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Updated about 9 years ago, 09/04/2015
Sold! FLIP $42,000 Profit 19.4% ROI - A house no one wanted...Seattle/Tacoma
Hey Bigger Pockets!
Its getting busy here in Seattle for me and I would like to post more than I do. In the mean time, I thought I'd write up this property that we just sold because of the challenges involved and describe the missed opportunities of others, my hopes are for you to learn more so that you can seize a great deal that everyone else is passing on and have the confidence to act on it.
1908 year built, 3/1.5 1373 sqft home. After rehab 3/1.75 (made half bath into .75 bath).
Before Pics:
After Pictures:
(We had a heat wave here at this time...poor plants died...but it still SOLD in 2 days!)
I purchased this property March 27th 2015 and officially closed Escrow for the resale just now. SO approximate acquisition to disposition was about 130 days, give or take, not too bad considering the initial issues involved.
This house was brought to me via the MLS of all places, been on market for a while, no one wanted it, REASON? The House was SLANTED throughout and most people thought the price would cost too much to fix in order to make a profit. Depending on where you are from, you may have a slab foundation or you may have a stem wall on the perimeter for the house with beams and posts running throughout the center holding up the house (creating a crawl space).
This house had only ONE (1) Beam running down the center of the house, and it was beginning to look like a U as well. Consider the problems there. You cannot tell by the pics at all, but that house was sinking between 2inces to 5 inches in the center and throughout prior to us working on it.
Believe it or not, MOST investors wont go into a crawl space to check out whats in there. I am 50/50 on that...well more like 20/80. Ill always stick my head in, but almost never crawl around (that's what other people are for). HOWEVER, this house was pretty easy to see the problems in if you crawled in about 3 feet, I did this, and with the help of my carpenter, we figured out that the solution would set us back about $3500. DONE!
We kept the old beam in place, replaced all the pier blocks and supported all the posts, jacked the center of the house up with multiple 3ton jacks, ADDED a brand new 2nd beam to help support the span of the Joists, AND get this, had to strap down one side of the old U beam and crank it down to help keep it from staying a U shape. Finished!
What most saw as a serious problem had a pretty simple solution if you have the right team and people in place. Keep in mind, I do ZERO of the hands on work for all my properties, I network with GOOD honest people who give fair prices and when I find the right people I keep them BUSY and loyal and I PAY ON TIME ALL THE TIME.
Property NUMBERS:
Purchase: $158,000 (CASH)
Rehab: $52,000 ish (planned on 47,000 but added more to finishes later and had some electrical we were not planning on, welcome to rehabs)
Closing/holding/listing fees/misc: $29,000
Concessions to new buyer: $5000
SOLD: $280,000 (when purchased we planned on $260,000. Stay conservative)
SOLD IN 2 DAYS!! Their original offer was $270k, and they asked for us to cancel the open house we had planned, we countered at 275k and would cancel open house, they agreed if we gave 5k in concessions and increased sale to $280k. SOLD! Appraisal was a worry of mine, but no issue there surprisingly.
TOTAL PROFIT 130 days: $41,958
Remember to do your research on properties fast and effectively, know your stuff OR do what I do, make strong relationships with people who know their stuff. A while back I use to stay away from all slanted and sloped houses here in WA (there are a lot of 100plus year old homes here), but then I started asking more questions on how to fix them, met the right people, and now I have complete confidence on what these things take. Hope this information helps you in your business!
Man i love the floors in the dining area. How did you get that floor to look thar way with the dark and light? Was thar staining work or the type of wood, etc? I would love to have something like that in my home. I've never seen it before.
Originally posted by @Jimmy Tang:
Nice! I've had a few where some of my money lenders passed up and I took it on myself and made a killing.
What city was this in?
Hi Jimmy, it is in Tacoma WA
Originally posted by @Bill Hinshaw:
That is a great little house. Great job on the rehab. I really like the stair well and the back yard looks like a really nice space. I would have had to add an outdoor living area coming off that back door. Was that something you considered? Obviously you got the price you wanted, so you made the right choice.
Hey Bill! Sorry for not replying sooner, ive been out of the country. I did consider building a deck or something along those lines. However, this is where knowing your market helps the most. In this part of Tacoma, standards are not held high enough to where people expect something like that and it was not needed. I would have spent the money but still only sold for what I sold it for, thus throwing that money away. If this house was in Seattle, I would have had to definitely put a lot more into the backyard to get top dollar.
Originally posted by @Ray P.:
Nice work on the beam, sounds like you have a good experienced carpenter, familiar with loads. The house especially the floors look awesome. Just wondering what did you do with the water heater in the 1/2 bath? ... good idea to move it.
Hey Ray, I like that you noticed that. I have attached a pic below to show where it got moved. It is directly on the other side of the wall where it was originally. There was a Utility king of room directly off the kitchen which shared the wall with the .5 bath. This was the only place that made sense for the washer/dryer and the Water heater. I was very happy to have that room or else the house would have been a bit more challenging.
Congrats! Looks awesome
Originally posted by @David Roberts:
Man i love the floors in the dining area. How did you get that floor to look thar way with the dark and light? Was thar staining work or the type of wood, etc? I would love to have something like that in my home. I've never seen it before.
Hey David! I have some bad news, its not hardwood. Everyone always thinks they are in person too. They are 1/2 inch laminate planks with a 2mm pad on the bottom. The brand is Savanah Floors and type is Mission Brown. You'll have to find a distributor somewhere where you live that sells Savanah flooring, but there are alternative types with same quality.
Excellent job. You obviously have the right people. Congratulations and I wish you only further success. Don
This looks amazing, you did such a great job on the interior. How did you decide on all of the interior design work?
- Vincent Crane
Originally posted by @Vincent Crane:
This looks amazing, you did such a great job on the interior. How did you decide on all of the interior design work?
Good question Vincent. We have a few templates we have created over time, this is just one of them, gets cookie cutter after a little while. We typically only do three styles for our houses. The only thing we might do on some of the unique houses or higher end homes is add some better finishes and hire a Interior designer for better tile and color schemes. Other than that we keep recycling what works. It started by us stealing other ideas from better investors at the time and then slowly morphed into our own thing with input along the way from realtors, investors, distributors, online, designers, etc. I hate picking out finishes to be honest, im partially color blind.
Ah nice, yeah I figure once I do a few I'll get into a style and routine myself. It looks amazing, you did a fantastic job.
- Vincent Crane
Great work! Thanks for the post and all the information that you provided on the property.
Joel
Wonderful story! Thank you for sharing. One of my first rehabs (thirty years ago) was a house that was in great shape except that it had a foundation issue. The owner had moved and let it go to default. We picked it up for $280,000 (I think), put $25,000 into the structural and it resold for in the $500,000 range. Lots of times we have purchased deals that look awful when you start and great when you are done. The really bad fixers do not show well and are hard to sell to someone with no imagination. If you fix it up, they love what they originally would never consider. I fondly recall I house I bought which I showed to my Dad. He said he was concerned for me because the house was in such disrepair. We rehabbed it and then I showed it to him again. He could not believe it was the same house! We did well on that flip. I think we invested $15,000 and made anther $14,000 within six months from beginning to end. This was also many years and many deals ago...
Congrats Tarl. Looks great. Yeah, more people should definitely post their flips, good and bad. There should be a forum section for "my first flip". :)
Nice work! Great find and awesome rehab job. The place is beautiful
congrats! Thanks for sharing! Having the right people on your team is so important- learning that myself on current rehab.
Great flip!! Thanks for sharing. The spindles are great and the floors and vanity are a good look. Congrats.
Good job! The place looks great. Congrats on those solid numbers.
my husband & I r new real estate investors in CA! Sadly, we have not made any deals...YET! WE R stuck on securing a private money lender...congrats on ur awesome deal!! We hope 2 someday b able to same!
Jo & Gilbert
You did a fantastic job! The biggest challenge in Hawaii is finding the right people to do the remodel. Labor is so expensive, that it's hard to make a profit, I am an investor, and like you, I do not do any of the work myself. It's critical finding a good carpenter like you have, hold on to him!!!
When I grow I want to be like you...
Fabulous!
Great job and appreciate you sharing.
Congrats @Tarl Yarber! Really great job and nice work! Thank you for posting. I cannot wait to see your next project!
@Tarl Yarber:
Great job on your part and thank you for sharing!
