Thursday, December 23, 2010

Spring Branch Woods Fast Flip: From Unphotographable Crapshack to Dream Home in Just 48 Days!

Remember this home in Spring Branch Woods? Maybe not. Because the last time it went up for sale the home was in such bad shape the listing agent resorted to illustrating it with a gallery of cheesy stock photos, along with such enticing adjectives as “inhabitable.” And then there was this classic offer: “A diamond in the WAY rough, enter at your own risk, with a mask.”

The next day, enterprising Swamplot reader Claire de Lune drove by the property, and sent in a few photos of the place, including the one above, which helped explain the agent’s photographic choices — at least the image of all those children, running.

On October 15th, the home sold for $80,000, down a bit from the $110K asking price. And tax records dug up by a reader show the buyer, Titan Premier LLC, financed $71K of it — not exactly the “cash only” offer the seller had wanted. Then, at the beginning of December, the home went . . . gasp! . . . back on the market.

How does it look now? Just a little different:

* * *

Sadly, Swamplot doesn’t have any original photos of the interior to share — just the rest of Claire’s exterior shots, from late this summer:

The new list price after all the work: $229,900. A source considers that “pretty fair in that neighborhood,” especially considering the amount that must have been spent on the cleanup and renovation. (The home now features “hand scraped wood floors” — what did they have to scrape away?) MLS records show it went under contract — just 8 days after it was listed. Declares the source: “Here’s the 2010 winner of the fastest-flip award.”

Before photos: Claire de Lune

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14 Comments

  1. 1
    From JRo:

    I don’t like the super generic flip decor, but wow, what an improvement!

  2. 2
    From John:

    Wow that is amazing, I know the neighbors are happy.

  3. 3
    From Lauren:

    Wow! And already pending again (it went under contract on Dec. 8th –only 8 days on the market at that point– but went back on the market on the 21st).

  4. 4
    From Miz Brooke Smith:

    It cleaned up real nice!

  5. 5
    From Ash:

    Impressive – I had that pegged as a teardown.

  6. 6
    From Ross:

    Is it just me, or do the old photos of the garage look like they are flipped? From Google Maps, and the new photos, the fence should be to the right of the garage, not the left. Or, I could just be seeing things.

  7. 7
    From marmer:

    Well, yeah! If you’re going to flip it, flip it all the way! ;-)

  8. 8
    From kilray:

    Would have made a perfect Flip This House subject. I’d guess they cleared something like $60,000 for a couple of month’s hard work. Not too shabby.

  9. 9
    From markd:

    It can be done. Good job.

  10. 10
    From mary t.:

    Is it really necessary to use the same granite, cabinetry and tile in the kitchen and bath? I know it’s probably a money-saver because one can buy in quantity, but it isn’t very often that a kitchen and bath are a continuous flow space and they are (usually) used for entirely different activities. (Sorry,that’s just my pet peeve about a prevalent trend in renovations. . .)

  11. 11
    From Superdave:

    Let me put on my hippie hat…

    OK

    Noooo!!! That was rare urban wildlife habitat! So sad to see it destroyed. Hope the raccoons and possums find another place to nest.

  12. 12
    From Ribalding:

    Making the world safe for cheap, ugly Travertine – one flip at a time.

  13. 13
    From Cody:

    Good project. I like seeing these and am glad people get rewarded (financially) for taking an ugly eyesore and making it nice.
    .
    It’s not the fastest flip ever though :-) I put a house I had under contract on CL and ended up having it put under contract with a new buyer a few hours after I closed.

  14. 14
    From Cody:

    Ribalding: There are plenty of ugly homes that could be fixed up. You should buy some and fix them up in such a way to make yourself impressed.
    .
    Or you can just sit here and criticize others that are actually buying things with their own risk/labor/capital and making them nicer. I guess that’s easier.

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