Flip in Utah

From the very first time I walked through this house it had a nice feeling to it. The south light poured in the front, and the roomy lot and brick exterior gave it a sense of security. I looked around at the carpet, the cabinets, the walls and bathrooms and found myself imagining myself on Flip That House. I would stand, face the camera and say, “I’m Brad McCall, and this is my flip.” Then the narrator would rattle out all the details of how much I bought it for and so forth.

The house, which was built in 1972, was still owned by the same family that built it. I dealt mostly with the Son-in-law (his wife grew up in the house), though ownership had been passed on to his daughter. It was a for-sale-by-owner, which made me nervous at first, but I did some homework with a couple real estate agents before I made an offer.

One of the perks of buying it from the original owners, is getting my hands on the original house plans:

I don’t plan on going into a lot of details about pricing and financials in this blog, but focus more on the experience of the renovation. I’m not doing a typical “flip” where it’s a quick short-term profit, I plan to rent it post-renovation for a few years before I sell it. Perhaps it will buy me time to see some market recovery.

After going through the experience of self-contracting a major landscape redesign at my current home, I feel I’ve set my expectations straight on what’s going to happen. It’s a BIG project. I know it won’t be easy and I’m anticipating having many unexpected hiccups and frustrations in the process. This is my teacher. I’m hoping to learn these things as I go, making it both an enjoyable learning experience and end up with a good long-term investment. (I tend to agree with Superman’s nemesis Lex Luther that land is a good investment. “They’re not making any more if it” he always says.)

House Description:
Location - Located on the edge of a very nice neighborhood with a lot of new expensive homes within a 1-mile radius. The downfall is it’s vicinity to a major road.
Lot Size - .27 Acre. A very large lot size for the community it’s located in. Because of the lot size it sets the home back from the busy road.
Design Style - Rambler (It seems to have a Prairie School style influence)
Square Footage - 2,430 total. Upstairs is finished completely (1,215) and downstairs has one room finished (the really funky one at 450)
Bedrooms/Baths - 3 Bedrooms upstairs, with room for 2-3 more downstairs. 1 full and one 3/4 bath upstairs. The 3/4 bath in connected to the Master Suite. Downstairs seems to have been plumbed for one full bath
Garage - A very large 2 car garage is attached with sturdy built-in shelves.
Fireplace - There are 2 - one up and one down.

The house had fell in disrepair over the past few years just due to its age of 36 years, but some updates had begun like crown molding in the living and hallway as well as new lighting in the kitchen. The bones are very good.