The hard part of this paint job is done. After 9.5 days of grinding and sanding we broke out the sprayer and put up 35 gallons of Kilz2 latex primer in a matter of hours. For a historical paint job on 117 siding I always get the house to primer first so any cracks and holes become visible and then start caulking and dialing it in getting ready for the colors. I estimate about 4-5 days of caulking now and then we’ll be ready for the 7 color paint job. Every piece of siding will get caulked so there’s no seams and the tiny holes from the trim nailer all get filled as well. A paint job like this goes against any typical house flip theory but then again we aren’t doing your average flips either. This paint job will pay off.
While the paint job is a huge undertaking for only 2 guys, myself and a hired gun, I’ve also been busy on the home front with more important issues. We’ve been spending alot of time getting our personal house ready to put on the market and after finally getting all the odds and ends completed we put it in MLS last weekend and it sold for full price in 3 days! My wife and I have decided that its time to take our real estate investing show on the road and head home to sunny San Diego, Americas Finest City, and the first step we determined is to sell our primary residence. This way we can get into a rental house and be able to leave at the end of any rehab. We came to San Antonio in October 2006 after the real estate market crashed in California. I had done alot of research at the time and we picked SA due to the growth rate, affordability and strong local economy. Our guess worked out great, we’ve had tons of success here but now its time to take on a new challenge, we’ll be returning to ground zero for the real estate bubble. Remember, the markets that crashed first will be the first to recover. SD has now seen 11 straight months of price appreciation. California unlike Texas has wild swings in home prices, the largest transfer of wealth in our lifetime is taking place right now and we want to get in at the bottom again. We’ll miss San Antone as there have been alot of fond memories created here, namely the birth of our beautiful baby boy! Thank you Texas!
Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Hi, Just wondering. How has the new Lead Paint Law passed into law April 21, 2010 affected your rehabs and paint jobs. Do you have it inspected during and after by an inspection/certification company? Tim
Yea Tim, new laws here in Texas regarding lead paint. If you disturb more than 8 square feet you have to be certified although its easy to get the credential. Thanks for the comment!
Going back to Cali…..
Good Luck!
When do you think you will be moving?
Hey Matt~ We’ll be transitioning into a rental house next month, then some deals to wrap up.. Not sure if we’ll start any big rehabs as seen here on our site but we’ll of course still do the smaller deals until we leave. A new chapter, a new market, a new challenge. I will probably have to change my investing strategy again based on market conditions in CA but we’re excited to go home! ps, I am still waiting to see pics of your historic rehab: )
Not altogether surprised — the tip off was that you weren’t talking about the next San Antonio project.
But what do you think about Jim the Realtor’s recent discussions about a softer San Diego market on the horizon, with an apparent slow-down in sales in America’s Finest City?
Whatever happens, wish you the best. You do great work — honestly, if anyone “deserves” a TV show about their real-estate activities, it’s you. Don’t know if you’d want to do one, but I’d sure watch it…
We’ve been watching as closely as possible and to me it seems the worse might be over for SD home prices. Clearly some type of bottom was reached last summer, and since theres been almost a years worth of price increases. I know the activity slowed a bit and theres still the unknown shadow inventory but it seems from looking at the foreclosure data that there are fewer homes making it to auction as well. There’s alot of money on the sidelines in SD and even after all that market has been through its still the dream for most families to own a home there. We dont need to sell a ton of houses to make a good living with our business model, the fun and challenging part will be of course sneaking back in there and finding the killer deals. I am ready for the challenge, like we’ve told our family it’s all about quality of life..
San Antonio has been great but we never planned on staying here, only coming to wait out the SD market cycle. Its now been almost 4 years and as long as SD prices arent dropping its safe to rehab as long as your numbers work. Thanks a lot for the comments!
One last comment — we need some more updates on the current project! I’m just dying to see what it looks like now inside and out. Don’t leave us hanging, man!
OK, I’ve been lagging. This exterior paint job is dragging out but you’ll see it soon. I’ve been taking pics and vids so I’ll post soon. Funny how we were just talking about the SD market, by chance I had a call from a realtor today trying to tell me it’s not time for me to come home yet. I think the word is out and somebody doesnt want extra investor competition: ). BTW, I’m coming back to force appreciation, not buy overpriced crap at the courthouse steps and try and get “lucky.”