Out of State Flip Estimate

[Nick Thomas]

Living in the D.C. area it seems impossible to find an affordable home to flip. I began searching in Greenville, NC where I used to live and there are so many cheap homes for sale that need work. I found two houses that are well under the comp value, but from pictures I have no idea how much it'd cost to get up to par. Is there anyone here who has a decent eye to give an estimate based on just photos? Can most likely get 1,000 sqft for around 7k in this area.

Thanks in advance!

[Kuba F.]

@Nick Thomas if the only thing you have is just pictures then you have not much, and therefore the safest assumption you can make is that you will be doing a gut rehab.

Also cheap is not inexpensive, and the cheaper they are, the more money you will put into the rehab.

What I do to estimate rehab costs remotely is to have my (local to the property) realtor walk the property with me on FaceTime and I record the video.  

As we do that, we go through this checklist: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/kubaf/fil...

After it's done, I can then re-watch the video over and over and use my favorite estimating tool to itemize the repairs.

This is exactly the same thing that I do for my local flips, except I'm the one recording with my phone.

That being said, the question becomes should you get into something like that.  If you buy a property for $7K does the cost of repairs it needs make it worth doing, meaning: can a neighborhood where properties go for $7K also have comps to support the value for a finished house that's priced at an amount that makes you any profit?