It’s a good thing I’m not superstitious because good things have been happening to us lately with the number 13. Recently we purchased our newest rehab the Target House on a Friday the 13th. 
Now, after 13 days on the market and 13 showings; we have accepted an offer for the Neighbor’s House, which bears the address of 319, all multiples of 1 and 3. The culmination of this project also ends a 13th month stint that I’ve spent on this block rehabbing two houses next door to each other. Weeeeeird! Right? Of course we never call it “sold” until it closes but this buyer is strong, so as long as we get past the inspection and appraisal we should be good to go. (knock on wood). The average market time for San Antonio is close to 100 days so we are pretty stoked. Inventories have been decreasing this year but still higher than 2009. There is currently 6 months of inventory on the market in San Antonio so it’s pretty balanced between a buyers and sellers market.
Let’s take a closer look at the real estate market in our little farm area of Mahncke Park. It has still higher inventory levels with 10 homes on the market currently whereas last year there were never more than 2 or 3. This sounds low but keep in mind the size of our farm is only roughly 6 square blocks. In the last year there were 13 homes sold (yes, I know, another 13) with an average market time of 80 days and price of $240,000. With our recent sales prices around $340,000 we are getting roughly 100k higher than the average and selling our houses in an eighth of the time. It’s purely speculation because removing our sales comps, nobody would even guess what we are doing is possible. In fact we’ve heard local realtors scoff at our asking prices then say that we are the talk of the town when they sell. How are we doing this you ask? Simply by buying low, doing the construction ourselves to control costs and offering a product that you can’t find otherwise nor replace for the same price. Sure, there are some “updated” houses we compete with but nothing that’s been totally gutted, added onto and all new from scratch. It’s also gratifying to know that we are doing a good thing for the area and actually creating organic inventory for buyers by turning these otherwise uninhabitable homes into great new places for new families to live. Here’s to Lucky 13.