Home in Washington, Fix and Live, then Flip

[Jennifer Reinhardt]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $520,000
Cash invested: $50,000
Sale price: $720,000

Home in Washington.

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

I wanted to live in Washington near my family over covid. I am a real estate investor and since we were going to be there for awhile, I decided to buy and not rent.

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

I found this deal looking to be near my family. It was across the Narrows Bridge from Tacoma, Washington in Gig Harbor.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional

How did you add value to the deal?

I fixed up the home by converting the sun room (which turned out to be a rain room and leaked) into my home office, and designed and staged the home. I had it on AirBnB for awhile while I traveled back and forth to Denver. It rented for around $300 a night and appreciated rapidly since it was on the west coast.

What was the outcome?

This home was a good investment for my family. I love the Pacific Northwest and would like to live there again one day in the summer. I think it was an adventure to live there and fix up this home.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned it is very difficult to do exterior work on the home in the winter. It rains a lot near Seattle and so I had to have a tarp over the home for awhile until we got a few days of no rain. Also the prices on the west coast are a lot higher than Denver for labor and materials. It is also an incredible amount of work to get a home ready to put on AirBnb - you have to have high end finishes and I moved my things in to the garage. I met some great people who helped me.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I am a real estate agent and investor myself, so I managed it.