Closing Day

It was a year ago that my life turned upside down. It wasn't my choice and I wasn't prepared for it. I needed to find my own place. I'm not looking for pity, I'm just trying to set the stage. 

So here's the deal. I'm a fishing outfitter. I own my own business, so I don't show a ton of money on my taxes. I do alright but at some point I realized that life's too short to chase the almighty dollar and be stuck in a job I hate. It's kind of the whole point of this blog. It was 15 years ago that I decided to give up the life in Milwaukee and move out to Montana to be where I wanted to be and live the life I wanted to live. That comes with challenges. By myself, it's pretty difficult to find anyone that will finance me for a mortgage so what are my options? Rent?

Maybe but finding a place to rent in Helena with the space to run a business isn't easy and definitely not cheap, so I found a roommate. A friend of a friend was moving to the area so I thought it would be perfect to share a space. However, being in my mid-forties, waking up to after-bars at 3:00am kind of sucks. Not to mention the fact that we got the boot from our first place because they wanted to turn it into a duplex and then house number two was being sold out from under us. Do you know how much I hate moving? Three time in 13 months now. I'm done with it. 

So I started checking out Zillow for possible fixer-uppers. I looked at a few places but still, the financing was impossible and even the projects that were out there were kind of insanely expensive for what you get. Montana is getting built up and properties are not cheap and being on my own, nobody is going to finance anything. Well, almost anything.

I was on the river one day when a realtor I had been talking to texted me about this property but I had to move quick. There was a trustee that was selling the place for the family who lived in Sioux City, Iowa. The gentleman that lived in the place had mental issues and was a hoarder. BUT, it was going to be listed as a complete tear-down...

The trustee did have all the garbage removed and listed the place for $50K. There were multiple cash offers coming in so I offered $60. They took it. I was able to finance $48K with a local bank and qualified for a "project loan" through Home Depot and now, I'm off and running. 

I'm not going to lie, this place is disgusting. Not only was there a hoarder, but it was also built circa 1900. There have been additions and remodels and new flooring on top of old flooring and the entire house has settled so the floors are not level. But, there's a new water heater, new sewer hook-up and I have a buddy that knows how to frame houses. 

Here's the plan. My rent is $1325 a month right now. My mortgage payments start December 1st and are only $500. Yeah. I know people who's car payments are more than that. I have a month and a half to make this place livable. Come along as I take this project on. Time to get to work.

Keep 'em where they live...