Northeast Baltimore Flip

[Timothy Hersh]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $110,000
Cash invested: $75,000
Sale price: $275,000

Took the existing 3 bedroom 2 bath house to a 4 bedroom 2 bath house by finishing the basement, updating the kitchen and bathrooms, installing AC, replacing roof etc. Basement finishing created a 4th bedroom, large living area and laundry room. Landscaping added enormous appeal to the exterior and painting the existing aluminum siding made a statement that this house was back to its former glory.

[Timothy Hersh]

Quote from @Nicholas L.:

@Timothy Hersh congrats.  Any issues with permitting / conversion of the 4th BR?

 Hey @Nicholas L...I got real lucky down there. It had already had full electric throughout and the basement is only about 4 feet below grade so the space we made into the bedroom had 3 full size windows to satisfy the egress requirements. 

I did get greedy with one thing. The basement was supported by original 8'x8' wood beams. They looked so cool that I kept them exposed when building the walls. These are 80-90 year old beams and had the expected drying cracks and settlement gaps. Well when the house inspector(and it was an FHA loan so even worse!) came through he said the cracks are probably no big deal but you should get a contractor to confirm they are safe...then the contractor said I'm not going to confirm that you need an engineer...and the engineer said those cracks are not a problem but to cover my *** I'm going to make you put a steel plate on there...

So anyway...another $1000 later my cool vertical wood beam had a steel plate over it and the horizontal one had a number of LedgerLok screws. I'll attach a pic of the before. I can't find one quickly of the after.