Burned out fire ridden house = cash cow

[Brandon Ingegneri]

My partner and I were going to look at a small bathroom remodel one day when we drove by this house.  We saw some pretty extensive fire damage, and immediately did some digging to find the owners.  It turns out this house had been let go, and was bank owned just outside of Providence, RI.  We thought it was a great location, directly on and off the highway, walking distance to a bus line, shopping centers in close proximity, and the commuter rail to Boston minutes away.  Only thing, zero off street parking which scared us, but we rolled the dice and compensated what it lacked with a very low offer.  After we got inside of the house, we realized that the fire damage was extensive, but only damaged a minimal amount of structural elements of the house.  There was severe smoke and water damage, and an existing sagging second floor from the weight of the water, but we knew that was able to be fixed.  What we also learned upon further inspection was that there were 2 other previous fires in this house.  That was our ammo for the negotiation, plus everyone else that inquired about it was scared of the fire damage.  My partner and I have been in construction for some time, and could see the extent of the fire.  Also, being a firefighter, I could accurately assess how specifically the fire damaged the structural elements.  Long story short... $40K for this multi.  

[Brandon Ingegneri]

We stripped the entire house down completely, changed out all of the windows, and resided and roofed it.  Once we got the exterior completely cleaned up, we immediately put a for rent sign in the window, and had tons of interest.  We next focused on all of our mechanicals.  Every pipe was ripped out, there were tons of holes in the walls, kitchens were damaged and old, you name it.  This was a full blown 5 month rehab through the winter.  We had lots of interest, but no bites on units for a couple of reasons... our big fear, the not parking, smaller bedrooms, and the fact that a lot of people can not imagine layout once something is complete.  They need to physically see it, but we still had a huge amount contact info for potential tenants.