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Remember my first house was a HUD Repo purchased in the last half
of 1975. It was up for sale with a starting bid of
$15,000 and I got it for $15,651. I later sold this house for $21,500.
After expenses I made about $3,500. My second house was a 4 bedroom 2 bath house that I purchased for $23,000 from a distressed home owner in 1977. It was also located in Kenner, Louisiana on West Louisiana State Drive about 1 mile from my 1st house. It was also in the same large subdivision called University City. University City was originally built to support a new Loyola University in the middle of the horseshoe shaped subdivision. The college was never built and houses, schools, hospital and commercial development are there now. What this taught me was that never buy a piece of residential property on the hopes that something is going to be built near it that might make the price of the property go up in value. If you can buy the property at a steal then that is a different situation. More on that later in my life. I went and got married in 1977. The women I married came from a family that were real estate developers (Gelpi). I was young and a little wild and crazy. I really did not get along to well with her family because they acted like I was not good enough for her. I did make several mistakes now that I look back. I had the opportunity to really get involved in real estate in a big way. A chance to get in selling new houses that the family built. Instead I got a real estate license and went to another company to work on a part time basis. I was very unsuccessful. If I had it over to do again I would have worked for her family and let them teach me the tools and tricks of the trade. I could have learned from someone that was successful and made some money along the way. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! If you can get any help from people in the real estate trade take it. There are a lot of people that are willing to take the time to help you out. Join the local real estate association or mentor program. Most big cities have some type of association that you can join to learn about real estate in your area. This 2nd house that I purchased for $23,000 was in move in condition. I did not even have to paint it. It appraised for $26,000 at the time I purchased it. My dad was into renovating houses. He would do about two houses a year and make between $5,000 to $10,000 on each house. I had a chance to learn form him but we could not ever get along long enough to do anything together. He was a carpenter by hobby. I could have really learned a lot from him on how to renovate a house. He would never do anything fancy in a house but what he did was high quality and would appeal to the majority of the people that would end buying a house. This leads me to give you the tip below. When renovating a house for resale try to think like a purchaser. Put yourself in their shoes. Do to the house what you think the masses would want to see in the house or at least what most people could live with and be happy with. To put a lot of money and time to do something fancy in a house can backfire on you. You may think that putting 10 inch natural wood crown molding up in all the bedrooms and hallways would be really nice. You spend the extra money to get long 14 foot runs of wood molding that all look the same. You try to match up the wood grain so they look consistent. You sand, stain and glaze the wood. It looks beautiful to you and everyone else. Even the people you end up selling the house to say they like the crown molding. You find out later that the new owners painted the crown molding bright white so that it would go better with their contemporary furniture. You think to yourself, "I could have bought the molding already that color. I could have gotten it in particle wood or even plastic and no one would have known the difference except me." The time I would have saved, all I can say is a whole lot. The money I could have saved was substantial. You may not even be able to find 10 inch wood molding where you live. Try to get it in 12 to 14 ft lenghts, good luck! I ended selling this house that I bought for $23,000 for the original appraisal price of $26,000 a year later. After expences I made about $2,000. That was a lot of money back in
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