Go ReStore!

So we went to the Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity ReStore today. Gotta love the ReStore! Where else can you get great things at great prices and support a great cause? Manitowoc is supposed to be getting a ReStore, but until then we must frequent nearby Appleton, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee. The main purpose of our trip was to pick up a great stove, which our beloved Jeri (friend and Milwaukee ReStore Director) nabbed for us when she found out about our little project. By the way, the stove is great - a stainless steel, GE Profile, electric range. Anyway, we also wanted to look for other items for our project. We got a handful of things to get us started and will likely be back for more! If we had the means to transport, and another few houses to work on, I think Kate would have left with about two dozen doors, a colorful collection of sinks, cabinets, and enough desks and other furniture to fill a small school! It is cute to see her drool in places like this. If only we had a 25,000 square foot building to renovate!

The Layout

Photos

OK, so you've seen the outside view. Want to see the inside? Here is a photo album of the initial pictures taken (before we even placed a bid). Click on the picture to view the entire album.

HUD house

Each area of the house shows up somewhere in these photos, although some areas are not represented well. Overall, the house is in rather good condition. For the most part, just cosmetic work is needed. The upstairs bathroom is a tad gross. Anyone want to shower in there before we tear it out? We will take more pictures before we begin some demolition work this weekend.

Getting it...Kate Style

How could I possibly say no? Rit cracks me up. She spent so much time researching the details of buying a HUD foreclosure, getting bids on necessary repairs, creating spreadsheets...She's so detail-oriented that I knew she had covered all of her bases. Her home improvement savvy together with my eye for home interiors make us a great team. We're so excited to get started!

Tomorrow we are taking a trip to the ReStore in Milwaukee to pick up some much-needed items for the house. We'll take some photos of the trip and our amazing finds.

It's ours!

We finally closed on it! Here it is...the blank canvas. Ok, it's not really blank. As a matter of fact, it's splattered with all sorts of not-so-attractive work. Our task is to transform it into a coveted piece of art...ok, more like just a nice house. Cute on the outside, but needs quite a makeover on the inside. Follow along with us in this adventure. Today is a big day - step one - getting the utilities hooked up. Just sitting here waiting for the gas guy to call this morning to get started.

Getting It

Working with HUD is interesting, to say the least. The entire process was rather frustrating, but we made it through. The bidding process works like this: During the first 10 days a HUD house is listed, bidding is open only to owner-occupants. All bids placed within that time period are considered simultaneous. If HUD receives no acceptable offers during this time, bidding opens to everyone. Bids are taken each day and results are posted online by 1:00 the following day. HUD will either accept a bid or reject it, no counter-offers (well, sort of). I don't know if it always works like this, but the pattern I observed for this house was that after 30 days if HUD has no acceptable bids, the price drops and the first 10 day period begins again. After a couple of drops in list price, I was ready for my first bid. The question - what to bid?

HUD must have some secret formula for determining an "acceptable" bid. You won't find it anywhere, but HUD does post bid reports, showing rejected and accepted bids on properties for the past few months. So I created a few spreadsheets and analyzed the numbers to try determine how low I could go. Although it did not reveal an exact % to list price, it was helpful.

We submitted four bids. The first two were rejected. They actually counter offered on the third one - really just saying we were close to their acceptable minimum and telling us what it was. So the fourth bid was the amount they countered. Bingo - accepted!

Convincing Kate

After hours of research, getting estimates, punching numbers and going through the house 2-3 times, I was ready for my presentation. This was doable! I whipped up a flashy PowerPoint for Kate, got my laser pointer ready and put on my best suit - okay, really we sat on the couch in sweats and went though it on my laptop....but it was a flashy PowerPoint! Anyway, she was sold. On to the bidding process.

Actually before bidding, I wanted to get an inspection. You see, HUD properties are sold "as is," so even though they provide a property condition report, I wanted to know exactly what we were getting ourselves into. The realtor I was working with said inspections weren't allowed until after an accepted bid. Does that make any sense at all? Best Assets (the agency that manages HUD properties in this area) told me the same thing. I asked to talk to several people before finally getting someone to say yes, I could get an inspection! So we did. Brad (the inspector) was very helpful and we were pleased with what we learned. Now on to the bidding...

The Discovery

It all started one chilly morning in November. Otto, Maggie, and I were on our daily walk...sniffing tree trunks, peeing on lawn ornaments, minding our own business, as usual. Then we saw it - a cute brick house, covered in ivy, sporting an ominous WARNING - This house has been winterized sign on the front door...a likely indication of a mortgage that hit the dust. I liked it. I didn't want to live in it, but I've always wanted to buy a house in need of TLC and fix it up....even before all those Flip this House shows popped up on TV. And this one was cute. I didn't give it a ton of thought at that point, but on our next walk (with Kate) I pointed it out to her.

I said, "I want to buy that house." She laughed at me. I knew at that point that I needed more ammunition. I knew nothing about it, just that it was cute, and based on it's location, probably affordable. I headed home and started digging online for information. I discovered that it was indeed a foreclosure - a HUD property. When I gave Kate a bit more information and asked her to go look at it, she said no. What?! Kate, who loves looking at houses, loves projects, loves taking something old/beat-up/discarded and making it into something new, something cool....and yet she said no?! "If you're serious about this, put together a proposal for me," she said. So it began...