Squirrel Squatter Wholetail

[Owen Dashner]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $75,000
Cash invested: $5,000
Sale price: $142,250

We got this Bellevue, NE property from another investor who had too much on his plate to take on another deal. He put us in touch with the owner of the property, who was handling the estate of his brother and just didn't want to deal with the property anymore. This was a semi-hoarder house with tons of personal items remaining after 5 years of being vacant.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We buy a lot of hoarding and estate sale situation homes.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Another investor referred us to this owner (we gave the investor a nice bonus). The owner was really wanting to never have to come back to the house again. He had no idea on what the house was worth, and just wanted us to throw him an offer, so we offered a pretty low number due to the condition of the house, and he jumped at the opportunity.

How did you finance this deal?

Line of credit from our local lender.

How did you add value to the deal?

Big cleanout on this one, about $4K. We also did an extensive deep cleaning. There had been several squirrels that must have found their way inside the house, as there were several skeletons found during the cleanout. They had sadly met their demise while partying in the refuse-filled home.

What was the outcome?

Over $50K profit on this wholetail. These are my favorite kind of deals - big cleanouts, list as-is, big profits!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Squirrels can cause quite a bit of damage when left unattended inside of a vacant property.