Barbara Meier
Orchid Real Estate Investors of NJ
in Farmingdale, NJ
Barbara Meier with Stephen Meier
320 Lorillard was a Bank owned property that we found on the MLS. It was built in 1930. It was vacant for 7 years. This house was affected by Super Storm Sandy and was in a Flood Zone where FEMA required all houses to be raised. Union Beach also imposed liens on any houses in the flood zone that were not raised. rnrnAlong with our lifter, we decided to lift and build up the foundation and provide a garage for the new owners. At the same time, we added 2 doors and 4 windows. In addition, we added an inside staircase that took you up to the kitchen area of the house. This gave the new owners 3 secure entrance ways into this house. Front deck and staircase were added and the back deck was refinished and secured. rnrnThe inside of the house required changes to include the downstairs staircase and doorway. We moved the kitchen to the dining room and made it into a working kitchen. We moved the water heater out of the downstairs bathroom, built a laundry closet by the back door and added an insta-hot and combo washer/dryer. We added a shower to the downstairs bathroom. Fortunately, there was minimal mold and mildew from the water damage. Sheetrock was already cut our where the flooding occurred. This house took in 2 feet of water. New flooring and new tile were added to the downstairs. New front and back doors were added. Upstairs got new carpeting and fresh paint. We updated the lighting fixtures and the upstairs bathroom. rnrnLandscaping was kept simple. This property had a drainage issue so we added a drainage pipe on one side of the yard. We also added stone instead of grass to mitigate the drainage. rn
Rehab Details
Property City:
Union Beach
Property State:
NJ
Purchase Price:
$85,000
Repair Costs:
$146,000
Sale Price:
$286,900
Case Study
How did the FortuneBuilders team and resources help you to accomplish this deal?
Throughout this process, I kept referring to the rehab checklist. The permit process for this rehab was challenging. Not only did Union Beach get rid of their in-house Zoning officer, they went 3rd party. This added 2 weeks of time to every zoning approval. For a lift that has to happen 4 times during the project. In addition, FEMA decided to change the BFE (Base Flood Elevation). This house was a BFE-11 meaning it had to be 11 ft above the base flood. It went to BFE-13. I am so thankful that my lifter raised the house to 14. rnrnFor the rehab portion, the scope of work documents and pictures were a great help. That helped speed up the process. rnEven though my partner/husband was a general contractor we ran into contractor issues with people that we've known for many years. It's one thing to manage a project for someone else. It's another when it's your own money. Many lessons learned on approach and communication.
