My first flip

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I purchase my first flip using a FHA 203k loan. I had just left a bad marriage with 3 young children. The house should have been condemned because of holes in the roof and floors (in several areas). The septic tank had collapsed, leaving a big hole in the back yard. The detached garage had the same type of sunroof as the house. I negotiated the price down from $100,000 to $80,000-which was generous. My loan provided $57,000 to make (what should have been $100,000) in repairs. I had to add some sweat equity to make this work, so I got real familiar with the classes at Home Depot. My Contractor made the decent, safe and sanitary repairs. I did the crappy stuff at night after work. I had to prime and paint all walls, put tile in both bathrooms (we created a second one). I learned the art of the miter box to add floor and crown molding. I also learned that you need two people to install upper kitchen cabinets! Kids don't protect you much. Each payday, I bought faucets, fixtures, knobs, cabinets-whatever was on sale. When the livable rehab was done, I refinanced the loan and enclosed the concrete patio into the tiny cottage with another contractor for $12,000. I found windows, light fixtures, and anything else I could scrounge in the "scratch and dent" section of a builders supply store. My job was to install the Pergo floors, paint, and the floor and ceiling molding. I also had landscaping duty. A year later, I was done with the house. I sold that house for $261,000. That put the renovation bug in me and I hope to do that at my leisure as a sunset career.

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1. Yes the kids (4, 11 and 15) did live in the house during the latter half of the important construction (decent, safe and sanitary); but AFTER the walls, floors, bathrooms and kitchen were usable. We stayed on air mattresses at a friends house. While I did not, I would recommend you leave them out until at least the primer is over the drywall. We got a little choked up. Once I fixed the outside space, and at least 1 room for movie night, we were good. I let them paint their rooms (before the carpet was installed).
2. The 203k loan was very easy to get. As you can imagine, leaving a marriage normally comes with (or causes) bad credit! I had a 540 and still got the loan. I had a VA Certificate, but used it after I fixed the home. Only certain banks do those, and Wells Fargo is one of them. They manage the draws on construction funds too.