The short version
The building was in terrible condition when I bought it. I renovated it myself with help from friends, tearing apart major portions and putting them back together. At the same time, I was selling real estate, building a management company, learning construction, and figuring out whom I could trust on a job site.
Friends helped. I also made at least one bad hire. That taught me quickly that reliability, supervision, and job-site safety are not secondary concerns. A person who says he can do the work is not a project plan.
What I learned the expensive way
Back then, the plan was basically to keep solving the next problem until the building worked. We got it done, but that is a rough way to run a rehabilitation. Work gets repeated. Materials arrive out of sequence. Decisions live in somebody’s head instead of on a scope. The owner becomes the contractor, supervisor, purchasing department, and quality-control department all at once.
Today I would start with the legal use, map the building by system, write one scope, assign permit responsibility, photograph every room before closing walls, and tie payments to inspected work. None of that is glamorous. All of it is cheaper than improvising.
There is one thing I still will not guess about
The surviving records disagree about the unit count. The City parcel search shows the base address, 101.5 Hickory, and several unit labels. Other public and rental records variously describe a four-plex, three displayed units, or an apartment property with five or more units.
So I am not going to pick the number that sounds best. The current Certificate of Occupancy, physical layout, meters, and management roster need to be matched before I call it a verified four-, five-, or six-unit property. That is not paperwork trivia; it changes income, financing, insurance, compliance, and resale.
The record that remains
| What we know | Source status |
|---|---|
| Property | 101–101.5 Hickory Street, Rochester; City parcel 121.64-1-69 |
| Purchase | $115,000 sale recorded April 1, 2011 |
| Rehabilitation | Substantial owner-performed work with help from friends; based on my firsthand account |
| Today | Owned through Updegraff Holdings LLC and associated with Updegraff Management rental records |
The rules I would use now
- Verify the legal unit layout before counting the rent.
- Scope the whole building by system before starting finishes.
- Put responsibilities, change orders, and payment milestones in writing.
- Use insured people you can trust without constant supervision.
- Photograph the work and keep the invoices. Future you will want the real numbers.
What I cannot tell you
I do not have a clean rehabilitation ledger from 2011, so I cannot give you an honest all-in basis or return. The purchase price is documented; the financing costs, materials, labor, carrying costs, later repairs, and value of my own time are not fully reconstructed.
If the old closing file, permits, photographs, or invoices turn up, I will add them. Until then, the lesson is the thing I can stand behind: we rebuilt a very rough building, and the experience changed how I think about scopes, people, safety, and records.