Rental Redo

Back in February, Jamie and I embarked on a new financial adventure. We bought a pair of duplexes, side by side, that were in foreclosure. We thought it was a great deal: all four units were occupied, and we were fortunate enough to pay for it straight out (thanks to life insurance money and our own savings) so that we would have no mortgage. Even though it was definitely on the "lower income" spectrum, we decided to buy it and would renovate each unit as tenants moved out.

Unfortunately for us, we have had two tenants leave in our first six months of owning the property. One was evicted, and one just moved out with five months left in her lease. Needless to say, we were not expecting to have to begin renovations so soon! ** I'd just like to make a comment about the laws of eviction. Did you know they have to serve the papers THREE times before they can put all their stuff on the lawn?! I want to know how how someone has so many rights that is basically stealing. If anyone can explain this to me, please let me know.

Our first remodel was on the evicted tenant's unit. He apparently was a heavy pothead, which we discovered from the 10 year layer of smoke and dirt on everything in the house, especially the walls... yuck! We ended up having to bleach the walls to get them light enough to paint. I'm pretty sure that's the most physical labor I've ever done in one period of time. Of course, that's not saying much :-)  We managed to do the complete renovation for about $3,000. Here's a pic to see the contrast of what we did. The rest can be found on Facebook.

This is a picture while we were cleaning. The left wall has been bleached.

After a month on the market, we finally have a tenant for this unit that will be moving in next week. The second empty unit we will start renovations on in two weeks, when Jamie is off work. There seems to be much more work to do on this second one (including an additional bedroom), a good bit of which we can't do ourselves, so it's likely to be much more expensive. YAY! Anyway, once we start renovating that one, I will be sure to post some pics!

Sometimes I wonder if we should have bought the apartments, but, if nothing else, this is definitely a learning experience!