In the spirit of Halloween I want to share a story about some unexpected tenants we had living at my first flip property.
This property needed a lot of work. The property was structurally sound, but it needed some major repairs including a new roof, new doors/windows, new electrical service/new wiring, a new kitchen, new bathrooms, new flooring & finishes throughout. Basically everything!...
So I put together a detailed Scope of Work & Repairs Estimate before I made an offer, but the one thing my fancy spreadsheet didn't have, was something rather unexpected...
My spreadsheet didn't have a line item for dealing with Bats!
When I first walked and inspected the property, there were some subtle clues that went unnoticed...
For one, their were clear signs of bat droppings (guano) under the shutters on the driveway (see below):
There was also a fairly visible stain on the siding underneath the shutters...
But when there's were so many issues with a house it's easy to overlook the small things...
In Missouri, Bats are a protected species, but Missouri allows you to remove the bats from your property, as long as you use non-lethal methods.
The good news is the bats were only present behind the shutters and not inside the house. The bad news is, someone had to take the shutters off!...
Fortunately, my contractor was much braver than me!
As he started to take down each shutter, one-by-one the bats started flying out from behind the shutters...
All-in-all, there were 11 bats behind those 2 shutters!
I wish I could say this was the first and only time I've had animal issues, but I have an animal story for nearly every house I've flipped.
Thanks for taking the time to read my spooky tales from my first project.
If you have any questions about me, my project or the House Flipping Spreadsheet, please let me know.
