Glenn's First Rental House Renovation - 30 Days into the project (Bonus Episode)

In this episode I talk about the first rental property the I (My wife and I)  bought and the journey thus far. How I found the house, the buying process, renovations and more. I give an in depth account of how we were able to purchase the home and where we are at 30 days into the projection.

• Where to start?
• Creating a vision for the home
• Mapping out the floor plan and considerations
• Trying to understand what did I buy and what issues am I finding.
• Plumbing issues
• Drywall and Fixture Removal
• Supplies need to start doing the demolition

Glenn Leest
Senior Investment Advisor
WT Wealth Management

Glenn's First Rental House Renovation - 30 Days into the project (Bonus Episode)

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Glenn Leest
Senior Investment Advisor
WT Wealth Management
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Transcript

You are listening to Intelligent Investing with Glenn Leest. In today's episode, we are going to talk about my renovation project, the house flip that I'm attempting to do and some of the things that I've learned so far. Stick around its going to be a great episode.

All right. Welcome to another episode of Intelligent Investing. It is Tuesday afternoon on the 18th. Uh, Glen leased here in the studio. Today I wanted to give an update. Um, I don't know if I've shared this before, but I bought, uh, the home right behind me at auction about a month and a half ago, and I am starting to do the renovations on it.

I plan on buying it and hopefully turning it into a rental. Um, whether or not I do a rental or long term rental, I've still yet to decide. I'm really in the early stages of this project and, uh, just want to kind of share some updates, some of the things I'm learning along the way. Um, I'll preface with saying I've never done a real estate renovation project before.

The only other house that I've owned is my home, which is a manufactured house. Uh, and I bought that about three years ago. So this is all new territory and, uh, really haven't had much experience, um, with doing a lot of. Pretty heavy construction work or demolition or remodeling work. So all new territory.

Kind of taking a step back, uh, give you some background. Um, I, I moved into my house in 2019 in Kachina Village. Uh, we did a, uh, manufactured build where we bought the lot and bulldozed what was there and then put a manufactured home on there. Um, put a garage and we did that brand new.

Moved in 2019. We've been living there for a couple years doing kind of a little, you know, projects here and there. And then our neighbor, which was directly behind us, um, super sweet lady, we've known her for a little while, um, ended up getting sick and, uh, you know, eventually passed away. And so, um, at that time I believe she had some, like a grandson or maybe something like that, living there.

And, um, so, so nothing really happened with the house. The, uh, grandson continued to live. And, um, I think even some more roommates came in and, uh, eventually one day we just saw a sign up in front of the house and it just, uh, said something about auctions, you know, the new way of the future, something like that.

So I called the, the, the number on the auction, um, on the, on the sign there and basically just asked the. Hey, what's going on? Is this house for sale? Um, are you just selling the items within it? Is this an estate sale? Um, is the house for sale? How does this, all this work? And they said, No, absolutely. We're doing both.

We're selling all these stuff inside the house. In the house itself too. Okay, great. Um, when, when is this auction? So they said, Oh, it's sometime, and I think it was like, um, late August and this was early August for me. And I said, Okay, cool. Um, hey, just by, by chance. You know, I'm looking to maybe buy this house.

I think it'd be great. What do I need to maybe buy this house for? Is there, you know, I, I don't really know real estate, but if I wanted to buy this, what do you think I need to bid at? And he's like, Well, you know, if you bid at, you know this price, I think you'll. You'll, you'll be pretty competitive is what he said.

He didn't really gimme a price because he really couldn't. Um, which wouldn't be fair. And so I kind of have an idea of what I was going to be paying for this house, uh, potentially, which was right around the $200,000 mark is kind of where the me and the auctioneer had talked about. That's probably the competitive price range for it.

And so I. You know, with that information kind of started looking around and say, Hey, where do I, um, find $200,000 of cash at? Um, it's a lot of money. Um, and so actually looked at doing a home equity line of credit on my current house and basically, um, thought that I had enough equity in my current house to pretty much pay for most of that other house.

And so I knew it was going to be. A little bit of a stretch, but at least got me, you know, that property potentially. So, uh, that's what I did. I worked with a local mortgage lender and uh, all the numbers looked good. They said, Hey, you know what, your current house, um, we think we can, you know, pull out, you know, 150 grand, 2 1 60, you know, of cash.

And then obviously I just come up with a difference. And so I was excited. I was like, okay, I got funding secured. And um, I think that Sunday, The bidding process would really find it kind of fun. Cause I had to, I had to fill out, uh, a little application, you know, let people know, let the company know that I was eligible to pay for this or, you know, had the, the money, uh, in case I won the bid.

And it was like a Sunday afternoon. So I came home from church and, um, bidding starts at one o'clock and I got to like 1 0 5 and. Um, there was a couple people there at the bidding and they said, Okay, you can look around the house and take a peek at everything. And so they gave you not even like five to 10 minutes to look around the property.

And then they're like, Okay, we're ready to start bidding folks. And so I had a very short amount of time to look at the property. Obviously, I, I knew, knew it from the outside because it was my neighbor's house, but I really didn't know it from the inside because I never, we never went into our neighbor's house inside.

It just, uh, and there was a specific reason for it, I guess. There was just a lot of stuff in there and it was a small little house. Walk around the house, and, uh, I'm like, All right, so let's start bidding. Bid on the house, uh, win the bid. And then, uh, that was on a Sunday. And uh, that next Monday, I called the, the mortgage lender and said, Hey, congratulations.

I won the bid, which was super stressful. Let me tell you, I had to get into bidding war with another person. And, uh, uh, I think he saw it in my eyes, like I was not willing to cry, uncle and. Uh, he just finally backed down after a bunch of bidding back and forth. And, uh, so anyways, that Monday I called the, uh, mortgage lender and say, Hey, um, let's get this deal done.

I, here's the winning bid. I think it was like 2, 2 18 or something like that. Um, what was, what it ended up being, And uh, they said, Oh, you know what? We got some bad news. I'm like, What do you mean bad news? Um, bad news. The he home equity line of credit. Everything looked good. We thought we could do it, but it's just not going to happen.

Sorry about that. And I'm like, What, What do you mean sorry, I, I already put down a deposit. I've won the bid on this house. Um, I got to come up with the cash. And so within the, the bidding contract, it actually had a 30 day, um, agreements that you had 30 days from when you won the bid to actually, uh, Put the cash, you know, and, and, and fund it.

So I had basically 29 days from there to figure out how the heck I'm going to, uh, come up with the remaining like 200,000 bucks. And, um, so I, I called back, you know, after I, I thought about it a little bit. I called back the, uh, mortgage lender and said, Hey, This house, um, you know, it's, it's older, it needs some work, but what if we just hit a traditional loan, traditional financing on it?

Is that possible? And, you know, cause I, I bought it for two 18, you know, it's got to praise for more than that. You know, we can just get traditional lending as if you just bought the house. And so Great. You know, let's, uh, you know, get all the loan documents in place and we're going to do an a. And so the appraisal appraiser got out there and, uh, I think within 10 minutes the appraiser just said, Oh, I'm not going to finish the appraisal.

I'm just immediately giving it the thumbs down. And, uh, . So I didn't even get an appraisal. The appraiser just refused to do it because they said the house was in such disrepair and disrepair. And, uh, I called the appraiser and said, What, what was it exactly? What's so wrong about the house? And they said, Oh, it needs a new roof.

And it doesn't, it just has an old school stove, um, for what? Wood burning stove. And so that's, it just needs too much work. And so I couldn't get traditional financing on it either. So, um, the home equity line of credit fell through, the traditional financing fell through, and now I'm starting to stress because, uh, I'm like, I really want this house, but I think the universe is telling me I'm not supposed to have this house.

Cause each time I try to make it happen, I just keep getting into a roadblock. I was excited when I won the bid. Don't get me wrong, that was like a, you know, very, very exciting time. But then each time, you know, I kept running into these roadblocks. I just kept feeling more and more discouraged, and so I was like, Well, I don't really know.

What other options are, and in the meantime, it, you know, from the time I got the home equity line of credit potentially approved to the, um, traditional financing, I didn't even find out that the traditional financing fell through until like, Five days before the 30 days was up. So we're already right at the end.

And so I was really, um, kind of in, just in a tough spot and uh, I was actually able to get what's called hard money lending, which is, um, a person or a corporation that will lend you the money based off of character. Um, and so I got hard money lending to get the deal done, which was, uh, a total just blessing because I was not expecting to get this property.

I was bummed. I thought I was going to lose my deposit, which I think the deposit money was. Maybe 20 grand, something like that. Um, and so, um, ended up getting hard money lending, which is a much more expensive version of lending, but they'll do it on, uh, maybe properties that the bank won't do. So the bank wasn't willing to lend on this property, but I knew the, the person, the organization that was doing a hard money lending and they said, Hey, look, we know you, we've known you for a while.

We feel good about this. Um, we'll front the cash, we'll, we'll loan on the property. And so that individual. Becomes the, the lender. So I did hard money lending, which for those that you don't know, um, hard money lending is more expensive. Uh, it is not at the normal mortgage rate. So if a normal mortgage rate was at 6% or seven, hard money might be at 10, 11, 12%.

So it's quite a bit more, but it's because if you can get traditional financing, most people you know, would do that. So if you're having to do hard money lending, it's because it's. Riskier project or, or some sort of other, uh, criteria that the banks are just not wanting to delve into. So I got the hard money lending and, um, it's an interest only loan.

So it's one of those things where it's, it's, it's, it's, it's expensive, but it got me through in a pinch and I got the deal done. And as of about three weeks ago, We're starting to do our, our renovations. So this is where, okay, now I've actually paid for the house. I closed on it. Got it done. Um, cause I didn't want to do any work or any real planning on the house until it was actually mine.

In fact, I didn't even want to walk over there and look at it because in this whole period of time I was like, I don't even know if this house is going to be mine. I don't even know if this deal is going to happen. Um, and it wasn't until the day they. That the hard money lending came through. It got funded, it got recorded, um, at the county, so as officially, you know, my property.

And so that's when we kind of started the renovation process. And kind of interesting thing, I'll give you kind of some stats in the house so you have some real life, um, way to measure. It's a. It, it said on the county is built in 1965, but we actually found out it was built in 1905, but they had moved it a couple times and the most recent move to the current location was in 1965.

So I, I, and I found this out by talking with the family that had owned the house before, cause it was their mom that had passed away, their mom or grandma. And uh, we just found more information about it. , I was kind of wondering like, wait, you moved to this house? I didn't know. You can just move stick built houses like a manufactured house.

Okay, I get that. But how do you move a stick-built house? And I guess it's like a, a steel frame, the whole house. So it's, it's like a, it's this thing's built sturdy. Um, and it actually been moved twice in Flagstaff alone. So this house had been moved twice, which I don't understand. Why you'd move a house twice, Like, is it Sunnyside and then somewhere else in town?

Then final destination was Kina Village. Um, but anyway, so we start the renovation process and the very first thing we needed to do is this house had a, um, entire lifetime of just stuff in the yard. Um, tools, equipment, um, sheds. Uh, it had like a. One, they, they had these structures that they had built over the years.

Like there was like a, a chicken, uh, chicken run and a chicken coop, which I've got chickens, but I didn't need another one. And, um, one of the structures was actually, it's kind of interesting, it was, they took a camper shell off of like a pickup truck and put it like on a. On a foundation out in the backyard.

And so it was like this camper shell just sitting out there, but it was a tiny little camper shell. So I was like, What is this doing here? And I think they said like at some point in time an uncle or some family member, a cousin, was living in this little tiny camper. And it's not, it's not very big. It's like all of eight feet long, three feet wide.

So whoever's living there was definitely living a very cramped life. So the first thing we needed to do was really just start to get rid of some of these, um, these. , these items that, you know, the big items here was like a boat, there was a trailer, just all sorts of stuff and, and not like stuff, uh, this is old, worn out stuff that's been, been hit with the weather for quite a while.

So, uh, the first thing we did is we called Flagstaff junk removal just to, at least so we can see what are we even dealing with here around the property. Because it's kind of hard to see the exterior of the property when we have all this junk. So they called, we called them great company. Basically what they do is you take pictures of what you're needing to have removed.

And, uh, they will give you a price quote and then, um, they come pick it up. Um, put it in there. Um, they have like a backhoe. They've got like a trash compact, or they got like the whole nine yards. Um, they'll come and remove all your junk and whatever the price is they quote you at, it'll be done. So they quoted us.

Seems like a two day project. And, um, I, I'm telling you, Difference that everything looked like before and after was just, um, was absolutely astounding. They really cleaned up. So we got the, the yard cleaned up the backyard and then next was moving in, tied into the structure of the house. So there's where I started looking around.

My father and I were out there kind of looking at us saying, Okay, what, what is the game plan? What do we want to do with this house? It's a two bedroom, one bath house built in 1965, right around 1,250 square foot. So it wasn't a very big home, but what's our game? You know, are we going to open up the living room?

Are we going to do a full top to bottom, um, remodel? Um, what are we going to do? And so that's where it's been kind of a fun project. Um, and the next question is, what's the plumbing like, what's the electrical like, what's the foundation like? All these questions that I, I need to find out. Um, because during the auction process, remember I just didn't have a whole lot of time to look at it.

Um, and frankly, I'm really good at looking at investments and, you know, other things like that. Uh, but when it comes to house, I'm. You know, I'm learning it, I guess I'll say it. I'm learning what to look for and, um, so we start looking around, find out the foundations, Great structurally sound. Um, the house was actually.

The, the way they built houses a long time ago was much different than today. And so just a lot of the things that are standard today, just, they did it differently as evidenced by, they used to use asbestos back in the day for, uh, everything. And nowadays no one uses it toxic. But the stuff in this house, it wasn't anywhere near like that.

It was actually just like, um, uh, the way the house was set up, everything was really boxed in. Like a lot of walls sectioning off the living room, the dining area, the kitchen, all that where. A lot of nowadays, a lot of times nowadays, houses are really open. They have a lot more open feeling, which if you've ever watched the, um, flipper flop show, they, they, that's usually one of the first things they do is knock down walls to open up the, the area.

It makes it feel bigger. So that was the first thing we needed to do is, uh, start game planning. What's the plan with this house? Are we going to knock down some walls? Um, you know, what's the electrical look like? What's the plumbing like? Do we have leaks? Do we have mold, termites? All these things. Uh, luckily it's right next door to my house, and so I kind of go over there in the evenings or on the weekends and just start doing some of the work.

And so, um, the, the first step of the project is just demolition. And so now that we, we've kind of come up with a tentative game plan of we want to replace and redo x, y, and Z of the house. We know we need to take it down to the bare bones, if you will, so, The first stage of, um, our process was kind of having a tentative game plan for what we want to have done in the house, um, whether it's going to be short term or long term rental.

Um, and so we've been mapping that out and so we decided that, um, We need to open up some walls. Um, that's number one. We need to take out all the fix, uh, all the cabinetry. All the fixtures. It was all old and dated, so we knew we needed to take out all the stuff in the kitchen, everything in the bathroom.

Um, the drywall itself was really old too. It was from, like I said, 1960 something and. We knew, um, after we talking with, um, a contractor buddy, you know, he's like, Hey, you know what, if we're going to redo this project, let's do it right. Um, and so if we go all the way down to the studs is what they're talking about, which just means you remove all the drywall that they can replace it.

And so this, this drywall that was in the house was, um, it was kind of an interesting one. It was like a plaster drywall, so it was a much more, uh, thick wall, which if you, uh, if you have a current drywall, um, and you try and punch through the drywall, um, a lot of times if you're not hitting a stud, you'll go through it.

Um, cause the drywall is just not super, um, Super thick. Uh, whereas that drywall in the house, like you could punch it and probably break your hand, um, it's just this thick plaster. And so we've been taking down the walls, um, down to the, taking down the drywall, down to the plaster is kind of what we've been the ultimate goal.

So first we have to take down any kind of moldings, any kind of stuff around the doors. Um, fixtures. We've been removing those and, um, it sounds like a lot of fun, right? You get a sledge hammer, get lots of tools, get to bust stuff up, but it's a very dirty operation. And so that's kind of what we've been doing.

Um, I usually do it on the weekends and at night. Um, and, uh, One thing I've been learning about it is when you look at a project like this, it's good to have a tentative gain plan, but also have some room for flexibility too. Because with this project, um, when I first came into it, um, I kind of had my, my, my tentative plans.

I was like, Okay, we're going to buy this house, you know, win it at auction and then we'll just level out the house and I'll just make it a big giant backyard for me. Um, that was the tentative game plan. And then after I won the bid, I was looking at this house going. You know, this house, you know, with a little TLC can be really pretty cool.

Uh, I don't need a bulldoze, That'd be silly. So my plans adjusted once I actually looked at the house. And now that I've done been doing more work and I realize this house has good bones and know some more of the structures with it, I've come up with a even different plan. So part of the game plan.

Involves increasing the square footage, increasing the bathroom, um, the bathroom's in the house because a two bedroom, one bath, that's just not a lot of space at 1200 square foot. That's, that's pretty small. So we decided to, um, convert the garage into living space cause it's like a giant three car garage in this house.

And so, you know, we don't have a need for that big of a garage. So if we convert that into living space, it'll be expensive. But that'll probably add. Four, 500 square foot right off the bat. Plus there was this, uh, area above the, um, the main living room that there was stairs going up to, but it was, it was just like a unfinished addict.

It was not even really, there was like stuff up there, but it was kind of like unsafe. It was like, I don't know why. They didn't just finish that out, it looked like they were trying to, and they started to, but they just never finished the attic out. So we're going to take that attic space and actually finish it out and make it a legitimate bedroom, um, with a bath, um, or, you know, make it a little loft area.

Um, and so that's kind of the game plan there. And then even above the garage is in another like loft attic space. And so we're looking at that, gutting that, and actually making it more livable as well. And that will be, Uh, probably 300 square foot plus the attic above the main house, 300. So now we're looking at, instead of a 1200 square foot house, we're looking at maybe like a 2100 square foot house, um, and adding some bathrooms.

So instead of it being, uh, one bathroom, we will add an extra two bathrooms to the location. Uh, one in the attic, you know, we'll convert into that room above the main house. And then in the garage area, we'll have, um, that we're going to convert to a living area. We can do like a little bathroom space in there, which they kind.

Started to do, but we'll actually finish it out and make it, you know, real nice. So, um, that was just one thing I learned is, is. You know, being flexible to have the plans change, but also I've been learning to call, um, experts is, is, is, uh, suffice to say is, um, you know, if I've got a question on something, is to call someone that knows what they're doing.

You know, call multiple people, just get some ideas, get some insight, get some input because um, you know, some of the things I was thinking of doing, like, I was like, Oh man, I got to take off the whole roof. Re shingle the whole roof and you know, it's going to be a real expensive operation. Uh, after talking with some roofing, um, experts, they said, Well, you could do that, or you could probably just do a metal roof, which might look really good and be a whole lot less expensive.

And so I'm like, Oh, didn't even know I could do that. And then I'm looking at the siding of the house going, What do I do with this, you know, siding of the house and the, you know, Contractors, like, well, we could, you know, maybe do some stucco. We look real nice. Um, and that way we don't have to remove the same amount of stuff unless it's damaged.

So I'm like, Oh, okay, well now I'm learning. I'm learning, you know, what some of the options are, and I'm learning to rely on other people and experts and not being afraid to ask, say, Hey, um, I need some help. Um, you know, how does this work? And getting a couple different opinions. That's, that's something I've really been learning.

But it's actually been a lot of fun too. My dad and I get to go over there every night and my wife comes over occasionally my kiddos have been coming over and trying to pick up nails. Um, so that's been fun for them. Um, and sometimes one of my coworkers comes over and helps me. So, uh, we've been just doing a ton of demo.

Um, I've got about half the house demo down to the studs. Um, which like I said, it's just really, um, Time intensive and very dirty. Um, you just get covered in white drywall stuff. Um, and so it's like you got to be in a respirator and, uh, you know, I, I, I goggle. So you don't want to be exposed to all sorts of, I mean, probably okay, but I just.

I'm extra safe. So it's been an interesting project so far. So kind of we're at that first month of just doing demolition, we're getting it prepped and ready to, you know, what are we going to do next. Um, I haven't busted down any full walls yet because I have to make sure that they're not load bearing obviously.

Um, and depending on how you do that, I think there's maybe some permits that need to be done. So, um, just kind of. Planning, you know, how to which room, which walls we may want to keep, you know, where to reposition some staircases, um, you know, designs, flow of the house. Um, got the whole kitchen torn down. Um, it's funny, the, the kitchen, the, uh, the ceiling actually was, um, a copper.

Copper sheets were on the, the ceiling of the kitchen, copper sheets, and then like silver, not silver, but um, tin inlay is all around. And it was like this artisan, you know, creation, which it was kind of really cool looking. Um, but you know, I have no idea how practical that is. Um, the cell phone coverage in that, that home is all like, Tin and stuff everywhere is horrendous.

There's just no coverage. Um, so having to pull all that metal down from the ceiling and there's a lot of glass and mirrors everywhere in the kitchen. That was the other thing that was interesting too, is, um, I'll, I'll maybe try and upload some of these pictures. Um, so you can see. But around the edges of the, the kitchen on top of the cabinets, they had mirrors.

They were just sitting there like angled. And I think as, so when you walked around the kitchen, um, you could see, you know, what was, is you got a better view of things, I guess. I think the, the person that was living there wasn't super tall. Um, That's what I think. I, I met her while she was alive and she wasn't that short.

So I think that was the idea with the, the mirrors, but very dangerous for moving all these mirrors and busting them up. And my goodness, we've created so much debris. Um, the garage was almost empty and I filled it to the brim, um, once with just debris from taking stuff down, knocking down, um, you know, some of the drywall areas, taking down cabinets.

And again, we called the, um, flax step junk removal. And, uh, cause I didn't, I hadn't rented a big dumpster yet. Um, we just cut. Busting stuff up and they came and just picked everything up. I came home from work one day and uh, went to go look in the garage next door and my wife was like, Yep, they came and picked everything up and paid them and it's all good to go.

And I was like, My goodness was that easy? Um, cause I was looking at also renting a dumpster too, and just one of those massive 40 foot long. 40 yard long dumpsters. It was like a thousand bucks a month. And I was like, Holy moly, that's expensive. And that's if you keep it for multiple months. Like if you just do one, three week period, it's like $2,000.

So, you know, some of these renovation products are very expensive. And just even going to Home Depot, you know, to get the tools just to knock. Down parts of the wall, like sledgehammer, um, you know, some other, like a crow bar. You need a lot of that. Um, pry bars. Um, some masks. Some goggles. You know, I needed a lot of trash cans that I could put inside the house that you could wheel from room to room.

I mean, that's all been very expensive so far, much more than I thought. Plus, if you actually have any labor that's being done, just. You know what that costs. Um, but I, I did the math. I, I looked at, um, if I was to pay to have the demolition done, how much it is on average per square foot. And I want to say it was like anywhere from seven to $15 per square foot was a national average for cost.

So if it was a 1200. Uh, square foot home and uh, we decided to, you know, go at the higher end because everything's expensive at $15 per square foot, we're looking at almost 20 grand. And so I was like, man, I could just do that on the weekend. Um, you know, if my dad and I do a little bit of legwork ourselves and maybe save a little bit of money and.

You know, some of the other stuff I, I'm not going to do. Right. I'm not really interested in hanging drywall right now, or building cabinets. Um, I mean maybe, but you know, I, I know when to, you know, hire the experts and some of these things, but the demo work, I mean, there's a lot of, a lot can be done there. So that's kind of the update.

We're about a month into it. Uh, I've been taking pictures, uh, before and after each of the. Workday. So it was kind of fun to see the progress move along from the very beginning to the end of that day, to the end of the next day, and you can kind of see the work that we've been doing. And then, um, you know, me, my dad and the contractor all kind of have been, you know, all, at least of the contractors that I'm interviewing, kind of been sharing everything on Google Drive so that way we can kind of see the progress and, and they can start giving quotes and bids and stuff.

So we're kind of very early in the development of the project, but. You. It's been fun so far. Um, getting to spend some time with my dad, learning the ins and outs of this, going to Home Depot a bunch, and, um, getting, getting to swing some hammers. My hands have actually been so sore. Um, I did like seven days in a row of just four hours in the evening and then all day on the weekends.

And my hands were just hurting from just holding a hammer all day and swinging it and busting stuff up has been really challenging, but also rewarding too. So. Yeah, just a lot of things that I'm learning. Very interesting. And also getting to talk with a lot of people, getting their input. Um, you know, some people that I know that have done this and are into construction, into renovations kind of, kind of been giving me some of the input.

Like I'll ask, hey, You know, what do you, what do you think? I'll show them a picture and they go, Oh, you know what, Um, you actually have the old school two by fours, which are really sturdy, really good, just solid, you know, wood, which they usually don't use anymore. So you really got some good wood there. Um, oh, and this, this wall looks really clean.

Look at it. You got it all, all the way down to the studs and looks great. Or, you know, one of my friends was looking at the, the floors, which are all hardwood, and he was like, You could probably keep all those floors just if you wanted to just refurbish sand down the wood and use those, um, you know, you don't have to, um, put brand new flooring in.

You can just use that. Um, and, uh, you know, look it, look, make it look great. Re sand it down, refinish it, re stain it, and then look amazing. So, um, I'm like, Great. No, I don't have. Pay, uh, a bunch of new flooring costs to get new hardwood put in or new tile, um, for the whole house. I can still salvage some sec, some sectors.

Um, the other thing I'm learning about is water too. Um, , I don't know much about plumbing, but I'm starting to learn a little bit more. Um, Where, So the way plumbing works is usually if you're on city water or county, um, there's a, the water meter, you know, and um, there's like the main point it comes in at.

And a lot of times the company, the water company will have a water shut off valve and like one of those little green boxes or somewhere where the water company can come in and shut off your water if they need be. And then usually somewhere in your house, somewhere you have. Water shut off as well. So that way if the water company can't come out and you just want to shut off the water for the whole house, you can find your shutoff valve, which, um, I know where mine is at my, my original house, the one I live in, but I'm still, I don't think this new one we're, we're trying to find it.

We haven't found it yet, so I'm, Probably going to have one installed, put in a water shutoff valve. And with that process, um, kind of interesting, if you want to take it a step further, um, you can have the plumber install like some, uh, like Bluetooth meters so that way it'll measure how much water. So, so, so one, I've been having water issues in my current house.

Um, which has been frustrating because it's a new house. So, you know, I have leaky faucets, leaky, you know, toilets, leaky pipes, and I've had spent a tremendous, I've spent like 10 grand in the last, you know, couple years on, on, uh,  and plumbing issues at my own house, which a brand new house, it shouldn't be that way.

But, um, you know, the, the, the place that built it, the contractor really just did not, um, was really just kind of basic low end, you know, maybe cut some corners, didn't do things very well, and, and I'm having to pay the price for it. So I guess, um, you know, one other thing you might learn from this is go with quality to start with so that way you're not having to replace it a year or two.

Um, cause any money you may save by, Going the cheaper route, you're just going to have to pay for it again, the future. So especially when it comes to like plumbing and heating and that sort of thing. So, um, but what's interesting about my current house is I keep getting these calls from the water company, Katrina Water, and they say, Hey, um, we know that you're using a lot of water.

I'm like, Really? How much? They go, Oh, today you used 600 gallons. I'm like 600 gallons. That's a lot of water. Uh, you know, I don't. Do. Is that normal? And they're like, No, we think you have a leak. In fact, they have like these really, um, intricate systems where they can monitor. It's a very sensitive system where they can monitor and see, um, leaks and usage and they can tell what's just someone using the sink or flushing a toilet or taking a shower and what's a consistent leak?

And so, You know, the water company, after I fixed my leak at my current house, um, they said, Hey, it might not be a bad idea to install one of those shutoff valves with the integrated technology. So you can track it on your phone. So say if it's a vacation rental and you're out of town for the weekend, you can see on your phone if there's a water leak, um, based off of the measurement, and you can see how much water's, you know, going in and out.

You can even remotely shut off your water as well. You know, I'm not, I don't know if I'm there quite yet. I like technology, but there's always a part of me that's a little bit hesitant. You know, someone can, you know, tap into your, your water and turn off. But at least I like the monitoring aspect, so I can see if there's an issue remotely.

And, um, you know, it only takes one, one huge water bill for you to, you know, realize it's important to make sure something doesn't leak. Like, um, in my, in my current house, the house I live in, we have these faucets in the front and backyard, just the hose faucets. Um, and, and they're, they're not even that old.

They are kind of, like I said, entry level, you know, kind of bottom of the line, uh, spigots and they've been leaking and I think that I caught the issue within a couple days, but it still cost me, I think, an extra four or $500 an extra water. Um, the, the water lady at Kachina was telling me one leaky toilet can do 10,000 gallons of water in a day.

I was like, I think that was the number, which is just bizarre, like bonkers. Or maybe it was a thousand gallons. It was, it was something absurd where just a little leak can really, you know, um, cause you an extra five or $700 in just water, um, for the month. So it's really important to make sure you get your plumbing in.

So I'm learning a lot about plumbing. Um, and I, since we've been doing construction over there, I don't, I don't need to have water. So we've actually had the water turned off at the. The utility level. So we actually called the water company and they turned it off and we'll eventually put our own shutoff valve there.

So it's just been a fun adventure, learning a lot. Um, you know, if anything, obviously I hope to turn a profit from this project. Hopefully it works out in the end. That's always the goal. But, um, learning a lot too. Learning a lot during the process of how to do things, how to set, um, expectations, what to look for, um, you know, really just how to manage a project like this.

And I said I'm still in. Early stages of it, but as I'm getting further along in it, it's, it's coming more and more clear, getting a better level of comfort with everything we're doing. So, um, whereas before in the very beginning, you know, this is all new territory, it's very kind of scary, uneasy. But the more time that's passing and the more kind of getting deeper into the project, the more that I'm starting to, um, be more comfortable with it and see, see.

See the potential there. Uh, so anyways, just wanted to share those updates about the house that I bought behind me. Um, some of the, um, issues. I, If you guys like this episode, please make sure to come and subscribe. Happy to talk more about my, uh, renovation, um, kind of our long-term game plan, what we're going to do, whether it's going to be Airbnb or long-term rental, which I have thoughts on that too.

Um, because I, I don't know that it's as clear cut as you might think it is. Everyone says, Oh, do an Airbnb short term rental, but I actually have a, another opinion. You know, might work out just as well. So, anyways, thanks for joining us today on Intelligent Investing. Um, you know, make sure to subscribe, take a look at our other episodes.

Follow me on Facebook. I put out a lot of content there. Uh, if you want to call us, my number here is 9 2 8 2 2 5 2 4 7 4. This has been Glenn Leest with Intelligent Investing.