a day, and think that we let it go too cheap.