<p>Some of you have indicated that you have an interest in following a real-life house flip in action. I promise to tell the real story without added drama, embellishment or lies about profits and costs. Since I am somewhat anonymous as a Mom with a college-bound only child, I don’t need to do anything but tell the truth. </p>
<p>Let me just start by letting you all know MY JOB IS NOT GLAMOROUS. At first I thought I was going to be like some of those women on TV… standing around in high heels in really cool clothes with a perfect hairdo, holding a paint brush and putting swatches of color on the walls. Yes, I get to do that but that is about 1 hour of hundreds across many months of scrubbing toilets. And, inevitably, as soon as I put those swatches of paint on the walls, I accidentally lean into one of them and have ruined another shirt 
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<p>Background:
As I move towards my emotional empty nest I have been ramping up my business. I have been making a living flipping distressed properties for over 5 years now. I got into the business just when I realized that I saw my layoff looming as a computer system project manager. My husband used to explain my corporate execute job as ‘professional nagger’.</p>
<p>I am self-taught. I researched everything, read books and then spent over 3 months just sitting down at the courthouse steps watching the auctions, learning who the big players were, researching the properties they bought and didn’t buy. I came to realize that this is definitely a full time job - you cannot attend daily foreclosure auctions without your daytime job noticing you missing.</p>
<p>For the last 4 years I have focused on buying foreclosures at the courthouse steps. This is not for the faint of heart. You have to pay all cash - it is extremely scary to walk around seedy downtown areas with hundreds of thousands in cashier’s checks in your purse! You cannot go inside the houses. You get a list of properties coming up for auction and I have to drive every house to determine it’s condition from the outside, try to figure out if it is occupied (because then you are going to have to evict the occupants and that is not fun), then I go to the Recorder’s Office and I have to do a title chain history by myself. I spent $4,000 for training from a personal mentor when I first started out. I can do title research better than someone working in a title office now. Then I have to make sure there aren’t any IRS liens or huge back property taxes on the property. So, after doing all that for about 10 properties a day I have to crunch numbers on what I think the fixed up future value of the property will be, what renovation costs will be (without having any idea what condition the house is in) get to the auction and it gets postponed or cancelled. Start all over the next day and repeat. For several years there were close to 400 properties a day coming up for auction - because I am only one person I had to target just a few neighborhoods.</p>
<p>For the last 6 months in my market there has been a huge influx of big money coming in and buying up everything in San Diego County. We’re talking Chinese, South African, you name it… they have big pockets. So, competition at the courthouse steps is too fierce. These entities are paying full retail for properties, slapping paint on them and holding on to them as rentals. I believe that their business plan is to hold for appreciation in the 2-3 year time frame. Needless to say I cannot compete with them, that is not my business plan. I’ve given up on the auctions and am trying to buy regularly listed homes. So, I have had to dig really deep to try to find anything I can buy for a project.</p>
<p>CURRENT PROJECT:
I started this thread to showcase my current project and we can follow along with the trials and tribulations. I have been searching for a property for over 10 weeks now - cannot get my hands on anything. It has been really difficult. So, just last week I crawled through two possibilities:</p>
<h1>1 Excellent hot neighborhood, historic area. 1925 craftsman that the City has almost condemned. Small lot, no garage, overgrown with weeds, roof caving in, but original craftsman features inside the house. An extreme hoarder had been living in the house and passed away. Daughter showed up and just walked away - never cleaned it out. She just put it up for sale ‘as is’. There is disgusting trash piled at least 5 feet high throughout the house - every inch. Just like the Hoarder Show on TV. I had to put a gas mask on to go through this house. Rats were scurrying everywhere. The trash consisted of discarded take-out food cartons and hundreds and hundreds of empty cat food cans. Cat feces everywhere. My lead contractor was gagging and left the house saying No Way. You get the picture. Did I mention glamorous?? Asking price $350,000, worth $590,000 if it could be fixed up to perfection.</h1>
<h1>2 Small 3 bed/1 bath house 1,000 sf with large deep lot, 2 car garage on alley. 1925 built but not a lot of character. In a historic neighborhood within walking distance to shops and restaurants. More inland, less value in the neighborhood. Surrounded by cute craftsman houses that have been fixed up. This house was owned by a derelict absentee landlord. Same tenants had lived in it for 20 years. This house is absolutely disgusting, stinks, urine smell, 70s shag carpet that has turned black, poorly constructed, galvanized plumbing is disintegrating, knob and tube wiring that has to be completely replaced, garage roof has caved in, house roof had 6 layers of shingles (very dangerous) and all of the fascia and rafters were termite damaged. Ceilings too low - only 7’3". Overgrown weed lot. Asking price $375,000, worth $435,000 fixed up.</h1>
<p>Stay tuned for which one I purchased.</p>