To continue with my story, by the following week I got an email from M_____ that he was the high bidder at forty grand and change. M_____ had it appraised and learned that the mansion and grounds were valued a close to a million. That’s right, forty grand for a place worth nearly a million dollars.
But there was a catch.Isn’t there always a catch on a good deal? The place needed substantial repairs. M_____, who is more food compactor than contractor, guessed it to be a quarter of a mill to have a new roof put on, hardwoods laid, energy efficient appliances and to replace the ceilings on the second floor where water damage had occurred. The grounds surrounding the mansion are a mess and many trees (some fallen across the yard and others leaning against the house or with massive limbs that overhung the slate roof) have to be cut up or trimmed back. Even with all that expense I would be up seven hundred grand. Yearly city and county property taxes run north of twenty grand, so I knew I would have to flip it quickly. Maybe I could sell tickets to the haunted vampire house to defray the tax cost in the meantime.
This Monday, January 15, 2010, I am flying up to Michigan, renting a car, driving 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor to Hell, and taking a look at the house myself to see how badly it needs repair. If I buy the place I will need to get some contractors in there to fix-it and flip-it (as soon as the Michigan economy turns around).
I am not plopping down forty grand, no matter how good of a deal it might sound, until I have done some heavy due diligence. My real estate agent/friend is vacationing in Barbados so he sent me the key.
This visit is really exciting for me so I’ve decided to post my first tour of Geblüt Mansion, this supposed charnel house, live from my cellphone on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment