Thursday

Painting The Little House, Part 2

This post is a continuing story about a rental I came to own that I'm calling the little house.  If you missed the first post and want to be brought up to speed, the link to Part 1 is at the bottom.

I left off discussing how I hate painting and how the little house needed top to bottom paint.  Of course, oh joy.

As most everyone knows, painting is the most affordable update homeowners can do, which is good since the little house was needing it.  Paint = big impact for little price.

And when you have the right tools, some projects go more smoothly.

An electric spray gun is about the handiest gadget for painting tasks, and the one we used is the Tacklife paint sprayer  which you can find on Amazon for under $50 bucks. (I am not an Amazon affiliate so no I am not compensated for telling you that, click the link and take a peek at the sprayer).

Tacklife Paint Sprayer, Bliss-Ranch.com

I think what I hate the most with painting is the prep, taping up everything.  I'd rather gnaw off a limb than tape up walls to paint.

Thankfully my husband has a long wing span so taping off for painting is an easy task for him.  Believe me when I tell you that to have me tape the trim means lots of wasted tape, frustration and swear words on my part.  If there is a trick for this job I don't know it.

What would take me a long unspecified amount of time, he accomplishes as easy as pie.  And he'd rather leave the pie baking to me at this time of year if you ask him, so that's a fair trade right?

He is also the one to make an easy job of using paint sprayers, of which we have used more than our fair share of different kinds.  Just like when I tape, usually those sprayers provide a fair amount of frustration as well.

But not this time.

The folks at Tacklife contacted me and asked if I would like to try their spray gun for projects around the house.  Knowing I could put one to use I agreed and they had a complimentary one shipped directly from Amazon - pretty convenient.

For quick projects this is now our favorite sprayer, and because we have more than one electric sprayer the Tacklife had to have a name to identify it, so Brawn calls it the Orange Gun, for obvious reasons.  I never said he was a deep thinker.

Tacklife Paint Sprayer, Bliss-Ranch.com

The Tacklife sprayer is a sturdy well built spray gun for easy tasks around the house, like painting interior doors that have been taken off their hinge and lined up in the little house garage.

Painting Interior Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

These doors were all yellowed.

Not because the renter did anything, but because the landlords never got more than a primer coat put on before the renter moved in.  And the doors stayed that way.

I'm no Leona Helmsley, the house isn't exactly a slum, but not painting the doors completely was a bad owner mistake.

Painting Interior Rental Property Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

For a little house this place has a lot of doors - 9 interior doors, 3 bifold doors, and 5 exterior doors and since my husband doesn't necessarily inform me of his painting schedule it's a good thing I have a cell phone to prove there are doors and they are being painted.  When he's ready to paint he's ready to paint!

But back to this spray gun..... it has a nice size reservoir for the paint and we used an off the shelf Door and Trim paint from our local building supply.  There was no need to thin it down. 

The SGP15AC has three spray patterns, three nozzle sizes and the flow can be adjusted which is important, and everything comes apart for cleaning.

One of the differences I like with the Tacklife over our old sprayer is that there is no long black ribbed air hose to twist up, just the power cord to plug in.  Some folks might like that black tube, but for me it works much better not to have it.  I had a terrible time over summer spraying sealer on the pallet tables for the wedding of Daughter #2 with the sprayer that has the ribbed hose.  I wish I would have had the Tacklife sprayer then.

Painting Interior Rental Property Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

Now that cold weather has arrived the time frame for painting outside has passed.

Fortunately the little house garage is heated, so for the time being the garage will be our workshop.  The last thing we will do is use the sprayer to paint the garage walls then do the floor which will freshen up the garage for a clean look.

Tacklife Paint Sprayer, Bliss-Ranch.com

The Tacklife gun made my husbands painting chores easier, but I still had to roll and brush my way through the interior of the little house.

The trim is the original stuff from when the house was built and we first painted that white in the area of 9 years ago.  There is a whole different mindset in getting a house ready to sell or getting one ready to rent.

An owner is only going to get so much for a rental no matter what, and contrary to what you may have heard size does matter.  Thankfully there are many buyers looking for a small home with minimal upkeep, both to by or rent.

Painting Interior Rental Property Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

Putting in granite counters and a magazine worthy bathroom update would be foolish.  There is a good chance renters won't value a landlords time, talents or checkbook for those things which means when the renter leaves it could all need to be replaced, and you don't really know what kind of renter you have till they move out.

Our renter was great, other than paint there was nothing out of the ordinary wear and tear and he was there seven years.  He even asked to put more wood floor in on his dime.  In his younger days he laid flooring and there was carpet yet in one bedroom.  I told him no.  No he could not pay for it, but yes he could do it.  He bought the same stuff the rest of the house had, laid it, and I told him to deduct the cost from the next months rent.

The same thing can be said in getting a house ready to sell as far as the amount of money to stick in to the place.  That's where neighborhood comparables play a big part in relation to the size - mostly in relation to the owners checkbook size!

Painting Interior Rental Property Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

For example, an owner could spend thousands in updates but not see one penny profit from them, nor be able to ask more for the home, and that just isn't good business as far as I'm concerned.  Particularly if the house is already better than any neighbor comparable and the market in that size and price is hot.  For the little house the market is hot in that size and price range in that town no matter what size or condition.

Most comparable homes in that neighborhood in a similar small size either do need thousands in updates or are a total gut job, so the little house already has an advantage. Our price and size in that town currently are selling fast because first time homeowners are looking to stay under a specific price point.  The neighborhood is filled with young families as the recent years have seen the long time owners pass on. 

With too many updates the little house would be pushed out of that hot market and we wouldn't make any more profit on it anyway for the extra time we would be putting in or for the cost of the supplies.  Plus it could sit on the market for longer than we would like.

And I want to squeeze every last penny out of it, there is still college tuition to pay!

Painting Interior Rental Property Doors, Bliss-Ranch.com

I guess there will have to be a Part 3 eventually with the after photos.  Our hope is to move the little house fast, maximize the profit we can get, and still have it look the best in it's price range.  And it does.  Well it will...... the Tacklife sprayer helped the speed of my husbands painting jobs but there is still that painting thing on my agenda and Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat.



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2 comments :

  1. The sprayer looks awesome! Lots to think about here...we are in the process of prepping for sale, too and want to be smart about it.

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