Cirios Projects103 Park St: Week 2 – Demo continues2 back yards of debris later and we are still removing the old, getting ready for the new. 103 Park St: Week 1 – Demo beginsWith our plans approved, demo got underway this week. A couple photos can be found below. As the project enters its ugly, rip everything apart phase, we’ll post a few photos here and there, and once the project starts to really take shape, we’ll be back with more regular, complete updates. 103 Park St: Plans ApprovedWith minimal wrangling of city officials, we received plan approval today on the first submission attempt! This means that after a couple days of legislative paperwork (read: paying the city), construction should begin by the end of the week. Now that the project is entering construction phase, we’ll post regular photos along with significant milestones. [...] 103 Park: Closed!Finally! After weeks of waiting on escrow and the seller to get their acts together, escrow closed today. The good news is that we got two free weeks to work on plans, finalize scope and get ready for construction to begin next week. Happy New Year! 103 Park St: New Cafe Opens Down the StreetOne of our favorite aspects of this investment is the location. While South Bernal is certainly not as posh as North Bernal, it continues to become more desirable every day. To wit, we were pleased to see a new cafe pop up on Richland at Mission, just two blocks south of 103 Park. Cafeto, noted [...] 103 Park St: Private Investor ToursTo give investors a better feel for their investment, we have started private tours of the property. We want to make sure everyone who invests in this project can see as much or as little as they want, starting with the property itself. As we progress through the project, private tours will continue, along with [...] 103 Park St: First Draft of Plans, Contractor VisitsMason sent over a first draft of plans, which we reviewed and provided feedback. Those plans can be found here. As we finalize our desired scope, we will begin walkthroughs with our preferred contractors to get a better sense of how much of our scope we’ll be able to fit into the budget. Our initial [...] 103 Park St: As-BuiltsThe first step in any project is to get As-Builts from your architect. These are required to not just understand what your dealing with inside the building and out, but the city will need the As-Builts to sign off on the proposed project. Click here to see the As-Builts, which help give a sense of [...] 103 Park St: Escrow DelayedPer usual in REO transactions, the combination of sub-par escrow services and unresponsive banks delayed escrow. We are ready, our lender is ready but no one else is. We extended escrow through 12/28/11 with the full goal of closing early, but particularly with the holidays you just never know. The silver lining is that with access to [...] 103 Park St: Architect Green LightAfter reviewing bids, we decided to go with Mason Kirby, an independent Bernal-based architect. Mason’s enthusiasm for the project, reasonable prices and great ideas tipped the scales. For more on Mason click here. A big shout out to Daniel Kobesky at Existing Conditions Drafting for great referrals and connecting us with Mason. Traditional kitchen [...] 103 Park St: AppraisalThe last hurdle to getting the final sign-off from our lender was the appraisal. We weren’t too worried since more often than not the appraisal comes in right at the purchase price (so much for government-sponsored appraisal reform), but in this market you never know. For a property like this comparables are inevitably hard to [...] 103 Park St: Capital RaisedWith the inspection out of the way, architects working on bids and our loan approved, we could finally take a deep breath and focus on raising the equity we needed to close the deal. Fortunately the deal went over well with investors, in particular the prospect of owning cash flowing real estate in one of [...] 103 Park St: InspectionThe best part about a property that is half-ripped apart is that there are fewer unknowns and you going in assuming you have to replace everything. Surprises are what kill a rehab budget. But we still needed verification the foundation and major systems were intact, so called in Diverse Inspection Services, one of the most [...] 103 Park St: Due DiligenceWith the clock ticking, we started lining up architects to bid the project. We would not be changing a lot of design elements or making major structural changes to the property, but we would need plans and permits, so an architect to navigate the process would be essential. We scheduled six architect visits over a [...] 103 Park St: OfferingWe have a small but loyal group of investors who trust our judgment and market knowledge. But this was to be our biggest project to date and our first in San Francisco, so we knew investing would be a leap of faith. We had lined up a construction loan to supplement our private first so [...] 103 Park St: Capital Raising, Due DiligenceWith an accepted offer, we tapped our deposit advance line for the earnest money deposit and opened escrow. We now had exactly 15 days to raise the requisite capital to complete the purchase, service the debt and pay for renovations. No small task. We took a quick second visit to the property to snap some [...] 103 Park St: Accepted!Banks are rarely quick to respond in the world of REOs, but in this case we hard back the next day. And it was good news: Offer accepted! The real work was about to begin. 103 Park St: Offer In!With no further details on how many offers were coming, we were out of time. We sent our offer in and knew that even if we didn’t get the property, we had put our best foot forward without getting caught up in the frenzy and paying too much. Having closed over 100 REO sales in [...] 103 Park St: Offer PrepGiven the level of interest at the open house, we knew we’d have to offer above list. But just how much we didn’t know. The listing broker was less than helpful with color on other offers and level of interest, but with the offer deadline looming on Tuesday 11/15, we didn’t have a lot of [...] 103 Park St: First VisitBrian, our project manager visited the property and came back with this report: As can be expected, I like the idea of this project. We are not alone in thinking this could be a deal though, as there had to have been a minimum of 20 people walking through the place while I was there [...] 103 Park St: Line up the loanEven before we visited the property, we knew we’d have to move fast. The bank selling the property had set an offer date and multiple bids were virtually guaranteed. Since most buyers would come in all cash, and we didn’t have half a million dollars in the bank, we reached out to private money contacts [...] 103 Park St: First ContactThrough our regular scan of available properties in San Francisco, we happened upon 103 Park St., a 4-unit property in Bernal Heights listed for just $400,000. Something had to be up … and it was. When we inquired to the listing broker about the property’s condition, we received these photos. Our first thought? “Damn, this [...] |