Huge health win this week. I had my annual physical on Friday.
In Feb of '22 - Total Cholesterol was 224 and LDL was 160 š
In Feb of '23 - Total Cholesterol was 206 and LDL was 148 š¬
In Feb of '24, Total Cholesterol is 181 and LDL is 119 š !!!
LET'S GO!!!!
LDL is still high, but solid improvement YoY and from where I started.
My Doctor said if my LDL came back below 130 I would buy myself another year or two before I had to consider going on statins. ā
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Livin' La Vida Luna y Luca
Giving L&L snacks at the gym while we wait for Mommy to get ready.
Project Updates
I have quite a few irons in the fire right now.
Let's do a pulse check across the board.
Front & Fitz
We repositioned a corner duplex in the Queen Village submarket of Philadelphia and subdivided it into 2 separate condos.
The smaller unit, which is listed at $385,000, has been getting a ton of interest - multiple private showings per week.
The larger unit, which is listed at $750,000, is less popular amongst buyers. So we decided to accept a 1-year lease at $4,400 per month. The tenant is scheduled to move in on 3/15/24.
The plan here is to refinance the larger unit into long-term fixed-rate debt and keep the smaller unit for sale. We have reason to believe an offer will materialize by mid-March.
Baltimore
Project Baltimore is a 4-unit apartment building situated in the Spruce Hill / University City section of Philadelphia.
This project is requiring a larger scope of work than originally anticipated.
Right before we closed on the property, our architect and engineer advised us to dig out the basement and underpin the foundation so we could add legal livable square footage to the building.
It's a solid recommendation, but it comes at a huge unplanned cost. It took ~$20K just to get to this stage. We expect the basement alone to cost $75K. However, we will be able to charge ~$1,000/mo for this bonus unit.
1K/mo rental income on $75K cost-basis is a no-brainer.
In addition to the basement, we got hit with an exterior plumbing requirement from the City.
This scope of work is going to run us an extra $20K. š
Lastly, we budgeted $60K for HVAC & Plumbing. Our initial bid came in at $80K. Another $20K mistake. And I'm just going to assume we'll get change ordered for at least another $16K (20%) between the two trades.
Framing should be complete by the end of February. Then we'll get roughs done by the end of March. We're sprinting to have this project ready to lease by the start of the school year. š¬
Hillside
We closed on Project Hillside last Friday (2/16/24).
Last week we submitted our application to the Morris County Soil Conservation and disconnected all of our utilities: gas, electric, & water.
This week we will install the site security fence and have our demo team come out to cut and cap all the utilities.
Once the utilities are tied off, we can submit our demo permit to the town. They will take ~48 hours to approve our application. Then we are clear to tear the house down.
I expect to have a hole in the ground no later than March 8th.
Washington
The tax return for Project Washington is complete!
I downloaded all of the bank statements and all of the reports from Quickbooks. Then I closed out the checking account as well as the project credit card.
This project's folder officially made its way to the Archive section of my G-Drive.
Whose cutting onions? These are happy tears š„²
Champion & Walnut
I bought these 2 properties (7 units) thinking I would hold them until my kids went to college.
Nah - I'm good. We'll pay for college another way.
I'm hoping there will be a slight downward movement in mortgage rates in the next 60 days. That paired with the Spring market and low inventory should make for a profitable sale.
Both listings will go live in Q2 (unless someone reading this wants them).
I am, however, sad to say goodbye to the stellar mortgages we have on these properties. Roughly $650K at 4% fixed for another ~27 years. Not going to see that type of debt again anytime soon.
Pipeline
There are 2 more projects in the pipeline. We have signed contracts on both.
One is a subdivision lot in Waldwick, NJ and the other is a new construction project in Chatham, NJ scheduled to close in late August.
Can't wait to share more about those in the coming months.
Damn, How Many Projects Is That?
