BRRRR in Lincoln, NE

[Taija Walkowiak]

Hello,

We just finished a BRRRR in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is our 2nd rental we have. I have included some before and after pictures as well! So we bought this house in June for $13,000. It was a foreclosure but it was in such bad shape that the bank said we don't want it, it also had $9,000 in liens against the property, but the city of Lincoln also decided they didn't want this property. So they gave it back to the owner, which is who we purchased it from. It was a win-win situation she was so happy because after the liens were paid she ended up with $4,000 cash and we were excited about the property. This house is a 1,006 sq ft bungalow 3 bed and 1 bath, with a huge (24 x 30 detached garage and a large lot with an alley at the back of the property and the neighborhood is really nice. Lets get to the part of why the bank and city didn't want it! There had been squatters living in the house both human and raccoon! The roof was shot, it had a large hole near the chimney and most of the shingles had curled up and fell off. The soffit, fascia and gutters were also laying all over the yard and no longer on the house. Most of the windows were broken and the foundation had a serious bow down one entire wall. There was literally nothing left that we could save in this house, we tore it down to basically nothing. The only things we kept were the exterior walls and the siding, it had aluminum siding on it! The house was built in 1926 and was framed with 2x4s only, so we had to reframe all the roof joists and ceiling joists because they were all sagging, we reframed every interior wall and put new headers in for all of the windows. We put all new electrical, plumbing, hvac, windows, doors, roof, cabinets, flooring, bathroom, you name it we replaced it. Luckily the garage didn't need any work, we did put new windows and doors on it, but the actual garage door was in great shape and so was the opener. So once we were done this house was completely brand new. We did most of the work ourselves too which saved a lot of money. We paid cash for the house and then got a construction loan for the project, once we finished we refinanced and pulled the $13,000 back out to use for our next project, we purchased this in June and finished it in December it was a long hard 6 months but it was totally worth it. Here is a break down of our costs...

Purchase Price: $13,000

Rehab Costs: $77,000

Total: $93,000 (including closing costs)

Appraised Value: $155,000

Equity: $62,000

Rent: $1,100 per month!

We are on the search for our next project!!

-Taija