Flipping an old house, worth it?

[Wes W.]

Hi all,

I own my parents house, which is 850 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 1 bath on 2 city lots in Springfield, MO. Right now, I am trying to decide what to do with it. 

Context:

It is located in Springfield, in an area with high(er) crime, low rated schools and a lot of older houses.

The house has never been updated and it is in pretty bad shape. It would need a complete interior remodel of everything, floor to ceiling. Likely structural/foundation work to make it safe. The exterior is mostly fine, minor repairs compared to the interior.

Some of the houses around it have recently sold for $50,000-75,000. They are are all larger in living sq ft., but much smaller yards, not a corner lot and not updated.

I guess I am just at a loss of what to do as there are two options:

1) Try to just sell as is for mostly land value (likely to bring less than $25,000).

2) Remodel the entire house with low quality interior (but would make it the best interior in the neighborhood for sure) and see if I can get in on the higher range of the area ($75,000).

The newest developments/remodels in the area are two new(er) houses built in 2004, both across the street, both sold for $75,000 in '04 and both look exactly the same with 1200 sq ft and small yards.

Moving forward my plan is:

1) Get a contractor to give me some type of ballpark estimate on what it would take to replace most of the interior with a new, low grade material

2) Get a professional appraisal and see what kind of guess I can get from that.

Even if I could just get an extra $10,000 of value after all is said and done, I think it would be worth my time. Otherwise, I'm happy to take the value for the land.