Out of everywhere we’ve lived, up and down Catawba Ave, we still hadn’t landed in Birkdale Village. For those of you who don’t know, Birkdale Village is a utopia upon itself. What used to be cow pastures and rural farmland was transformed into an incredible bustling high end shopping, dining, and entertainment destination. It’s what the town of Huntersville is known for and is a place many visitors include in their travels. For those who live locally, it’s a place accessible from many neighborhoods via our ever-growing greenway system, with various entrance points into Birkdale Village from the surrounding community.
As many of you know, part of Marty and I’s business and life model is to move every year or two once we’ve refreshed a property to where it’s ready to be sold or added to the rental collection. We are always looking for the next opportunity. Two years ago we had our sights set on Birkdale Village. Rarely did a house hit the market in the popular neighborhood, and even more rare was a ranch floorplan to become available. Having already owned a property with the primary on the main, we made a pact that we never wanted to go back to an upstairs bedroom. And with aging dogs in the family, we also wanted to minimize their mobility challenges. So the pool of properties, in general in our market, was small.
There was a ranch we identified in Birkdale. It had been on the market almost a month and was overpriced, even with a price decrease. We decided to make an offer and see if the sellers were willing to engage in a conversation. It took about 2 weeks of back and forth negotiations to come to an agreement and go under contract.
The timing also coincided with a scheduled surgery that I had been pushing for a few years and could no longer put off. So literally as I’m recuperating in the hospital, we are in the final negotiations. Despite being medicated and in the recovery room, we still negotiated a solid deal!
The next 45-ish days until closing were a bit of a blur (as I think it is for most home buyers). Through the underwriting process as a self employed borrower, to home inspections that did and did not discover items that needed attention, to a low appraisal, we finally got to the closing table. Oh and did I mention the incredible covered patio that had been built by the owner, called into the county for inspection, yet still had its county inspection pending because they never took it to the finish line?
On the other side, we had decided to keep our townhome (Nauti by the Lake that we had gutted and rebuilt a few years prior), and keep as a furnished rental. We were moving traveling nomads from one of our other rental collection properties into this property, and moving ourselves out, all in the same day! And having our new home painted throughout ahead of our furniture so we could have a fresh slate.
Over the 45 day time period, I had also come home from the hospital, was slowly recovering, and unable to lift more than 5 pounds for 8 weeks. So I couldn’t even help with the physical moving! I usually go into beast mode when we move so that was a hard pill to swallow. And during this time we also lost our sweet Liberty unexpectedly. So much loss and so much happiness intertwined during this time.
Fast forward two years later and we gutted the bathrooms at the Birkdale house, added astroturf to areas in the back to create cleaner and more pet friendly spaces, changed out all the light fixtures, and added millwork detail to create a more custom and high end home. Which in turn gave us a unique opportunity to essentially “leap frog” the traditional price per square foot history of Birkdale Village.
We always knew that whenever we got ready to sell the Birkdale property, we were going to present a far superior product to what we’d seen sell ever in the community. But we also knew we needed to “season” a little bit more and wait a full two years to sell, and even then, we were putting a big number on this property.
For context, in the last 180 days in Birkdale Village, other properties that were larger had consistently been selling $675,000-$685,000 and a price per square foot range of $267-$329 and the exact same square footage as us (though not updated) had tried to list for $730,000 only to NOT APPRAISE and actually sold for $675,000. We knew at that point we’d be taking a risk listing over $700,000. No historical data would help us at a higher price. But we knew the product we were selling, knew it was nicer than anything else so far in the Village, and that ranches always do well on the market.
So we listed for $730,000 and received multiple offers within 48 hours of being on the market. It’s always interesting to see how both agents and their clients respond to our properties when they get launched into the market. Our last few years of selling properties we’ve owned and remodeled, has attracted incredible buyers. People who when you learn more about them, you learn that literally they’ve been waiting for this exact opportunity, and they are ready to make it happen. It was no different with Trenton Place! And we’ve found that with those buyers, come incredible agents, who are easy to work with, professional, and understand what we’ve brought to the market and that it’s different from the competition.
We were able to successfully close on Trenton Place over list price at $740,000 and a price per square foot of $395! A full $128 more per square foot than the low range in the neighborhood and $66 more per square foot, than the exact same floorplan a few weeks earlier.
It’s been interesting to see other well renovated homes come out of the wood work and hit the market since ours sold. We believe that we’ve created a new price to square foot for the neighborhood and gave momentum to many of the sales that have happened since, especially in our special quadrant of the neighborhood.
Takeaways from this project:
- Don’t be afraid to view a residence as temporary: We knew we wouldn’t live in the home forever, but saw the opportunity over a two year span.
- You can literally close at 2 years and 1 day of owning and utilize the capital gains exclusion of owning as it is your primary for 2 of the last 5 years.
- Look at dated homes, in great locations, and ask “what can I do to update this home?” Most times it’s going to involve kitchen and/or bathroom remodels, along with new flooring and paint. Which all can be accomplished for a modest amount in comparison to a home that needs a full gut and structural changes. Know that you will get your money back, so long as you are in a strong resale neighborhood, make good design choices, and don’t overspend unnecessarily.
- Lose the rigidity. That might sound harsh, but sometimes sacrificing a little bit of our “perfect” house for a short time, allows us to truly collect six figures from a home. I like the idea of living in a solid neighborhood, being a little uncomfortable for a short time, and then closing, collecting some money, and moving onto the next opportunity. And this process could be a one and done for you, or you may find that it becomes something you enjoy doing and opens up doors you never imagined possible.
- Good contractors are key. And sweat equity is important too. Most of us can demo a property. We usually can also paint and install decorative millwork. Leave the tiling, plumbing, and complex electrical work to the professionals.
We are always happy to discuss this concept with you and offer our suggestions! Think of what you could do with tax free money every few years!