Poorly Designed Vs. Poorly Maintained
I have been reading a book about Fixing and Flipping properties. The Author talks mostly about being creative when fixing the houses you buy (not just buying a house that needs paint and carpet) I really liked his thoughts on the topic.
His idea was to look at a house and figure out why it wouldn't sell for Top Dollar than change that and collect the money.
I sounds like he's looking more for poorly designed houses, not poorly maintained houses.
It sounds like a great Idea to me ..... What do you think???
Does anyone do this that could share examples of a poorly designed house that they have fixed???????
THANKS!!!
I think if you work that angle you really limit yourself. I mean if you are looking to rehab properties you are going to be buying poorly maintained properties, they are going to need work, and not just a little. You might get cutsey on the finishing details and get a few more dollars out of that angle, but overall, you are not going to make much more cash than you would on just a straight rehab.
BTW to me rehab always means more than paint and carpet, I always update any needed areas.
Quote:
On 2003-12-18 19:59, telemon wrote:
....BTW to me rehab always means more than paint and carpet, I always update any needed areas....
I wish more people would take your approach to the rehab, Telemon.....what often ends up happening is just what you said.....a little paint, maybe an extra layer on the roof (which is not good) and thats about it.
To seriously increase the value of ones property as well as getting a better return mean putting a little more money and effort into the investment.
It's a great business plan as long as your goal is to never actually have to buy a house and resell it.
There are very, very few people living in a poorly designed house that is perfectly maintained that are going to have to sell it at a discount.
There is a corelation between living in squalor, not doing maintenance to a house and not paying your bills.
It is hard enough to find a motivated seller who is in foreclosure, can you imagine how hard it would be to find a motivated seller because his closets are too small?
Curb appeal of a house is the only thing I could link to your thinking. It is possible to have poorly designed landscaping and fix it to increase the curb appeal, but that won't increase the value of the house much, but it will increase the odds of the buyer getting out of the car to take a look inside.
I would further comment that I would recommend that the only people who dump money into a house in regard to what you are saying are people who really love the house and plan on living there and enjoying it for a long time, eventually appreciation will cover up their expenditure.
Doing things like that are comparable to hot rod automobiles. You can dump and dump money into them and the only person who benefits is the next guy you sell it to at a loss.[ Edited by The-Rehabinator on Date 12/18/2003 ]
Hey,
Almost all the houses I buy are from the mid-1950s. Apparently, people in the 50's had neither clothes nor the need to use the bathroom, because all the houses have closets the size of a breadbox and only one bathroom. There is not a whole lot you can do about that. Once and awhile, I will find a house where someone has moved a wall and crammed in a half bath. They get paid the same for their house as the guy with one bathroom (this confirms what other messages are saying).
BUT...
Every so often you can make an inexpensive change, that makes the house better.
Recently, I bought a house where one of the bedrooms opened in to the kitchen. Some creative designer added a glass door with curtains. So the house "lost" a bedroom (because of the flow of the house) and the kitchen lost an entire wall of cabinets/counter space. So I removed the door and closed off the wall. Big difference in the house. Did it add value...maybe. It was much easier to rent.
I don't think you can look for houses like that one, you limit yourself way too much.
Poor design at its best here BABY. Built on fill dirt and one side lower than other 12 inches. 3 to 4 foot piers leaning . This small 424 square foot 2 bedroom house had a poor design too. A hallway that made it wher the 2nd BR entrance was thru the kitchen. I tore down the single wall 1*12 original wall for the hall and made the kitchen open to the living room and made a door to the 2nd br where the hall was. I bought this house and 4 other lots for $12,000. Sold the lots for $15,000 and borrowed $30,000 on the house to fix and buy. Sweet deal in 1949. No I am kidding it was 1994.
Good LUCK and HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr
I don't think the guy who wrote the book was ruling out doing other things to fix up the house as well.
one of his examples was a house that he bought near a lake that should have had a view but there wan't any large windows facing the lake... and the master bedroom wasn't on that side of the house. so he put some large windows in on that side of the house and moved some walls so the master bedroom was on the lake side and put some windows and a deck on that side. He said it added greatly to the house.
But I would Imagin that its pretty hard to find a lake house with now windows facing the lake.
Another example was a guy who bought a small muti unit building where each unit had only one bedroom. at that time 2 bedroom units were doing great and one bedroom units were doing terrible. so he combined units so each one had two bedrooms. I think he bout it for like $40000 and sold it for a 80000 profit somthing like that.
What ever it was it was a great profit that stemed from a great Idea. and i was wondering if anyone focuses on looking for ideas like that when they walk into a house. If you have any examples that would be great. Or if you mostly stick to fixing up broken down houses let me know.
Thanks again