SSS #317: Project Fairmount SOLD!

Livin' La Vida Luna y Luca

Always.

Project Fairmount SOLD!

I've been referring to Project Fairmount as Project Murphy internally...

Murphy's Law - What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Our original contracted sales date was August 31st, 2025. We closed on October 31st, 2025. 😅

Like any good story, we faced a few obstacles. But there's a happy ending.

A huge thank you to the two investors who were super patient and understanding of the delay. 🙏🏽

Obstacle 1: Foundation

It's not common for the old homes we buy to have poured concrete foundations, but this one did. We had to spend a few more dollars and a bit more time to demolish and excavate the existing structure.

Additionally, we didn't get around to taking this house down until the winter. By the time we were ready to install our new block foundation, the ground was frozen! Waiting for the earth to thaw added a few weeks to our timeline.

Obstacle 2: Utilities

Fairmount Ave is a County Road.

Disconnecting, cutting & capping, and reconnecting utilities on County Roads involves more oversight than normal town streets.

We lost ~10-15 days on the gas reconnection alone.

Obstacle 3: Water Intrusion

The buyers did their home inspection on a day it was raining. Unfortunately, the gym in the basement was soaked 😳.

We had to excavate that room's window well down to the footing drain, reapply sealant to the foundation, and install rocks to help with the drainage.

Obstacle 4: Radon Remediation

Like I said above, the home inspection was done during heavy rainfall. It was no surprise we got popped for Radon.

We had to install a full radon remediation system. That pushed our closing a week and cost us a few thousand dollars to rush-install.

Obstacle 5: New Homeowner Warranty

The State of NJ recently changed the New Homeowner Warranty rules, but the town we built in is still operating under the old assumptions.

The State wants the New Homeowner Warranty to be provided by the name of the Deed Transferor. In this case, that's XX Fairmount LLC.

The Town, however, wants the New Homeowner Warranty to be provided by the name of the General Contractor on the Building Permit. In this case, that's my partner's GC Firm.

So at the 11th hour, to get our CO, we needed to:

Register XX Fairmount LLC as a new home builder in NJ - and -
Submit a Change of Contractor form to the town.

This administrative work pushed our finish line out by ~2 weeks.

Sales Cures All

I'm sure there's an obstacle or two I'm forgetting about, but it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, Sales Cures All.

If you go back and look at my post Introducing Project Fairmount, you'll see I projected we'd sell this house for ~$1,950,000.

I love how conservatively we underwrite our deals.

We listed this house as we were finishing framing, and signed a contract after installing drywall.

The buyer's original offer was $2.1M. We countered at ask, and they accepted. There was no hemming, hawing, or posturing. The whole negotiation concluded within 36 hours.

We knew what we were offering was S-Tier, and apparently so did they.