Dream Homes Hunter

Bad news:  it took us approximately 7 months to complete our first home renovation and resale (flip).  That’s just about 4 months too many LOL!

Good news:  our profit was approximately $60,000  . Not too shabby indeed!  

Bad news:  we had to pay $14,000 in capital gains tax since we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to find another good flip option during the 2022 real estate boom.  And, as it turns out, we were right.  We’re still looking!

Good news:  our partnership is still intact and we still all like each other.  We’re family, so we kind of have too 

Sooooo - Let’s take a look at a few of the Before and Afters!  This is always my favorite part!  It’s so cool to see the side-by-side comparisons.

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Before - Kitchen:  If you can even call it that.  The glass block breakfast nook was interesting though.

After - Kitchen - what a bright and sunny transformation!  I love the gold hardware and the sputnik light (which we got from Facebook Market - SCORE!).  We also removed 2 unnecessary doors to create additional cabinet and counter space.

Before - 1 car garage and laundry area:

After - newly created Family Room: we created a family room, mechanical room and laundry room out of the 1 car garage.  The garage was pretty unusable anyway and a nice shed was out back so we thought this was a much better use of space.

Before - Upstairs area:  This area was a diamond in the rough.  It had a dilapidated door that walked out to a tired looking deck area.

After - Upstairs area:  We had fun with this space turning it into the ultimate man cave with a mid century modern bar area and fireplace update while also making it work as a 3rd bedroom.  The man cave must have worked because a single guy bought the place from us!   The tired covered deck also received some love with a newly painted roof and exterior door.

Before - Back patio and yard:  The yard was terribly overgrown, the shed was a mess (although surprisingly nice and clean inside) and the patio was totally cracked.  

After:  Backyard/Patio/Shed:  It’s crazy what a few days pulling weeds and painting can do!  We created a firepit area with adirondacks as well as a newly poured patio (which we had some luck with the city on and were able to get that done for a song) area.  The shed was painted a fun black and white and we even added a window box to dial up the charm.

Before - Front:  This is what sold us on purchasing this house, even though it was a complete mess, gutted, sad and lonely.  The architectural features of the home were so cool, we couldn’t wait to bring her back to her original, even better, glory!  

After - Front:  We love how this turned out.  The art piece with the modern house numbers was one of the doors we removed from the kitchen.  We purchased a cool modern front entrance to replace the plywood doors that were covering up the garage area.  Repainted the entire house and added some landscaping.  All during construction people would stop in and talk to us about how they’ve always hoped someone would fix it up, they were so happy to see it and how it was turning out! 

Some landscape lights and party lights on the deck set the stage for a wonderful first open house!  

It was such a learning experience and so much fun to do.  We can’t wait to do it again.  We couldn’t have done it without the construction expertise of @CarriganConstruction so big shout out to Greg & Greg, the father/son duo extraordinaire.  Hopefully we’ll be able to find our next diamond in the rough soon so we can add this sign back in the yard!  Thanks Andy @caribee-sign for always making us look good with our signage.  Check them out.  For your signage and promotional product needs.  Affton area by @9milegarden on Gravois.

The real estate agent’s bag is her lifeblood.  It can make or break your day.  Pack too much and you end up being the Hunchback of Notre Dame. too little and you miss an opportunity for a $1MM+ listing.  It’s that crucial!

Let’s take a gander on what’s in mine:

Electronics - Let’s see, there’s a USB Charger, my Samsung smart phone, ear buds, an old MacBook that I seriously need to update!  “I’ll worry about that tomorrow” she says in her best Scarlett O’Hara voice.    With these items, I can basically do ALL THE THINGS.  Enter a listing, present a listing, take listing photos/video's, search for new listings, email/text current & potential clients.  I’m basically a walking office at this point.

Supplies - Company Branded Exit Folders, Blank Seller’s Disclosures, Estimated Closing Cost sheets, my personal planner (yes I still have one - I just like seeing my week unfolded and checking off my to-do items.  I also enter in my smartphone but my planner keeps all the deets at a glance for me), extra pens, Thinking of Selling postcards and, of course, business cards (which reminds me, time for new head shots AND business cards).

Other Schtuff - 

Dental Floss, Mouthwash - cause, you know ;)

Air Freshener - comes in super handy when your touring some lame ass property that let cats do their thang everywhere.  Ugh - that’s going to be another post all its own.   

AAA Card - self explanatory 

Dog Treats - People love their furry friends and love you when you treat them with a little something.

Healthy Snacks - Days can be long and the temptation to just drive through and grab some unidentifiable blob of “meat” can happen if you don’t plan ahead!

Hand Cream - Nobody wants to shake a dry, scaly hand, now do they?  Wait, are we back to shaking hands again?  I’ve never been an elbow bumper.  

Aluminum Free Deodorant - see Dental Floss/Mouthwash.

Depending on the day - give or take a few items - that’s about it.  I would show you a photo of my packed bag, however, I need to get another bag.  This one has lost its game for me.  

Count Your Blessings, Hug Your Blessings & Be A Blessing!

Peace Out!

Soooooo, it’s been a minute since I wrote on here but today is exactly 1 year since I was let go at my former 19+ year employment (read my first Making the Switch to catch up and see how I really felt at that time LOL) so I thought it was fitting to write a short and sweet update for ya’all!

I very quickly realized since I was already a licensed realtor and selling $15K a year plus just doing it part time the income potential was limitless.  I decided to take the balance of the year to set myself up as a full time realtor ... hired a social media planner to jumpstart IS & FB campaigns (thanks Caroline Bertani ;), set myself up on Linked In, Google, Next Door, joined a local Chamber of Commerce, started canvasing a few thought-out target neighborhoods with giveaways and my information, wrote newsletters,  took several real estate extension classes like “Million Dollar Producer” and “EPro certification training” ... I could go but the gist of it is I tried to take advantage of any and all offerings available to set me up on the right path.  Oh, and I also managed to close some deals so, yeah me!

OK, so now we’re at the 1st day of year 2 for me.  I’m coming up to the end of  SUPER GREAT AWESOME WONDERFUL 2021 1st Quarter where I’ve hit the $MM in sales already for the year and working hard to keep that up over the next 3 quarters.   My brokerage, Exit Elite, is so supportive and give their agents all the tools available to make us look good.  When we look good, they look good so, it’s all good!   The market is a bit challenging now as the home inventory is down and the competition for home buyers is fierce.  Learning this market has been interesting but it’s also very exciting!  

Since I don’t want these blogs to be all about selling I won’t do a shameless plug here to please refer me to anyone who might be interested in buying and/or selling their home ‘cause, you know, that would be shameless ;)

I hope you are experiencing a great year so far...Count Your Blessings, Hug Your Blessings & Be A Blessing!

Peace Out!

OK so there are highs and lows in every profession however, I think real estate might have the quickest switch between the 2 ... one minute you have a possible 2 listings, several buyers are looking and possible 2 more on the hook ... then - the listings decide to go FSBO, buyers decide to rent their neighbor’s brother’s sister-in-laws place for “a bit”, the potentials disappear and POOF you are back to square one.

However it’s not all gloom and doom and I have to say I wake up HAPPY every single day now soooo, there’s that ... 

Here’s the haps of what’s going on with me:

1.  I’ve had several closings lately, a beautiful lake house coming up to list soon and I’m working with my ex husband to find him a home ... just goes to show don’t burn ANY bridges, you just never know!  

Kidding (not kidding).

2.  I partner with a friend on 3 neighborhoods - Lake Wauwanoka, Lake Tishomingo and Grantwood Village.  We sent out the cutest spring seed & intro packets and have gotten a lot of traction from them.  Many are lots vs. homes...I think I need to change my name to Lori the Lot Lady!   Don’t get me wrong, I am SUPER appreciative for any business and the trust buyers and sellers put in me but I’m going to need to sell about 200 or so lots to sell to make up for my lost salary LOL. 

3.  Exit Elite had a party and I got my picture taken!

More than once:

4.  And last, but not least, SUPER EXCITING thing that is happening is my daughter, my son’s girlfriend and myself are starting a house flipping business.    Still working on names - I’m partial to Flippin’ Chicks but I think I’m the only one.  Between the 3 of us we have a rather kick ass resume (if I don’t say so myself) 2 realtors, 1 project manager and 3 highly self-professed design junkies.  We have a general contractor and are working on financing.    

I hope to update here a LOT more when that gets underway.  Feel free to send in your name ideas as well as your “well loved” houses - we’ll put some life back into them! 

Sooooo, after 19+ years at the same company I was let go due to Covid19.  With having to postpone my wedding, stay-at-home orders, social distancing, pandemics and a sick father, 2020 hasn’t started out so well.

When I made the announcement, one of my very best, and very smart, friends commented  “ Blessings come disguised in all sorts of ways, don’t they? I’m excited for this next chapter for you, and I’ll be cheering you on always!!”.  This made my day.  Truth be told, I wasn’t happy at my previous job for the past couple of years.   I felt underpaid and underappreciated.  New, younger people were getting hired and the older people that helped build the company were getting dismissed both figuratively and literally.  

My fiance was let go after working 17 years in corporate America and turned that into opening his dream business, a winery & brewery (shameless plug - it’s Wild Sun Winery & Brewery - check it out, you won’t be sorry!) so I knew it wasn’t the end, but just the beginning.

Luckily I have been selling real estate part time, which is really my passion, for years now.  I love all things RE - selling, staging, decorating, flipping, marketing.  So, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and move to full time real estate sales!  Exciting and scary both at the same time.

I immediately called my brokers @ExitEliteRealty and let them know I was going full force and full time.  Their responses were “about time”, “time to make the big bucks” and “we’re here for you” which only bolstered my resolve.

I jumped in full force and registered 2 LLC’s, one for real estate sales and one for real estate flips.  I updated my profiles, web site, social media sites and client lists as well as created a new listing presentation / binder, created sales videos, updated my business cards and am watching tons of training videos and webinars that I never had time to watch before.  Actually, I’m more busy now than ever.  I pray, when we are out of pandemic mode, all of this will translate into clients and sales ;)

Follow me for periodic updates...I’ll include the good, the bad and the ugly.  Hang in there, as my mother used to say “this too will pass”   Peace out!