Greetings Bigger Pockets,

My wife's grandmother recently passed away. She lived in a small 2 bedroom 1 bath Craftsman Cottage style house in Southern California. The house has a large 1 car detached garage that has a small un-permitted studio in which they rent out. The lot is a half size lot, approx 3700 sqft. The house now belongs to my mother in law. The house has not been touched in the last 20 years or so and needs some TLC. I have tried to convince my in laws to fix it up and keep it as a rental, but they don't want to deal with the hassle. I've tried convincing them to fix up the property to get a higher re-sale value, but again they don't want to deal with the hassle.

I want to figure out if I can make some money flipping this house. I would love to keep it as a rental but I don’t think the numbers would work out. If attainable, I want to put together a deal that would be good for my in-laws but at the same time would allow me to get involved in my first flip project.

I am a very handy guy and recently completed an 800 sqft addition to my house. I was the owner/builder. I subbed out most larger jobs but I installed the insulation, hardwood flooring, did all the tile work in the bathroom, and painted the interior.

I would be looking to rehab the property within the existing walls of the structure and keeping it as a 2+1. There is one interior wall that I would open up to make the kitchen and living room flow together. I would replace existing flooring, scrape popcorn ceilings, re do the kitchen, re do the bathroom, paint the interior and exterior, and landscaping. Electrical has been updated from the original nob and tube so I don’t think I would need to touch that. Plumbing may or may not need to be replaced. I have a very rough estimate of $50,000 for a rehab budget.

Comps for this house are difficult because it is on a half lot and there are few homes that have sold with a similar lot size.

So, how would you approach this situation? I’m interested to hear your thoughts.