We took action and bought our first rehab!

[Nicole Pettis]

I don't know if this is much of a success story compared to the others, however we did buy a house to rehab and flip. Albeit its the house we are living in, none the less it was a foreclosure and we are flipping it. Just not as quickly as you would an investment property.

So here's our story....

For the past few years my husband and I have been working diligently to pay off our massive debts and while we have paid off over $40k we still haven't made a DENT in my massive student loan(over $100k). After we had our son, I wanted to be a stay at home mom, but being that I have the bigger of the two incomes, I couldn't because of our debt, which frustrated the crap out of me. So one night, I started to brainstorm what could we do that would allow me the freedom to be home for our son and make great income to demolish our student loan debt.

Ding! Ding! Rehab and flipping!

Crazy idea I know. But flipping is something I have been wanting to do for the past 10 years, but didn't have the confidence to do it. However since then, I have educated myself on how to run my own business. In fact I have run a business or two, I am a graphic/web designer, so I do freelance all the time. I've had my own online retail store and I ran a wedding invitation biz for awhile, but I ran out of steam for both. However, I have never lost the passion of taking a dilapidated, messed up house and reviving it to its former glory. Especially historical homes.

So I decided it was time to take action and that's what I did. I got on BP, read, read, and read some more. Got involved. Talked to people. Read J Scott's books. Researched and researched some more. Stared the local BP meetup here in Milwaukee. Started to save money. Called a real estate agent on a house and the rest is history!

We decided we would do a FHA with a 203k loan. We got approved and went house hunting. I knew we wanted to stay in Wauwatosa(good school district, happening suburb in Milwaukee and tons of homes with character) However trying to find a foreclosure in Tosa is a needle in a haystack. But our real estate agent was a trooper. He worked hard for us and listened to what I asked for. And low and behold we found her, by chance driving around one day.

She was an REO on the market for 2 years. Adorable, but beat up. 3bdrm/2 bath, 1800sq ft. The bank was just finishing up having the foundation fixed and they had her listed for $144k. After doing the numbers I knew we had to come in at $100k. The bank said they wouldn't take anything less than $105k, so that's where we started and ended at $116k with a $25k reno loan. The comps in the neighborhood are from $175k - $200k. Overall renovation cost will be around $35k, but she will be a beauty when we are done:) Now if I could just figure out the exterior paint color.

My goal is to keep buying foreclosures and flipping. Currently I am working on a business plan in order to go find a private investor or a portfolio lender. This is my PASSION and I am not going to walk away from it again.

[William Newman]

@Nicole Pettis,
That is so inspiring. I too feel the same. House flipping is what I think I was put on this earth to do! I too am looking for my 1st flip. After listening to BP podcast, reading books and jumping into the community, I said to myself, IT IS TIME TO TAKE ACTION!!!! I have began networking with local neighborhood association leaders, homebuyer specialists and not to mention all the wonderful people on BP. Please keep us all informed step-by-step. I think I am closer to finally finding the funding for my project and I will keep everyone informed as well. We should start a blog, “I Live in Flipping Milwaukee”… lol
I would say good luck, but you don’t need it!
P.S.
Paint color – I would go with a beautiful siding of neutral color, if that is in the budget. Have you seen @ Tucker Merrihew’s website? His finished products are some of the most well-done flips that I have ever seen. His site is TTM Development Company. That is where I will draw my ideas from.

William