Kansas City Foreclosure

[William Wironen]

Hi all,

I've been reading a lot of the posts and researching the market in Kansas City for a while now and finally found a home i'm starting to get excited about. It was recently foreclosed on, 4 bed, 2.5 bath 2,000+ sft house in a well off neighborhood with a plot about 11,000 sft. The old saying "find the worst house in the best neighborhood you can afford" comes to mind immediately. 

I wanted to post on here because my wife and I have never purchased a home before and we're fighting the fear that comes with the transition from renting to buying. Eventually the goal would be to flip the foreclosure in a year or so after living in it while working.

It's selling for about $175K but I think we could probably get it for $170K. The market has been very hot over the summer but has cooled significantly as the school year started up and families got settled. After doing some comparable searches I think we could probably put it back on the market for $240K average once we do mostly cosmetic work. 

The biggest thing i've noticed from the pictures (we're going to see the house this afternoon) is the heating/AC unit is a bit rusty looking (image below) and the roof looks pretty dated. Is it worth the expense replacing a roof to increase the value of the home? Generally speaking, based on my research, it doesn't seem to increase the value enough to justify it.

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thanks,

William