New Listing in Olnda Ranch! Here is the info.

Brea's Olinda Ranch is home to this 3 bed,2.5 bath + loft SFR, that features laminate wood floors, crown molding, a nice backyard with beautiful pavers and a large master bedroom w/ view of the city lights and neighborhood nursery. Enjoy the community park complete with basketball courts, bbq area, sports fields, and even a skate park. This one will not last long at this price!

I know this is a strange blog, but I just needed a host for this picture online. Thanks for reading.

Flip That House

As 2006 draws to an end, I find myself reminiscing on what a wild and life changing year 2006 was for me. As I was looking back yesterday, while writing down my goals for 2007, I was reminded that at this time last year I was closing escrow on a town home in Costa Mesa that Mindy and I were egger to get in and fix up.
Let me start this story with a few disclaimers... This property was owned by a wonderful man who was hardly ever home. He had a tenant living in the property that was trashing this home. The pictures you are about to see and the story I am writing in no way reflect upon the former property owner in any way.
With that said. Last year Mindy and I where confronted with a situation where a client (and all around great guy) needed to sell his town home quickly in order to purchase another property that he had fallen in love with. This would not usually be a difficult situation since Mindy and I are stellar Real Estate Professionals, but the real issue was that this mans property was in no condition to put on the market. Then to throw a wrench into everything else that was stacked against this gentleman, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and we knew he would not be able to live in a property in this condition without seriously endangering his life.
So after a long talk, Mindy and I decided to purchase his home from him. We agreed upon an acceptable price that would allow us to do all of the necessary repairs to get this home sold, and we aided this seller with the purchase of his beautiful new home. Upon the close of escrow, we went into the property to start assessing what work would need to get done and in what order, and with much to our surprise along with acquiring this fine piece of real estate, we were lucky enough to assume the current tenant who was refusing to vacate the property.
For those of you, who are not aware of California’s unwavering renter’s rights, please learn from our mistakes. When we agreed to purchase this property, we were told that the tenant was given a proper 30 day notice to vacate the property. At that time she had no problem with this plan. However somewhere during our escrow period her plans changed and she failed to mention this to anyone. So at the close of our escrow we now by law, (due to the fact that we were now the new owners) needed to issue a whole new 60 day notice. (The increase of 30 days on the standard 30 day notice was due to the fact that this tenant had resided in the property for over 5 years.) I know what you are thinking… “That’s ok, because now you have someone there paying you rent while you do the work.” Right? Wrong! Along with the tenant came the previous rental agreement. Or in this case… the lack there of. This landlord and tenant never drew up a written rental agreement AND to top it all off… she only paid $100.00 a month to live there.
So to make a long story short two months after we thought she would have been moved out, she finally did. Now we can start the rehab.
To say that this home needed a lot of work would be a HUGE understatement. We found raw pork chops laying on the floor in the entry way with mold and flies feasting on them. We found mold covered cheese on the stairs, chicken bones under the couches in the living room and there were rats galore in the walls. With all that being said, we had to take out everything. Short of removing the drywall, everything else was taken out and thrown away.
This was a great job for two of my best friends in the world. Bob Davis and Brian Lamphear were starting a handyman company at the time we were in escrow on this home. By the time we closed escrow and the tenant finally moved out, B&B were up and running and ready to start their first major rehab job. B&B went out and bought some hazardous material breathing masks and then tore that place apart.
The funniest part of the whole story had to be Brian walking in after Bob had been working for a few hours and noticing for the first time some gravy that the tenant had spilt some 2-3 weeks before and covered up with a pair of her dirty panties. It looked just like throw-up smeared around, and Brian almost barfed inside his breathing mask. Bob later told him that he purposely left that there as a treat for Brian to remove. What a nice friend.
So over the next 4 weeks B&B and I (as much as they would let me) remodeled that entire home. New kitchen (flooring, cabinets, countertops, appliances, and fixtures), 3 new Bathrooms (floors, vanities, toilets, sinks, showers, tub, mirrors, and hardware). Scraped all the ceilings, retextured and repainted walls and ceilings, power washed the fireplace, installed all new lighting, landscaped the patio and yard, new garage door opener and even put in new sliding glass doors and front door. After all that was done, we dropped in some nice new carpet and put a “For Sale” sign in the front yard.
Within 90 days we were in escrow with a really nice family and we closed within 30 days of accepting their offer. God is good! If we had to carry the payment of this property any longer, we would have been hard pressed to have made enough money to make this whole thing worth it.
Thank you B&B for all of your hard work. I am sorry if you can still smell that smell when you look at these pictures, but if it is any consolation, so can I. Stay tuned for the next Millsy flip. You might even see it on TV staring Buzzy Enniss. We will let you know.

After Photos:

Ok, so this is a bit of a late post, but here is a picture of a recent fishing trip that my buddy Robert and I went on to Catalina Island. We left Long Beach Harbor at 10:30 pm on a Thursday night on a new boat called the Mardiosa. Since it is a little late in the season we were not able to make fresh bait (catch squid) on the back side of the island as planned, but we had plenty of fresh dead (bait squid from the day before) to do some damage. The fishing started at 3:00am to Robert catching his first of two white sea bass for the day. This one taped in about 30lbs. Not a bad way to start any day. From there on out, we had a pretty steady picking of WSB and Yellowtail tuna ranging from 20lbs to the "Jack Pot" fish caught by yours truly at 40lbs. When all was said and done, Robert ended the day with 2 WSB and 2 Yellowtail and some 20 calico bass. I ended up with 1 WSB, 3 yellowtail and some 20+ calico bass. It was a great day on the water. I even got a call that Mindy sold a house that day as well. I guess I need to go fishing more often.

In an attempt to continue to keep up with the changing technology, I am starting this blog to keep everyone informed with our growing family, our growing business, and our growing love for Christ. Feel free to chime in at any point with questions or comments. Mindy and I would love to hear from you.