Setting:
Circa 1993. We were living in Huber Heights, Ohio. I was working at Wright-Patterson, AFB in the propulsion laboratory as a engineer. I had just left my career in the Air Force in December 1992. I now worked for a small company based in Dayton, Ohio. This is the story about buying our first house to live in.
What a deal!
“Hey, honey, I notice the townhouse down the street is for sale. I think I’ll go check it out.” I told Marieta. I walked down the street and did a visual inspection. Same as ours. No surprise. Every townhouse in the neighbor hood was essentially the same. But, I was surprised to find out that some folks owned theirs. I thought everybody rented like us. Now, here was a townhouse with a for sale sign. Somebody was going to make some money. I liked this concept better than renting. When you sell, you have a chance to make some money from the deal. When you rent, there’s virtually no chance; in the end, all I’d be left with is a bunch of rent receipts!
Then I called the realtor and found out the asking price. Again, my memory is a bit sketchy but I think it was about $55,000. My brain went into overdrive. “Hey, I could afford that! We could own our own place instead of renting. Wow!” I was excited.
Then out of nowhere I had a crazy idea. What if I call Huber and ask if I could buy the place we’re living in now? I figured if we could get the place we were in for $55K why not just stay here?
“Hello, this is Huber Sales may I help you?” came the pleasant voice over the phone.
“Yes, this is Dave Ives and I’m wondering if you folks would consider selling the property we’re currently renting from you?” I questioned excitedly.
When I got off the phone I was extremely pumped. Huber would be glad to sell us the home. No problem. They do it all the time. As a matter of fact, when a house becomes vacant they give it to both the rental agency and the sales department. Whoever comes in with the deal first gets it! If it sells fine. If it rents fine. Doesn’t matter. And the best part – the price. She told me they sell their homes at below market. We could have the house we were living in for $45K! I almost dropped the phone. Where do I sign?
Well, I wish I could tell you I bought the place but I can’t. I got shot down again. Not by Mr Huber but by Mr Finance. I wanted to use my VA benefits but I wasn’t eligible because the home didn’t fall into their approved category. It was a town home and in a neighborhood with mostly rentals and the VA wouldn’t go for it. I was too unfamiliar with finance and didn’t know where to turn so I dropped it. I was dejected.
Looking back I wish I had pursued the finance with more vigor. I’m sure I could have worked a deal had I been more persistent. I’ll bet Mr Huber would have worked a deal if I’d have presented a reasonable plan. Oh well. Another one got away from me.
Later that year …
I was talking to a co-worker who told me about the great deal he got on a house in Huber Heights. This prompted me to go looking again.
“Yeah, we just got a great deal on our house up in Huber.” Bob stated with a bit of excitement and pride in his voice. He was a co-worker and we were just having a little hallway chat.
“What do you mean by a great deal?” I questioned.
“Well, we got it for over 10 thousand less than its value. That’s their sales strategy; they just put the price well below what other similar properties are selling for and they sell them quickly.” Bob explained.
By this point my jaw was on the ground; I wanted some of this action. How do I get a deal like this? I made up my mind to give the Huber Sales office another call.
“Hello, I’m calling to find out if you have any properties for sale?” I asked trying to sound as if I do this all the time.
“What price range are you interested in?” came the lady’s response in a very measured and assured tone.
“Have you got anything in the 60-70 thousand range?” I replied and then waited for the laughter on the other end of the line. The houses in my neighborhood were selling for about the 80 thousand mark and above.
“We get them all the time. Would you like me to give you a call if one comes up?”
A bit flustered, excited and surprised, I managed a half composed reply, “Sure.”
About a week later the phone rang. It was the lady from the Huber Sales office.
“Hello Dave. I’ve got two properties for you to look at in your price range. There just down the street from each other. I’ll give you the addresses and you and your wife can go by and have a look. Just stop by the office and I’ll give you the keys.”
This was a very interesting phone call. Let me get this straight, I stop by the sales office, pick up the keys and then go show myself the houses? I thought she would offer to pick me up, then drive us to the properties, then give us a personal walk through and then … But, no. If you want to look at them come by and get the keys.
Marieta and I stopped by the office to pick up the keys. We then made the short drive to the properties. We stopped off at the first vacant house and had a walk through. It looked perfect; simple, straight-forward property. Three bedrooms, nice kitchen, open living area, attached one car garage, nice flat lot with nice looking homes on all sides. And, I knew we were looking at the 70 thousand price range because that’s what I told the lady. If I could get this place for 70k, that would be a great buy.
We drove down to the street to the other property. Again, nice place. I liked this one better because it had a two car garage. But, the house layout was not as favorable and it was a bit smaller than the other one.
I remember feeling like a little kid running up and down the street between the two houses trying to decide which one to get. In my mind I half wondered what the neighbors were thinking as they watched me skip up and down the street poking my nose into the two vacant houses. Also, I remember discounting these thoughts because, essentially, I didn’t care. This was the deal of the century and I knew it.
You mean to tell me I can have either one of these houses for the ridiculously low price of $70,000? That’s the question that ran through my mind as my body ran between the two houses. $70,000 that it? Wow, why isn’t there a line-up to buy these houses? Where are all the people hiding? Surely, they must know this is a great deal?
I knew if we bought either one of these houses for $70k, we could turn around and sell it the next day for $80k. The little bit of research I’d done and the experience I had dealing with the Huber reduced sales (even though I never bought), told me this was a no-brainer.
Marieta and I stopped back over to the Huber sales office and told the lady we’ll take the first house with the one car garage. 7862 Schoolgate drive in Huber Heights. It was Marieta’s choice. And, I admit, it was the better of the two homes. I just had a bit of a challenge giving up the two car garage!
I still get excited when I think about that purchase. It was like buying a pair of shoes. Try on a few and then pick the one you like! It was the most pleasant real estate buying experience I’ve had. It made planning for a holiday look like hard work. It was – dare I say – fun!
I used my VA loan benefit to purchase the home with no money down. The VA had no issues with lending against this wonderful stand alone home in a great neighborhood. We signed the mountain of paperwork and were the proud owners of our first primary residence home. Up to this point we’d always rented. We were entering a new era.
This house was a gem from day one. I wish I could tell you we still have it and it’s making lots of money for us. But, sadly, I can’t. This property is another case of a lesson hard learned. One and a half years later, we moved from Ohio and sold this property. The sales plan was simple; if it sells great, but if it doesn’t we’ll rent it out. We put the house on the market for $81k and we had it sold before the sign went up in the front yard. Ooops! Several mistakes here.
First, we let the realtor talk us into a low price saying the property will sell fast. He was right. But, if our plan was to rent it out if it didn’t sell, doesn’t that suggest that we can ask a more handsome price and so what if it doesn’t sell? And – as I ask myself to this day – why did we sell? The house was a dream rental. Let’s go over why.
First, it had everything most people would want in a home – attached garage, large kitchen with all the associated appliances. Also, it had a large master bedroom and bath, and two large bedrooms with a family bathroom. And all the trimmings to make for a comfortable house. The back yard was spacious and the front yard gave the home a nice setoff from the road.
And, we made improvements along the way. First, we replaced the old clunky garage door with a brand new white automatic one. We added a matching front security door. We were amazed how these two simple features made the house stand out in a beautiful way. And, now Marieta didn’t have to get out of the car into the freezing cold to open the heavy garage door (only when I wasn’t there; I would always open the door if we were together! Right men?)
Then we had the house painted. A relatively minor job since it was a brick house. The painting task consisted of the facing eve over the garage, the two eves at the end of the house and the trim areas around the windows. I remember getting the quote from a very young man (maybe 19 years old) and being a bit nervous about paying him $500. But, when he and his team were done, we had two coats of light blue paint to the main areas and two coats of white paint to the trim areas. The house looked awesome. It’s hard to believe what a wonderful transformation can take place with a nice coat of paint. I remember having a little spring in my step coming home to this beautiful house following the paint work. I also remember writing the check with a big smile. I felt like we got excellent value for our money.
Other improvements included a white picket fence to separate the front and back lawn areas. The idea was to provide a back yard barrier for the children to play safely. We didn’t want them straying out into the street. Also, we had a nice colonial wooden shed built in the back yard to give us some storage space. And, we installed a water softener. This was a very nice feature because prior to the install, you couldn’t lather up in the shower no matter how much soap you piled on! The water was extremely hard. The water softener was a welcome addition. Of course, we always kept the yard neat and trim. Nothing fancy, just a simple clean cut appearance.
Taking all these improvements, the nice curb appeal and the extremely low price, it’s no wonder the house sold to essentially the first person to look at it. They looked at it before the realtor put the sign in the front yard. Consequently, when the sign went up, the house was already sold.
Looking back on this, I wish we would have kept the property. As you can probably gather, it has a bit of sentimental value to me. But, it also represents wealth. That house would probably pull in about $1,500 a month in rent today. My payments were only about $500 per month. How would you like an extra $1,000 or so coming in every month like clockwork over and above what you’re already making? Do you know anyone who would say no to that proposition?
The Huber Heights area is the perfect rental spot for military personnel working at Wright-Patterson AFB. For a three bedroom, one car attached garage and all the nice features of this home, you would have an endless stream of customers lined up to rent your property.
Yes, I’m sentimental, but I’m also very keenly aware of how silly it was for us to sell that property. But, as my daughter tells me, “build a bridge Dad and get over it!”