First full gut renovation - tell us you experience

[Jaron Walling]

Up until this point our REI experience has been cosmetic+ BRRRR deals. In 2025 we started actively looking at listings, wholesaler deals, and driving for dollars. Given this market there's no low hanging fruit. The sold prices for distressed stuff (what we look for) compared rents don't make sense in most cases. Profitable as a flip? Maybe for the right guy, but the margins are tight. My wife is not going to support time away from our kid to make $12k gross profit. I don't blame her. 

Long story short we need get out of our comfort zone and aim higher (forced appreciation play/ nicer neighborhood, no cash-flow) or buy cheaper more distressed properties (cash). Aiming for full gut interior, electrical, maybe plumbing, drywall, windows, flooring, HVAC, and probably exterior paint and landscape. Our rehab budget would be about $60-70k for 1200sqft, 2/3 bed, 1bath. We have some contractor support. I want to GC on our next project, and think differently. I'll complete some easier projects to save on labor. 

Is this realistic? Is BRRRR dead in 2025? We need some inspiration.

[Ko Kashiwagi]

I still see homerun BRRRRs with simple cosmetic upgrades from my clients time to time but definitely rarer than couple years back. Buying deep in the price is really key and it's more important than ever to run numbers conservatively.

Personally, I'm not obsessed over getting 100%+ of my money back if I'm putting less than what I  would've put in as a rental & go for appreciation, but everyone has different expectations.