We thought this cute, cottage-style home in the historic part of town would be a surefire hit, but a tough market had other plans for us. Here is the story of the house that tested our sanity and broke all our expectations about real estate investing.
When we first got the keys, the vision was pretty straight-forward. Remove all the old furniture that was left behind, replace the HVAC system, repair any damaged sheetrock, paint the interior, refinish the hardwood floors, and replace any outdated fixtures. The rehab felt like a breeze; it only took us a couple of months to get the home ready for market. We thought we’d be hitting it just at the right time – in the spring, which typically is a good time to sell. Back then, if you had told me how long it would sit, I wouldn’t have believed you! But before I dive into the rollercoaster of selling in a tough market, I want to share some before and after pics of the transformation.
Upon listing the property, we had countless showings, a few offers, and even went under contract twice before selling the home to the final buyer. The previous buyers backed out due to unfortunate circumstances that really didn’t even have anything to do with the house. However, we did get to see the appraisal and inspection reports that came from those prospective buyers. The value came back much higher than we ended up selling for – and the inspection reports confirmed a solid home without any big issues.
I think this is what made it SO incredibly hard to keep waiting… and dropping the price. We knew it was a great house and it felt like we were becoming desperate to sell it. We just kept waiting, refreshing our emails for feedback (which was rarely negative), and holding onto hope that it would eventually sell. We extended our loan twice, renewed our insurance policy, and paid way too much money in interest. Just when we thought we were going to have to pull the listing off the market and keep it as a rental (which would have been a terrible “accidental rental” because it just wasn’t going to cash flow), we received an offer. We finally sold the property 15 months after the initial listing. We lost A LOT of money. It was, by far, the worst buy in our 6 years of real estate investing. I’m still not sure if we’ve recovered mentally, emotionally, or financially. But there’s nothing else to do but reflect on the process and be more conservative with our buys going forward. No more wishful thinking that a cute house will automatically mean a quick sale.
But despite the headache of the market, I still love how this home turned out. Here are just a few fun pictures to end this thing on a high note ◡̈ ♡
Have you ever had a project or investment that completely tested your limits? PLEASE tell me I’m not alone in the comments!
Meredith Worrell 