I’ve been pretty darn pumped up to do this post for quite some time now.  It gives me a chance to show off the work I did on this house and gives me a great platform to yell some more about what a difference carpet, paint and presentation can make.  Plus talk about investment property.

See, this is my house.  I bought it to rent it out…..gotta pay for college for my boys and keep my supply of cool cars fresh you know.  I paid $78k for it.  The foreclosures in this area go for in the mid $60’s.  In fact, an identical house to mine on the same street sold for $65k this summer…..So why am I bragging about paying $78k?  Well, I have been in the other one before and after its renovation.  That one needed a new kitchen and bath.  Mine didn’t.  That one didn’t have the wood trim wrapped in vinyl.  Mine did.  That one had a 27 year heat pump.  Mine has a 4 year old heat pump.  Once you get down to the nitty-gritty and compare apples to apples, I paid about $4k more for mine, but didn’t have to spend as much time to get mine ready nor did I have the risk of unearthing expensive issues during a major reno.   In the end, about the only visible difference between the two houses are color choices and I didn’t put in a dishwasher.  That house was flipped and just sold for $95k.  I think I did pretty good since that house was the same floor plan just about 5 houses down the same road….doesn’t get better than that for comparison sake!

These two pictures are of the same master bedroom.  Can you tell which one is the after?  All I did here was paint, carpet, an $80 ceiling fan, and new outlet covers…..and had a professional photographer snap the picture.

These next two are of the kitchen.  The cabinets and counter top were new just a few years ago.  Literally all I did was paint, a new range and a new ceiling fan….well, I did have an electrician add GFCI outlets just to make sure everything would be safe for my tenants.

These last two are of the bathroom.  All it got was a new toilet to conserve water and fresh paint.  The previous owner had recently redone the bathroom and made great selections!

So, there you have it……if this isn’t a testament to what paint, carpet and presentation can do, I don’t know what is.  I dropped about $3500 in paint, carpet, 5 light fixtures, 2 ceiling fans, a range and a toilet, but added at least $15,000 in value.  This is why I always tell sellers to do these little things because they can get such a big return not only in the sale price but also shorten their days on market.  (The other one just like mine was only on the market for a short time while being surrounded by others that have been on the market forever!)