A letter from Fortress Rosecrans, Murfreesboro, TN

 

Battery Mitchell inside Fortress Rosecrans

One of the greatest joys I get from studying our local history is occasionally finding something that was nearly lost to time, some tidbit of information that adds to the broader story. The letter which follows is one of those random finds which actually holds quite a story if you pour over the details. I’ve owned this letter for a few years already but it is quickly approaching an anniversary of when it was written and I felt now was an appropriate time to share it.

With the second year of the American Civil War Sesquicentennial in full swing, we are now exactly 150 years away from one of the most horrific time periods that middle Tennessee and the Nation have ever experienced. Three of the top ten battles with the most casualties were fought in Middle Tennessee. At the Battle of Stones River there were seventy nine thousand soldiers and over twenty four thousand casualties. That’s nearly one in three.

After the Battle of Stones River, the Union Army occupied Murfreesboro and began building a massive fortification that was named after their commander, General William S. Rosecrans. Designed by Brig. Gen. James St. Clair Morton, Fortress Rosecrans covered more than 200 acres and protected vital segments of the railroad through Murfreesboro. It also acted as a trade hub to more swiftly distribute supplies to the ongoing campaigns nearby.

It is inside the walls of Fortress Rosecrans where the following letter was written. Richard S. Corle of the 1st Regiment of the Illinois Light Artillery was relaxing under a shade tree on the day of May 22nd 1863 when he decided to drop a line to his father Benjamin back home inOttawa Illinois. This letter was supposedly found in a barn in Illinois many years ago and it is in pretty poor condition. Some of the corners of the folded letter have been chewed which created holes in the unfolded letter. The letter is very hard to read anyway because most of the spelling is phonetic and/or misspelled. It took most of a day to transcribe it and I had to take some minor liberties with wording so that the reader can comprehend what the writer was trying to say. Some of the information that was lost to the holes is just impossible to assume but I have noted the holes in the letter as (missing) so you can try to imagine what’s missing.

Scroll down past the letter for photos of the original letter.

“

Head Quarters Camp Near Murfreesboro         May 22, 1863

Dear Father & Mother,

It is with Joy that I seat myself this morning to answer you. I find loving letters which I received a short time ago and was happy to hear from you again and that you were in pretty good health. This leaves me in the best of health at the present time and I hope it may find you all enjoying the same blessing. I wrote to Billy last evening and this morning I am on guard and I thought I would write you a response in answer to the letter that I have, although I have no news to write of much interest to you. I wrote you a letter a short time ago and I told you all what was going on here in the sunny south in this neck of the woods every hour for there is not much going on at the present. We are laying in the shade most of the time and we drill about once a day if it is not too warm. I think we may be good hands to work on a farm if a fellow does not care what he says for the boys here are not afraid of work for they can lay down beside it and go to sleep.

We are on marching orders at the present and we may leave here before night and we may not go at all but I think perhaps we will leave here for a while.  Our orders are to be ready at a moment’s notice. There were a great many cavalry that went out last night and we may go today or tomorrow. The news is here that part of Bragg’s Army is going to reinforce the Army at Vicksburg and if that is the case, Old Rosey (General Rosecrans) will move up on Bragg’s army. That might not be so but I think you hear of a lot more in this army before  (missing)  and the sooner the better for me for I think we have laid down long enough.

Pg.2

Well Papa, I am glad to hear that you are getting along so well with your work this spring and I hope you will bail a good crop this summer. That will help you along a good way.  I would like to come home awhile this summer but it is impossible to leave here. If I can leave any time this summer I am going to see where Will Curiliffe raised and fix up his grave. That is if I can get a leave of absence that long. I will try for it after a little while. I suppose there are some guerillas in that neighborhood yet so it would not hardly be safe to go there at the present. I am very glad to hear that Billy is getting better. Perhaps he will be able to come to the company before very long. I hope so. Anyhow, if he is not fit for active services he will be sent to the convalescence camp. They send all unwell men there now. They will not allow any sick man in camp here in the field. It’s a very good thing that we had some men that was (missing) .Billy knows him. He was on my gun when he got his head hurt in the Battle of Stones River. Perhaps Billy saw him after the shell busted in his face. He went to the rear after that happened to him and he has not been good for anything since and I think he never will be fit for service any more for he will lose his nerve. The rest of the wounded boys have gotten pretty well but three of them are crippled. Adam Ehly is a cripple for he has lost two of his fingers. That will stop him from playing the fiddle. Chester Whitman is cripple. He has lost the use of his hands. Archy Dubois has lost part of his hand and cannot use it. Billy knows them all and remembers when they were all good. Me and the best of the boys have all gotten well, first rate. I tell you there will be a shower of cripples in this country after the war is over. I hope I may never have that happen to me. So far I have had very good luck but the next time may be my turn. If that is my lot I will bear it with patience.

Pg. 3

I suppose the time seems pretty long to you since we’ve been gone but it seems like yesterday to me. I can almost see things when I think about them and I remember the last week I was there and making that road there where I got the war fever. I feel thankful that I started at that time and I have never been home sick except for a day or two after I came to Bird’s Pointe. I found things all very rough there. It was not like they told me and if I had not been sworn into this company I would have went into the 11th Regiment with Captain James Coats. He wanted me to go with him from Ottawa but I soon got over that spell and when I was sick at Bird’s Pointe I never was homesick. Today I can say that I am glad I am in the (Lirves?). I would like to see my friends but if I was there I do not think I could be content. This life is a hard life to live but when I think what we are fighting for I am content. That is the Union as it should be and they had better set every slave free in the south. I am in favor of anything for peace but (missing). I am disgusted with some of the men in that neighborhood and I think if some of these soldiers were at home they would have to be careful how they talk. I have been asked the question frequently what I was fighting for and I think I have answered the question every time but today I am as good a democrat as I ever was. Well, I will leave that alone for this time. The weather is very warm here and dry and dusty. I suppose they are beginning to think about celebrating the 4th of July up there. That has not come to mind. Here they are thinking about something else.

Well Papa that was a pretty happy dream you had. I had one but it was not on that subject. I dreamt that I was in another big battle and taken prisoner. When I woke up I was hollering “shoot the sons of bitches”. My sergeant woke me up. He said I was making a great noise. I was fighting like the (?) and after I was taken prisoner they wanted to take my money and I was surely fighting them.

Pg.4

Well Papa, about that colt that the old mare had this spring, if it’s a good colt I will buy it and send you the money for it. You must tell me what it’s worth when you write again and make the thing safe then I will buy it for I want all the colts I can get. I have not much money at the present time but by the time you write to me again perhaps I will have some. You must ask some of the neighbors what it is worth and I will pay you what it is worth. I will not send you my note but I will send you money and you may send me your receipt or put it in some man’s hands so it will be safe. I cannot send you any money at the present or I would send it. Tell me in your next letter what kind of colt it is. If is straight and wise and if I buy it (missing) don’t still come home for me and I will make it (missing) to be home sometime within 2 years if I have good luck. I am kind of sick of that country. I may not stay there long if I ever come back and I may settle there. I cannot tell what I will do or where I will go but I have a pleasing view that I think would suit me better than that. I will talk about that some other time. Tell Mary I will write to her tomorrow if we stay here but that is uncertain. Give my love to mother and all the rest. I will have to stop for my pen is miserable. When you write again tell me how you are getting along and how your grain looks. Tell Billy to put it through this summer and not let any of them boys to beat him, big or little. Give my love to them all. Receive the same yourself from your son,

Richard S. Corle, to his father Benjamin Corle, Ottawa, Illinois

Write soon and tell me how you like the letter I sent you.

R.S. Corle                                                                                             “

The soldiers mentioned in the letter were:

Richard S Corle (author of the letter),   Corporal

Adam Ehly, Private

Chester P. Whitman, Sergeant

Archie Dubois, Private

William H Corle ( Billy back home), Private

James H Coats, Captain (Colonel by 1865)

Captain Coats was of the 11th Regiment

Everyone else mentioned were members of the 1st Regiment, Illinois Light Artillery.

According to my research of the Park Service website they did indeed move out of Murfreesboro shortly after this letter was written. Below is a list of their troop movements through Middle Tennessee.

Siege of Nashville September 12-November 7.

Repulse of Forrest’s attack on Edgefield November 5.

Lavergne November 7.

Advance on Murfreesboro December 26-30.

Battle of Stone’s River December 30-31, 1862, and January 1-3, 1863. Duty at Murfreesboro till June.

Middle Tennessee or Tullahoma Campaign June 22-July 7.

Occupation of Middle Tennessee till August 16.

Passage of Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River and Chickamauga, Ga. Campaign August 16-September 22.

Compiled and deciphered by Bill Jakes December 2012

 

I’ve made a new site

Hello blog readers,
I had to make mention that I just finished publishing my new website. It’s actually very similar to my old site but the host has updated their frames and so I had to start from scratch on the framework but some of my content is older. I will be updating a lot of info on there as time permits but I got sort of tired of my work website getting all my Google “juice”. I’ve noticed that every time I would tweet my web address they would remove my specific URL and just send folks to the main site. I won’t go into too much speculation as to why they write the code that way but suffice to say that it works in their favor monetarily.
With that said, my work site is still a great tool for home searching and I still intend to use it to set up automated searches for my clients. I just don’t want to use it as my general site any more. It does lack some functionality for the work that I do with sellers. This new site will allow me to feature properties again and I’m looking forward to getting that going again. It’s important for seller’s visibility that their YouTube videos be embedded on a unique website and then linked to every possible place to get good visibility.
So, in the end, it appears that two sites is better than one. You can still access my search site from the new one. It’s just one extra click and you’re on your way.
Please check it out if you have a minute and feel free to critique it. Even if it’s just immediate impression. Let me know what you think.
BillJakes.com

Update on the flip

It’s been a while since I updated you on the house flip project. I haven’t blogged in a few weeks because things have been crazy busy. On top of driving back and forth to McMinnville two to three times a week, I managed to close on four houses last month. I’m busy and so very thankful for it.
Well, I think the last time I mentioned the flip house I had just started hanging cabinets. I finished those on the very next trip.

After they were in I focused on the hardwood.

The load-in

The install

Completed the install!

The sealer and first coat of poly.
Once, I got the floors coated I realized that I was really close. Then I decided to go ahead and get the crown on the cabinets and begin my punch-out list.

So now, at this point all I lack is getting the countertops installed (scheduled for September 12th) and get the carpets for bedrooms and vinyl for bathrooms.
So we’re basically 13 days away from hitting the market. This should be a really quick sale. Our stainless appliance package was ordered yesterday. To be able to offer this house in the best shape it’s ever been for under $100K just feels good. I honestly think we’ve improved the neighborhood with this little venture. Supposedly the last owners let the property get into bad shape. It’s on a prominent corner in the neighborhood. Now it sets a new standard for the neighborhood.
My fingers are crossed that we can sell it in 30 days or less.
Expect to see a link to the video tour and listing very soon 🙂

Map display and Art Reception today

Mapping the Growth of Murfreesboro – Historical Maps Display as well as local Murfreesboro artists will be on hand and on display tonight from 4:30 to 6:30 at the Murfreesboro City Hall Rotunda. I was proud to be a small part of the committee that worked on the maps and tours for this project. I started the color coded map that was eventually reproduced in a superior revision by John Nelson of the City’s GIS department.
Seeing the growth, additions and changes that add up to the Murfreesboro we know today is a wonder-filled exhibit that tracks the growth and development of our town over the years. Enjoy tracking  the subdivisions, businesses, and landmarks through this unique display of maps and art. Free admission. Driving tour maps as well as information for a walking tour of the architecture of Downtown will be available as well as art by many local artists and artisans.

Attached below are the driving tour map and accompanying text.

annexations_by_decade_080212

Decades of Homes Driving Tour-doc file

Date: August 1 – 31, 2012
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday – Friday
Place: City Hall Rotunda
Sponsoring Organization: Our Stories Committee

Bill Jakes

More than just bricks

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned in my blog before, but I’m an architectural preservation advocate. I’ve been involved with the Rutherford County Historical Society for a number of years now and I am a board member of both Oaklands Historic House Museum as well as the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities (that’s a mouthful). So it’s safe to assume I believe it’s worth spending a little extra to preserve our history when it’s truly appropriate. Now, I’ve seen many examples of historic structures that were just too far gone to salvage. There’s always a limit or breaking point.
I’ve often dug out my copy of C.B. Arnette’s “From Mink Slide to Main Street” so I can copy this quote that he was so inspired by. I share his affection for this little sentiment;
“Old buildings are not ours. They belong, partly to those who built them, and partly to generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead still have their right to them: That which they labored for … We have no right to obliterate.
What we ourselves have built, we are at liberty to throw down. But what other men gave their strength and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over it does not pass away with their death.”
John Ruskin
I love that quote but I might not be quite as devoted as that writer. I still want to employ reason when sizing up a worthy candidate for preservation.
Speaking of worthy candidates…
My great neighbor just a couple doors down is a local attorney and professor and happens to live in the oldest house on my whole block. Below is a crude screen shot of the Murfreesboro 1878 map that shows him on the SouthEast corner of the block. There is another structure on the Eastern corner in this map but it’s been replaced by a 1920’s bungalow so this neighbors house 8’m speaking of is definitely the oldest structure on our block.

Since we both corner Maney Ave. we have both living through some street improvements over the past year. His corner was the end of the first phase and I assume they will start there when they begin the next phase and move past my house soon after.
So this neighbor, he’s been a perfect candidate to own an older home. He’s done a great job of maintaining the place and nothing ever looks neglected. He’d even had the original brick sidewalks repaired. Now the bricks were pretty uneven because roots had pushed them up over the years but those orange bricks were always in beautiful contrast next to his green lawn or even the occasional snow in the Winter. The meat of this story is that with these street improvements come new sidewalks along with a host of other improvements. Don’t get me wrong, I AM a big fan of these improvements. But this created a big hurdle for City vs Property owner. Property owner wants to keep the bricks (rightfully so. They are probably pre-Civil War relics that were hand made). City needs to stick to a design plan and meet A.D.A. Standards for all upgrades and improvements they do to our public spaces.
Well, I don’t have an inside track on this and I haven’t even discussed it with my neighbor but I noticed the contractors were installing the bricks over concrete a couple of days ago. Since they were pouring concrete anyway it only makes sense that they could recess it 2 inches and lay the bricks on top of the concrete so the roots won’t creep in and cause issues in the future. I see this as a huge win for preservation. It only seems fair that a guy who has done an amazing job of maintaining a historic home get to keep part of his house history alive. I’m happy that the City was willing to be pro-active and work with this homeowner in this unique situation. I’m happy to keep more of the history of our neighborhood alive. And, I’m really happy it could all be accomplished while still meeting the A.D.A. standards

I should point out one more opinion. The City does need to meet a budget and contractors don’t plan for these kinds of changes ahead of time. Unless it is truly an historic site, I would personally allow the City to go about their repairs as planned and not attempt to “save every brick” or anything drastic. We need to allow the City to do what’s affordable and what creates the greatest return for the taxpayer dollar. But fortunately in this case, a little extra effort went into making an important exception.

Another productive day at the flip

I’m in the office this morning catching up on a few things. Had a closing this morning with some clients who I’ve been working with since December. All is well!
I spent the day yesterday at the flip house and finished up a few projects. I got the last of the flooring replaced that needed it. There was one spot by the front door that was really soft and I couldn’t understand why it was so bouncy so I cut the floor open to find this!

Someone had just nailed random boards up to the foundation and the nails had worked themselves out of place. Such an amateur fix but fortunately it was simple to fix properly. I just yanked the crappy repair wood out and replaced it with two pressure treated 2×10’s. Now it feels like you could walk an elephant through the door with no worries 🙂

I also finished up patching the old drywall in the kitchen behind the cabinets. This was the nastiest part of the house and actually had to remove not only the drywall but the insulation as well. We gave the inside of the wall a nice bleach-bath before I put the insulation back.

We also finally made the decision to remove all of the old cabinets. I know well enough that kitchens and baths are not only the most expensive things to upgrade in a house but they can also make the difference in how fast and for how much a house can sell. We shopped around and we got a great price from one contractor to install new cabinets but I finally made the decision to go with Lowe’s stock cabinets. We lucked up and got them at 20% off but they also gave us another 5% for using a Lowe’s card. So, in the end, that 25% savings tipped the scales for me. The whole cabinet package only ended up costing $2300 with delivery. If not for the 25% off deal I would have definitely gone with my next best bid. At normal Lowes prices they would have been very comparable with install included. I’m definitely calling them first next time. I still have to do my own counter tops but I can do that with a granite tile for cheaper than a laminate top.
Good bye old 70’s cabinetry!

When I took out the old pantry I found a little glimpse of the original 70’s flooring and wall paper.
Yuck!

New cabinets should arrive either today or tomorrow. I can’t wait to get started installing them. With this decision out of the way we can now decide on a flooring choice for the kitchen and a color choice for the counters. From there I will get the wood floors installed in the Living Room. It looks like things are shaping up. Since I can’t be there every day and business at the office is jamming, I still feel comfortable that I’ll have this baby on the market in 30 days or less. That’s a good feeling!
Hope you are enjoying reading my updates about this house.
If you or anyone you know is interested in flipping a house or simply grabbing an historic deal on a home, give me a call today at 615-975-0933.  If you’re not sure what you can qualify to buy, don’t just assume you can’t buy. Give me a call. Also, visit my website anytime to get started on your search. The site will allow you to set up an automated search that will send you new listings every time a new one hits the market. Or, I can set one up for you.
Just visit BillJakes.com to get started today.
Till next time…………

House flipping is back!!

By JAMES R. HAGERTY

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Four years after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, flipping homes is back in fashion.

Jon Mirmelli, a Phoenix real-estate investor, learned late in the morning of Sept. 28 that a never-occupied custom house on the northern fringes of this Phoenix suburb was going up for auction around noon the same day. The six-bedroom home, built on a three-acre desert plot, has a kitchen with two dishwashers, four ovens, “antibacterial” copper sinks, and a master “spa” bathroom with space for a flat-screen TV visible from the tub.

Flipping Foreclosures

 

Joshua Lott for The Wall Street Journal

Avraham Azoulay, left, and Donna Valva looked over their list of foreclosed houses outside the Maricopa County Court building during an auction in Phoenix, Dec. 3, 2009.

The minimum bid, as set by a unit ofCitigroup Inc., C +2.05% which had a $1.3 million mortgage on the home, was $379,900. After several minutes of bidding among investors and their representatives, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, Mr. Mirmelli won the home for $486,300. A week later, he agreed to sell it for $690,000 to a woman who moved in this month.

During the housing boom, millions of Americans tried to make money by buying and then quickly reselling new houses and condominiums. That kind of flipping stopped several years ago as home sales stalled amid a surge in foreclosures and curtailed lending.

Now, a different breed of flipper is proliferating: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves.

Investors compete mostly with other full-time professionals who monitor foreclosure auctions at county courthouses across the country. The bidders often haven’t had a chance to inspect the property or determine whether it’s occupied by tenants, who may be hard to evict.

Sometimes “you have half an hour to make a half-million-dollar decision,” says Damon Lines, an executive at PostedProperties.com, a Phoenix firm that provides information to foreclosure investors and bids on their behalf. “That’s something most people can’t or aren’t willing to do.”

In the states where home prices have fallen the most, many local real-estate markets are dominated by foreclosed property, dragging down the value of neighboring homes. Barclays Capital estimates that banks and mortgage investors have 639,000 foreclosed homes for sale across the U.S., largely concentrated in Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada. That’s equivalent to more than 10% of expected U.S. home sales this year.

“Don’t try this at home kids. It’s still a risky business.”

— Charlie Rose

Flippers swoop in at public auctions of foreclosed homes, known as trustee or sheriff sales. In many states, the lender sets the minimum bid, and takes possession of the property only if no one bids more. In the past, the minimum generally was about equal to the mortgage balance due. But in today’s market, in which many home values have dropped far below the loan balance, lenders wouldn’t attract investors if they set the minimum at that level.

So lenders, or the loan-servicing firms that represent banks and investors, are increasingly likely to set the minimum much lower. Their goal is to tempt others to buy the house and spare banks the headaches and costs that come with taking possession.

Sean O’Toole, chief executive officer of ForeclosureRadar.com, a research firm, estimates that in November about 21% of homes sold in trustee sales in California went to investors rather than to a foreclosing lender, up from 6% a year earlier. The trend is similar in some other areas with high foreclosure rates, including Phoenix and Miami.

The advantage of such an outcome for the bank is that it gets money for the property right away, even if it isn’t enough to cover the loan balance due. The bank doesn’t need to make repairs to the home, cover the taxes and insurance, or pay real-estate-agent commissions.

The risk for banks is that if they set the minimum bid too low, the home might end up selling for much less than they could reap if they took ownership of it and sold it themselves. But with some 7.5 million U.S. households behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, many lenders are overwhelmed. They’re negotiating with distressed borrowers and figuring out how to sell the growing supply of foreclosed homes.

“The banks are so screwed up,” says Mr. Mirmelli, the Phoenix investor, that they don’t always have a clear idea of the value of the property they are foreclosing on.

To help them set the minimum bid, banks often consult with local real-estate agents and use software that estimates housing values. American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., which collects payments and handles foreclosures on behalf of banks and loan investors, uses a formula designed to “achieve a fair value for the property and induce third-party bidders,” says Christine Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Coppell, Texas-based firm.

American Home starts with a broker’s estimate and subtracts the expected costs of taking ownership of the house and selling it. The minimum bid is above the net proceeds American Homes believes it could get by acquiring and selling the property itself, she says.

Outside the Maricopa County court building in downtown Phoenix, trustees, companies that are hired to handle foreclosure auctions, offer as many as 600 or 700 houses every weekday. A typical auction lasts only a few minutes. On a recent afternoon, a few dozen bidders and onlookers were clustered around a trustee employee seated on a lawn chair conducting auctions. He kept track of the bids on a laptop computer perched on one knee.

Many of the bidders are regulars at the sale, bidding for themselves or on behalf of investor clients. “We’re all kind of like a little dysfunctional family,” says Steve Mutsaers, a representative of PostedProperties, who was wearing black sunglasses, a white polo shirt and gray plaid shorts. During the summer, Mr. Mutsaers says, he wears a sombrero to cope with temperatures well above 100 degrees.

People who attend trustee sales here and in other foreclosure hot spots around the nation say the auctions have recently been attracting more bidders. “Properties are getting bid up,” says Hal Feinberg, a Phoenix property investor. “You can still get good deals, but you’ve got to be more patient than you were a year ago.” He and other investors in the Phoenix area say they have been flipping a lot of the homes they buy to Canadians taking advantage of a weak U.S. dollar.

Buying at these auctions is perilous. There are no public viewings, so bidders often can’t know how much damage may have been done inside a house by occupants facing foreclosure. “We’ve seen everything,” says Doug Hopkins, chief executive of PostedProperties. “We’ve seen people pour concrete down the toilets.” Unless they’ve done their homework, bidders also don’t always know whether they’re buying a home subject to a lien from another lender, which can happen in cases where the borrower took out more than one home loan.

 

Joshua Lott for The Wall Street JournalInvestors in Phoenix gather at one of the 700 auctions that take place here each weekday.

Because of such complexities, many of the bidders are people with experience in the property business. Jon Goodman, a real-estate lawyer in Boulder, Colo., for example, has bought 19 properties so far this year with other investors and sold 11 of them.

In February, the group won an auction for a home in Commerce City, Colo., near Denver, by bidding $142,000. Only afterwards did they discover that the previous owners had stripped the house of a toilet, much of the carpeting and a kitchen range. They replaced the missing items and made other minor improvements, eventually selling the house in May for $209,000. (The loan balance on the house had been $265,663.)

Mr. Goodman says their expenses came to about $24,000, including about $8,000 for real-estate commissions. That left a pretax profit of about $43,000.

The foreclosure auction was handled by American Home Mortgage Servicing. Ms. Sullivan, the spokeswoman for American Home, says the firm believes it didn’t underprice the home and it received “a fair, market-value price for the property.”

In Miami, a group of investors led by Oded M. Kaiser recently bought a condo at auction for $170,000. Two weeks later, they flipped it for $330,000. The loan balance was about $466,000. A spokeswoman for Litton Loan Servicing, which handled the sale on behalf of mortgage investors, declined to comment.

Not all flippers come out on top. Mr. Goodman says one of his legal clients, bidding on his own, unwittingly bought a house that was still subject to a first-lien mortgage. To gain control of the property, the client had to pay off the first mortgage. As a result, says Mr. Goodman, the client, who declined to be named, is likely to have at least a small loss on the deal.

Last summer, Phoenix investor Greg Thielen bought a home at an auction and later found that the former owner had stripped out air-conditioning units, granite countertops and kitchen cabinets, and uprooted palm trees from the lawn. Repair costs came to about $30,000, leaving Mr. Thielen with a small loss on the purchase. “It’s not as easy as people think,” says Mr. Thielen.

James R. Hagerty/The Wall Street JournalInvestor Jon Mirmelli in the kitchen of the Scottsdale home he flipped.

The Scottsdale property bought by Mr. Mirmelli was supposed to be the dream home for Brad and Michelle McCaughey and their three children. Mr. McCaughey, who grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., was a minor-league hockey player and coach after graduating from the University of Michigan. About nine years ago, having moved to Phoenix, he says he discovered “a passion for real estate.” He became a real-estate agent and began investing with his father and brothers-in-law in rental properties. Soon they had a dozen homes.

In 2005, Mr. McCaughey and his wife paid about $500,000 for three acres of desert land and began building a home. By the time the house was nearing completion in 2008, the family rental-property business was in trouble because financing and other costs were exceeding their income.

The McCaugheys started selling their rental properties and put their own house on the market. They hoped to avert a foreclosure by getting Citigroup to accept a short sale, in which a home is sold for less than the loan balance due. Before they could find a buyer, though, Citigroup foreclosed on the home, and it went up for auction at the Maricopa County Courthouse this past September.

Citigroup initially set the minimum bid at auction at $1.3 million, far more than the market value, given comparable sales in the neighborhood. Then, on the morning of the sale, Citigroup lowered that minimum to $379,900. PostedProperties, which monitors Web sites for such price changes, sent out an email on the opportunity to Mr. Mirmelli.

Developments Blog

• A Reluctant House Flipper Yearns to Buy and Hold

Mr. Mirmelli has his iPhone set up so he can call up the address of a home due to be auctioned, see a map of the neighborhood with a tap of his finger and then see panoramic photos of the street with another tap. While he researched the home, one of his partners drove out to see the exterior and make sure there were no occupants. A PostedProperties employee bid on their behalf and won the house for $486,300, a sum that then went through the trustee to Citigroup.

After expenses of about $54,000, including real-estate commissions and minor repairs, Mr. Mirmelli and his partners expect a profit of about $150,000 on the flip. “It turned out to be a very good return,” he says.

A spokesman for Citigroup declined to comment on the transaction.

The McCaugheys, who formerly owned the house, are now renting a smaller home. Mr. McCaughey now works for a telecommunications service and is thinking about going back into hockey-related work.

Over a bowl of soup at a Paradise Bakery & Café in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Mr. McCaughey says he sees a lot of real-estate bargains now and may jump back into the market at some point. As for the losses he’s taken on his former holdings, he says: “It is what it is. You deal with it.”

I wanted to share this article because I see Flipping as not only a great way to make money but also a way to get distressed properties off the market and to clean up our local markets. It’s a win-win scenario if done properly. I do advocate proper construction though! No quick fixes! Do it right the first time and you will sell the house quicker. If you are interested in learning more about flipping or investing in real estate. This down market that’s on the rise is a great moment in time to do it. Call me any time at 615-975-0933 or visit my site at www.billjakes.com to get started searching.

Working in the kitchen

I went back to the flip house yesterday and today. Yesterday we hauled off all the trash and shopped for supplies. Today we picked up everything we needed and I got started in the kitchen. There was a place in the floor where 2 joists had been cut.

Whoever cut these was a real genius because the floor had dropped about 2 inches. The next person who remodeled it just shimmed up the floor and built over it. I sistered the joist and made a new beam out of 3 pressure treated 2×4’s and got them into place under the sagging spot then I used jack-poles to lift everything back up to where it belonged.

After that I started installing the Advantech plywood over the existing 1/2 inch plywood.
By 3pm I had had to head back to Murfreesboro so I could schedule some showings for tomorrow but I left feeling good about the work that was accomplished today. Things should really start coming together fast now!

We’re gonna flip a house

We’re all witnessing a very rare thing right now whether we believe it or not. We are living in a time when you can simply buy a house and start renting it for more than your payment. I remember a time only a few years ago when I assumed there would never be such an opportunity in Middle Tennessee again. It was a little depressing to think that I would never get the opportunity that a lot of my family and friends have taken advantage of. I was afraid I might not get the chance to buy rentals or investment properties because everything was selling so high. Well, times have changed! Now is the perfect time to buy investment properties no matter what your long-term plan is. Rental properties are not everyone’s best idea for investment but there’s opportunity right now to flip houses. That’s an even harder way to make money when it’s a seller’s market. But we are absolutely still in a buyer’s market. Yes, in some places like Murfreesboro it’s shifting quickly in some price ranges but I see plenty of opportunity with all the Foreclosures that continue to hit the market.
Speaking of flipping foreclosures, my wife and I have landed a flip property! We’ve teamed up with her parents and we’re gonna split it. I’m very excited! Don’t get me wrong, I love being a Realtor and plan to always make that my primary focus but I have all the tools and skills needed to squeeze in a few days a month doing remodel work. And who doesn’t need a few extra bucks these days?

So this is the house. I won’t brag about what a great deal we got because it needs quite a bit of money invested to get it back to awesome. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna make it more awesome than ever. It needs new flooring throughout, new paint throughout, new HVAC, new cabinets, countertops, & an appliance package.
Today was my second day on the subfloor removal. Someone obviously flooded the kitchen befor wit was foreclosed on.

We already pulled all the base cabinets and they are pretty shot. I was hopeful that we wouldn’t need new cabinets but it’s a possibility right now. We’re also contemplating replacement windows.
I definitely want this to be as profitable as possible but I’m also intent on selling it quickly and easily as soon as it hits the market.
I can see it now, ” Brick, 3-2 w/ 1car attached & 1 car carport, moments from Bridgestone with new, new, new, new!
Hopefully I’ll be refining that part in 30 days or so. For now, I’m thrilled to have all the wet particle board gone. When the tearing out is done the more rewarding work can start.

I look forward to sharing this little adventure and I’m happy to have something fun to write about in my blog. I hope some fellow fans of flipping enjoy watching the progress.

And as always, if you’re interested in finding an investment home or a home to live in, a great place to start is my website.
Just remember BillJakes.com and you’re ready to search whether you’re on your desktop, phone, or tablet. BillJakes.com

Update on “Unique”

Well, the “Round House” in my previous post is closing first thing in the morning! It ended up being a cash deal but we negotiated down another $16,000. Documents and money all arrived from the buyer today and it’s as good as done!
My client ended up paying 1/3 of the tax appraised value on the property. I’ll sleep just fine tonight knowing I helped negotiate such a sweet deal for him and I didn’t let the hurdles stop me along the way.

If you want to start looking for deals on property you can always start by visiting my website at
BillJakes.com