Our Flip House Journey Part 2
Could we achieve our goal? Could we really flip the house we had just purchased at $50,000 below asking pricing in four days? Could we clean, paint, landscape, remove animal refuse, empty loads of trash, and SO much more in such a short period of time? Would the boundaries we had set in place protect our time commitments without overloading us. As a small family of three and one on the way, my husband and I were convicted to not get in over our heads and to be sure that this project was properly set up to not take away from our most valuable priorities.
Day 1-3
Our team was ready to tackle the flip house. Our handyman, Colin, arrived, my husband spent the morning assisting our project before going back to his day job, and I put my son in a backpack. A stipulation to the purchase of this property was the agreement that we would finalize any cleaning necessary. First, I mowed the lawn while my husband and our trusted assistant emptied the house. We had filled the house with ozone machines over the weekend, allowing opportunity for the ozone to kill the dangerous odors within the house. However, the ozone itself is too strong to breathe in, and Colin and my husband had to wear breathing apparatus until the house had finally aired out enough.
(Check out this site for optional ozone machines: https://www.odorfree.com/products/villa-3000/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&bidkw=&dvc=c&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=5&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxsPQ4ICYhQMVcA2tBh2ltw9dEAQYASABEgJXpvD_BwE).
As I landscaped, pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, and picking up trash, the two inside worked to empty the abandoned remnants of the house into the yard. Anything of value was kept, donated to the thrift store, or given to neighbors in need of it, the rest we would move in in time.
Over the course of the next two days, Colin and I took five dump trailer loads of trash, animal fecal matter, empty boxes, broken furniture, leftover clothing, and more to the sanitation station. We worked hard to stack, load, haul, and unload the items in order to empty the property.
Day 3-4
We were already at day three, and our four-day deadline was inching ever closer. We started wiping down walls, deep scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, scraping the porch, sorting through leftover mechanic parts in the garage, and weed-whacking. Hours ticked by in earnest. It was back-breaking work, especially while being twelve weeks pregnant and juggling our eighteen-month-old son between my backpack and his grandmother’s house. They were dirty and long sixteen-hour days.
My husband would join us every evening, and we would work late into the night. I would often hurry home before him to put our son to bed or take a break to pick up take-out, a VERY necessary flip house expense.
The fourth day came and went. We were almost done, but there was just a little more. We winced. Our deadline had been four days, but we understood the importance of finalizing a few more things before it could be market ready. We simultaneously agreed to extend our deadline one more day.
Our Extension
It took us five days from start to finish to complete our flip house. New paint sparkled in nearly every room, flooring had been torn out and cleaned up, cabinets, walls, doors, and windows were grime free. The odor from previous animal occupants had been remedied. The stray cat with her batch of sweet kittens had been turned over to an animal shelter. The front and back lawns had been transformed. The garage and shed stood by emptied of their contents.
Even so, it was hard to stop at five days. There were still more cracks and crevices that we wanted cleaned, still the porch and siding to be repainted, and so much more that could have been necessary expenses. But we knew that we couldn’t afford to extend our timeframe any further. If we didn’t stop there, would we stop? Our son needed focus time with us. My husband and I missed each other. We decided to honor our commitment to each other and the boundaries of our plan.
We called our real estate agent, and he came in to take photos. Within two weeks of closing, our house was back on the market. We put a two-week bidding war timeframe on the property and within a month of closing, we had new buyers.
Although it took a few months to close due to the buyer’s loan stipulations, we had finished our project. What a wonder to see God use the boundaries that we had strategically placed around our business plans for His glory. What a delight to practice pulling as a two-horse team. We were best together. By God’s grace, we accomplished the impossible, and we grew by leaps and bounds because of it.
For those of you seeking an adventure with boundaries, remember that flip houses can be an excellent way to go, but not if you don’t implement a plan of attack and success.
If you missed part one of our Flip House Journey, be sure to check back at Flip House Part 1.
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