Browsing Posts From: Miscellaneous

A buyer’s worst nightmare is the prospect of purchasing a home that has hidden damages.  We witnessed this as the owner of a newly purchased home asked us to manage their property for them.  As they made some home improvements, they discovered that not everything was as it seemed at the surface.  Here is a must watch video that every potential home buyer needs to watch before they start shopping for a home.   If you are thinking of buying a home in the Ogden area, CONTACT ME, and let’s […]

While we had been working diligently on our basement, we decided to take a detour and focus on a craftsman kitchen remodel.  We are nearly done and we want to share some of the results and and how we did it. To learn more about how we turned this kitchen into a gem, check out the video:   Need Property Management? We Make Owning Rentals Easy Learn More

We recently finished the pouring of concrete in our historic craftsman home basement.  The job was intense and required scores of hours of labor to complete.  In the video you can see how the forms were set up and what the footings and concrete floors look like freshly after the pour. Enjoy!         Need Property Management? We Make Owning Rentals Easy Learn More

It took two months but the basement floors were finally excavated and lowered a foot.  The job required 1300 Cubic Feet of earth and concrete be removed by hand and lifted out of the basement via bucket.  Plumbers were called to remove the old cast iron pipes and replace them with new.  Take a look as we walk you through the project at its current stage in anticipation of the next phase.     You can watch the first episode of our adventure HERE.  In the meantime, look for more […]

We have been working towards finishing the basement in our historic 1908 craftsman home.  The process has been and continues to be tedious.  We recently obtained our city permit after getting a structural engineer to sign off on the project.  We are excited to finally move forward.  So, with out further ado let me introduce our project with MY OLD HOUSE  – Episode 1.  Look forward to other episodes in the future as we move along with the work.   Need Property Management? We Make Owning Rentals […]

With Utah being in a housing crisis, the market is extremely lopsided in favor of sellers.  Anytime a market becomes imbalanced in either direction, unusual behavior begins to appear.  Presently, buyers have reached a point of desperation in seeking housing.  This panic manifests itself in shotgun offers, where buyers will write several offers on several homes at once hoping at least one will be accepted.  Or, worse, it appears as blind offers where the buyer hasn’t even driven by the home and hopes to lock it up in a contract […]

  It has been a while since we published weird and oddball photos of things we have found in the housing market.  So, here is the latest… What appears as a three-quarter bathroom to some is a dolled-up laboratory emergency wash station to others.   Don’t drink and drive in your driveway.   Vegetation can enhance the appeal of your property…if it’s in the right places.   Don’t drink and drive into your landlord’s garage doors.   When listing your home for sale, avoid vertigo-inducing paint schemes.   Don’t drink […]

  One of the major hurdles of real estate investing is finding the right financing.  Funding an acquisition or refinance can take many forms depending on your exit strategy or long-term goals.  Hard Money, Construction Loans, Bridge Loans, Private Loans, Seller Financing, FHA, VA, and SBA are all ways to create an IOU to a lender.   Unfortunately, for individuals who are self-employed, like me, using 1099 income to secure a mortgage often leaves many doors shut to you.   I recently ran into this problem while attempting to secure a […]

  During our conference stay in Boston, Massachusetts, we had the opportunity to explore the city.  Part of the challenge that Boston faced as it grew was deciding what to do with all its historic structures.  Certainly, leveling them all to make room for steel and glass would do a disservice to the city’s character.  So, we were pleasantly surprised to see how Boston has honored its historic past while finding ways to grow into a modern city. Here is a photo gallery of the amazing structures we found as […]

The dramatic increase in house prices over the past five years is something we haven’t seen since the 1990’s.  This remarkable momentum upward has created expectations in the minds of real estate investors of big returns with minimal effort.   A recent example comes from an owner who purchased a home I listed last year.  That transaction closed in November for $137,000.  After just eight months, the new owner wanted to sell the property and break even on the sale.  In order to do that we would need to account […]

Our 110 year-old home has an enormous front porch that is great for enjoying summer evenings outside.  It has been painted several times over the decades and by the time we purchased the home, the surface was downright distressed.  Recently, we set out to protect and preserve the surface for years to come. We have spent a lot of time and energy on other parts of the house.  I took to priming the porch a couple of times in anticipation of finishing the deck surface but we never got around […]

Remodeling a home is tough but rewarding work.  Our most recent example is the conversion of the original bathroom of our historic  home into a master bath for our bedroom. When our home was built in 1908, the designers included only one bathroom on the main floor.   We did a quick and simple rehab of the bathroom when we purchased the home 12 years ago and it was time for us to do some updates.  So, we got to work with a plan. The bedroom had a long closet […]

Vesta Real Estate is proud to have sponsored the recent concert of the Northern Utah Youth Symphony held at the Ogden High School auditorium.  The performance was brilliant and the venue could not have been better for the occasion.   We are glad that our sponsorship was able to make the performance free to the public and those 400 or so in attendance.  Classical music both touches the heart and invigorates the mind.  It is especially satisfying to see our youth involved in this difficult and tedious performing art. […]

I recently had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands.  During the visit I took a ferry from St. Thomas where I was staying to Cruz Bay on St. John Island.  St. John is a fairly small island with the majority of it being a National Park.  The beauty is breathtaking.  Yet, to contrast that beauty lay the ruins of the old slave plantations that operated on the island until 1848.  I had an opportunity to explore them and learn a lot about construction in tropical climates. St. […]

I recently traveled to Chicago while on some Legislative business.  While I was there, I took some time to appreciate the amazing architecture of downtown. The Palmer House – Hilton We stayed at the Palmer House located at Monroe and  Wabash.  It was constructed in the 1870’s and burned down a few days after in opened in the Great Chicago Fire.  It was quickly rebuild with a different design and then remodeled into a giant 1.600 room building in the 1920s.  In many ways, this hotel is a big daddy […]