The Art of partial rehab

[Alex Khodnev]

Hey everyone.

I'm flip investor, managing all the process remotely from abroad.

In area where I'm investing, flipping houses usually means doing a full rehab. I'm talking about places with pricing above average, with old houses(up to 100 years old).  These houses would be very distressed and require everything replaced with new - roof, mechanicals, plumbing, electrical, flooring, windows and e.t.c. If all the numbers work at the point of due diligence, I step forward and close the deal. From this point the rehab would be kinda easy(that doesn't say not challenging, but the opposite!!). That mean all new stuff will be included to scope of work. 

I would like to understand the partial rehab puzzle. I know there are areas with partially rehabbed houses that sells pretty well. The advantadges of rehab like this are fully understood - less capital invested, less time frame to work, less unexpectables, less room for mistakes. The key is building the right scope of work and try to optimize rehabbing budget as much as possible. Sometimes its even more facelift than a rehab. 

Disclamer, my expirience is limited because of the long distance from a properties.

So who is working on strategy like this here? What is your thumb rule to build scope of work that hits the target? 

Any advice or shared expirience will be much appreciated.