Stupid Property Repairs
Stupid Property Repairs #9
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I ran across this property in St. Paul on Marshall Avenue. Nice looking Duplex on the outside. Someone had too much time on their hands. Now I understand what they mean by Wall to Wall Carpet and vinyl!
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| Wall to wall aright | Not sure what these 9″ nails are for | So much pad you sunk in about 4″ |
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| Vinyl on the walls | Did this guy work at a vinyl store? | Lastly, they tiled the cabinet door! |
Clearly this homeowner worked somewhere to get all this vinyl and other floor covering!
Stupid Property Repairs #8
Johnny Northsides just dropped me a message saying that he posted his own Stupid Property Repairs entry. You can’t help but get a laugh here. Love it.
It got me thinking that is has been some time since I posted a Stupid Property Repair. Maybe it has been because I am becoming numb to the [...]
Johnny Northsides just dropped me a message saying that he posted his own Stupid Property Repairs entry. You can’t help but get a laugh here. Love it.
It got me thinking that is has been some time since I posted a Stupid Property Repair. Maybe it has been because I am becoming numb to the stupidness. Maybe it is because I am so engaged with my customers that I don’t notice the repairs. Or maybe it is because I am talking so much that I am light headed and can’t see straight (this one is my best guess).
Well I came across a nice one the other day. Here we go.
Cute 1.5 story, 1950s house in a quiet North Minneapolis neighborhood. I have seen this exact floor plan probably 500 times. Walk in to the long family room, kitchen is on the back of the house straight ahead, dining room/bedroom/office off the kitchen, plus 2 other bedrooms on that floor and then a steep staircase to a big room upstairs.
This house was on the market for $79,900. Decent price for this neighborhood as it was a foreclosed property. It gets interesting as the moment you open the front door, where you are expecting hardwood floors, you are hit with an entire living room of white-ish tile.
Ok. Well, not my preference, but I understand people in Florida put tile everywhere. What I started to realize is that this must be one of the worst tile jobs I have ever seen! Clearly done by a weekend warrior. They simply put the tile down and never even attempted to close the gaps around the trim.
Even I can do a better job than that! Plus, then the tile in the kitchen was completely different than the tile in rest of the 1st floor. Again, OK, maybe they did the kitchen first and then they got a great deal on this other tile. But look at the seem in between the two tiles. You must have a 1″ gap there.
Now I am just lauging and hacking on the poor guy that put this tile in. I go into the kitchen and check out both the counter top and what is mounted above the sink.
A hand soap dispenser like you would find in a restraurant bathroom. Huh. Odd. By the way, nice counter pattern. See what the rest of the kitchen looks like.
And then just for the cherry on top, I go upstairs and see this odd install. I must have spent 5 minutes trying to understand why they would put 6 registers on the wall into the attic space like that.
It turns out (the picture did not turn out) that there was a bath fan mounted in the attic space behind these registers to suck the hot air out of that 2nd floor room. For the amount of money and time they spent on engineering this one, they could have gone to Home Depot and bought a $89 air conditioning unit and put in the window there!
And this house can be yours if the price is right!
Are you searching for investment properties on your own and running into similar properties?
Scott Ficek is a Minnesota Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Minneapolis and helps new and seasoned investors buy and own Minnesota Investment Property. He owns and manages almost 30 investment property units from single family to multi-family. Find his website at www.minnesotainvestmentrealestate.com or use it to search the MLS for Investment Properties.
Stupid Property Repairs #7
It is amazing how people can use different products to seal up openings or glue items together. Like some of these excellent repairs from a North Minneapolis foreclosure:
First you have the canned expanding foam to plug some holes (no doubt to keep the mice out):
Then you have the masking tape to cover a hole [...]
It is amazing how people can use different products to seal up openings or glue items together. Like some of these excellent repairs from a North Minneapolis foreclosure:
First you have the canned expanding foam to plug some holes (no doubt to keep the mice out):
Then you have the masking tape to cover a hole in the ceiling as you go downstairs:
Last but not least, the ever reliable and multiple use Duct Tape is used when you just don’t have any metal screws (to hold in the window):
Are you searching for investment properties on your own and running into similar properties?
Scott Ficek is a Minnesota Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Minneapolis and helps new and seasoned investors buy and own Minnesota Investment Property. He owns and manages almost 30 investment property units from single family to multi-family. Find his website at www.minnesotainvestmentrealestate.com or use it to search the Minnesota MLS for Investment Real Estate.
Stupid Property Repairs #6
A couple weeks ago, I was looking at rehab properties with an investor in Coon Rapids. I walked in the front door and was about to go up the stairs when I had to do a double take on this one. I just stood there and tried to figure out what the installer’s [...]
A couple weeks ago, I was looking at rehab properties with an investor in Coon Rapids. I walked in the front door and was about to go up the stairs when I had to do a double take on this one. I just stood there and tried to figure out what the installer’s motivation was.
It seems that this person (tenant I assume) was able to borrow/find some old Lunds entry carpets and proceeded to use them as runners on the stairs. I could almost understand if the rug had some cool name or logo on it like: BMW, TAG Heuer, or Summit Brewing, but come on, it is Lund’s grocery (nothing against Lunds as they are very nice stores). Then I had to wonder how much traffic and how dirty these stairs must get if they need a dark green commercial carpet to cover them!
(click for larger view)
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Scott Ficek is a Minnesota Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Minneapolis and helps new and seasoned investors buy and own Investment Property. He owns and manages almost 30 investment property units from single family to multi-family. Find his website at www.minnesotainvestmentrealestate.com or receive his blog via your RSS Feed or in your Email.
Stupid Property Repairs #5
I suppose it is tough to say this is a Stupid Repair, as all the houses of this vintage (pre 1950) were built this way.
It is more about how various investment property owners have attempted (and I am using that term generously) to deal with this troublesome bathroom feature.
Back when many of the properties in [...]
I suppose it is tough to say this is a Stupid Repair, as all the houses of this vintage (pre 1950) were built this way.
It is more about how various investment property owners have attempted (and I am using that term generously) to deal with this troublesome bathroom feature.
Back when many of the properties in Minneapolis were built, I guess people only took baths. Consequently, most bathrooms have a large window in them that is above the bathtub. While this is a design feature even seen in new homes, the problem comes in when a shower head is added to that bathtub to make a shower. Now, that nice light-filled window is water magnet with few great solutions.
Here are a couple attempts to fix this situation (all that are destined to fail)! Click on the pictures to see them in all their glory!
| Interesting way to tile over the window! | Notice painted black windows for privacy! | |
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| Tile the window ledge, but leave the wood window! | ||
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Stupid Property Repairs #4.5
After last week’s Stupid Property Repair #4, it seems to be the week for notches out of doors. This next one I just found at very nice, but vacant single family house in St. Paul. This property could be a good investment for a single family rental as it was priced at $165k.
I [...]
After last week’s Stupid Property Repair #4, it seems to be the week for notches out of doors. This next one I just found at very nice, but vacant single family house in St. Paul. This property could be a good investment for a single family rental as it was priced at $165k.
I have seen my share of small bathrooms and creative layout. I have even seen the bathroom door almost touch the toilet, but this one seems extreme.
I didn’t take the picture, but that notch is so wide that you can actually see into the bathroom when the door is closed!
