What's the door code to Foster St? I want to get a picture of that urn!
Sometimes I wonder what an NSA hacker would make of the texts I send my husband.
Sometimes I wonder what an NSA hacker would make of the texts I send my husband.
This is probably the strangest thing we've ever found in a flip – an old, run-down house we purchased to redesign, modernize and sell at a profit. It's certainly the most disturbing! There was a family living here who moved out in a bit of a hurry, inadvertently leaving a relative behind. They have been contacted and will be collecting him soon. It happens.
At least we got a better reaction from the family than my friend did who found an old wedding dress stuffed onto the top shelf of a closet. The bride told my friend, “Nah, keep it!”
We've found some pretty neat stuff in our flips. An old pinball machine we were able to sell on Craigslist for $50. A misplaced baby gift purchased many years ago at the Globe Store in Scranton, which closed decades ago. The little outfit and bonnet were still in the box with the tissue paper, a time capsule of a bygone era. Some World War II-era Japanese coins. My husband once found $5,000 worth of pre-Roosevelt silver dimes while fixing a big leak in the basement of one of our rentals. We had to blast through concrete for that repair – that's how he found the treasure. That treasure covered the cost of the repair. This is why I believe in ghosts!
Here are a few other stories I've collected:
1- My sister moved into the former home of an apparently well-to-do Vermont lawmaker. She knew his exact financial status, because five years of tax returns were left behind! The family also left a load of wet laundry in the washer. At least it wasn't dirty laundry!
2- My friend moved into a rental and noticed one of the ceiling panels was pushed up. Her husband climbed up on a chair to fix it and an enormous collection of porn movies fell on his head!
3- Another friend in a rental found an envelope hidden in his closet – containing nekked pictures of the previous (male) tenant.
4- My husband found a product, still in its box (thank GOD), called “iRide” and billed as “the ultimate in hands-free excitement.”
5- And we were cleaning out the attic of one of our rentals after an eviction and found a glass reptile enclosure – open – with the discarded skin of a PYTHON. It took us 48 hours and a visit from a reptile expert to determine there was no snake loose in the house. To be sure, we turned off the heat. It was late October. If there had been a snake he would not have survived.
Back to flipping houses in Northeast PA
We have three going on right now! One is almost complete. That's our Tiny House (ref) There's a small punch list of touch-ups left to do, and I really want to get some flower boxes along that front screen porch to joyously should WELCOME to would-be Tiny House Buyers.
I hope we get a buyer soon. It's a very small house – just under 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms. BUT it's a great use of space – it's a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside. Everything's been modernized. It has a GREAT eat-in kitchen. There are two bathrooms – a half-bath downstairs for guests and a full-bath upstairs. There's a nice, big yard. A long driveway for off-street parking. A shed for storage. We have it priced at $74,000 – the mortgage would be a lot less than renting. And the taxes, utilities and upkeep are so much cheaper in a small house! This would be perfect for a young family just starting out, or a single parent with one or two children. The address is 222 Taft St., a quiet street off busy Main St. in Lee Park, Hanover Township. Please share this information with anyone who might be interested. It's on the MLS, so their realtor would be able to access it. Or they could call or text my husband, Steve Franco, directly at (570) 798-7051.
At least we got a better reaction from the family than my friend did who found an old wedding dress stuffed onto the top shelf of a closet. The bride told my friend, “Nah, keep it!”
We've found some pretty neat stuff in our flips. An old pinball machine we were able to sell on Craigslist for $50. A misplaced baby gift purchased many years ago at the Globe Store in Scranton, which closed decades ago. The little outfit and bonnet were still in the box with the tissue paper, a time capsule of a bygone era. Some World War II-era Japanese coins. My husband once found $5,000 worth of pre-Roosevelt silver dimes while fixing a big leak in the basement of one of our rentals. We had to blast through concrete for that repair – that's how he found the treasure. That treasure covered the cost of the repair. This is why I believe in ghosts!
Here are a few other stories I've collected:
1- My sister moved into the former home of an apparently well-to-do Vermont lawmaker. She knew his exact financial status, because five years of tax returns were left behind! The family also left a load of wet laundry in the washer. At least it wasn't dirty laundry!
2- My friend moved into a rental and noticed one of the ceiling panels was pushed up. Her husband climbed up on a chair to fix it and an enormous collection of porn movies fell on his head!
3- Another friend in a rental found an envelope hidden in his closet – containing nekked pictures of the previous (male) tenant.
4- My husband found a product, still in its box (thank GOD), called “iRide” and billed as “the ultimate in hands-free excitement.”
5- And we were cleaning out the attic of one of our rentals after an eviction and found a glass reptile enclosure – open – with the discarded skin of a PYTHON. It took us 48 hours and a visit from a reptile expert to determine there was no snake loose in the house. To be sure, we turned off the heat. It was late October. If there had been a snake he would not have survived.
Back to flipping houses in Northeast PA
We have three going on right now! One is almost complete. That's our Tiny House (ref) There's a small punch list of touch-ups left to do, and I really want to get some flower boxes along that front screen porch to joyously should WELCOME to would-be Tiny House Buyers.
I hope we get a buyer soon. It's a very small house – just under 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms. BUT it's a great use of space – it's a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside. Everything's been modernized. It has a GREAT eat-in kitchen. There are two bathrooms – a half-bath downstairs for guests and a full-bath upstairs. There's a nice, big yard. A long driveway for off-street parking. A shed for storage. We have it priced at $74,000 – the mortgage would be a lot less than renting. And the taxes, utilities and upkeep are so much cheaper in a small house! This would be perfect for a young family just starting out, or a single parent with one or two children. The address is 222 Taft St., a quiet street off busy Main St. in Lee Park, Hanover Township. Please share this information with anyone who might be interested. It's on the MLS, so their realtor would be able to access it. Or they could call or text my husband, Steve Franco, directly at (570) 798-7051.
We just started another flip a few doors up the street, at the corner of Taft & Main. This is the REO property we wrestled from a bank after five long months! The paint is peeling on the exterior and the porch is sagging, but the interior is Victorian-era grandeur. I get such good vibrations walking in here! I have to remind myself not to fall in love, I'm not moving in, but it has built-in window seat storage in the parlor! And stained glass in the entryway (sigh.) It also has a grand staircase that someone made the unfortunate decision to carpet. That will be going back to polished hardwood. And the kitchen – linoleum and cheap cabinets – is almost a crime in a house like this.
It's a great house. Somebody already offered us $10,000 more than what we paid to take it as-is. But our investor-partner said no.
Our third flip is in Duryea, a desirable area in northern Luzerne County convenient to both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre on US 11 and I-81. Duryea (pronounced durr-ee-YAY) is quiet and pretty much crime-free – Steve and I rented there for a few years before we bought our first home and things haven't changed much since we left in 2004. The homes are very well-kept, with the exception of this one. The neighbors seem pretty happy to see us doing something about it. We needed this huge dumpster to clean it out. It's bigger than the house itself!
Our third flip is in Duryea, a desirable area in northern Luzerne County convenient to both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre on US 11 and I-81. Duryea (pronounced durr-ee-YAY) is quiet and pretty much crime-free – Steve and I rented there for a few years before we bought our first home and things haven't changed much since we left in 2004. The homes are very well-kept, with the exception of this one. The neighbors seem pretty happy to see us doing something about it. We needed this huge dumpster to clean it out. It's bigger than the house itself!
This is a small house, but like our Tiny House on Taft St., it's bigger inside than it seems from the outside. (It's also much bigger than Taft St. - 1500 square feet!) The first floor boasts a large kitchen, formal dining room and good-sized living room. There's also a full bath off the kitchen.
There are three bedrooms upstairs. They're fairly small but one is large enough to carve out a ¾ bath. The home has a fairly nice yard on a corner lot on a very quiet side street. There's off-street parking and a shed for storage. The house has good bones. Very well constructed, very solid. It'll be really nice when we're done with it.
This is also a turning point for our business. We have never done three flips simultaneously. Our vision is to have eight going on simultaneously, but in different stages: Two under contract to buy, two under construction, two on the market and showing, and two under contract to sell. Today, we are closer to that vision than we've ever been. As I write, my husband is driving around the very desirable Back Mountain neighborhoods, looking at possible flips with an investor. These would be our first attempts at flips in an upper middle-class neighborhood. Higher end materials. More risk. More reward. One day, I'd like to flip a mansion. We'll work up to that.
Of course, flips are only one part of our business. This week my mind is also on rental management – I have two tenants who didn't pay their rent and a third who appears to have skipped out, even though he paid for May. And there's a fourth who we know skipped out, but that was on a rent-to-own so she just lost her $2,000 deposit.
But I also have 18 other tenants who all paid their rent on time, one of which is sending me pictures of how she's remodeled the kitchen and the first-floor bathroom (with our blessing) because she intends to be there awhile. It's important to give thanks for the good tenants, because the bad ones will put you through the wringer. I feel another Tenant-From-Hell blog coming on, which at least makes for entertaining reading!
Tune in next week...
Of course, flips are only one part of our business. This week my mind is also on rental management – I have two tenants who didn't pay their rent and a third who appears to have skipped out, even though he paid for May. And there's a fourth who we know skipped out, but that was on a rent-to-own so she just lost her $2,000 deposit.
But I also have 18 other tenants who all paid their rent on time, one of which is sending me pictures of how she's remodeled the kitchen and the first-floor bathroom (with our blessing) because she intends to be there awhile. It's important to give thanks for the good tenants, because the bad ones will put you through the wringer. I feel another Tenant-From-Hell blog coming on, which at least makes for entertaining reading!
Tune in next week...