$16,000 renovated house renting for $1,000+/mo

[Tariq B.]

So if you don't follow me then you probably don't know how I get numbers like these. 

To be short, I am able to do it because I do all of the renovation myself. I'm writing this tonight to show people it can be done. That is if you like it. What I do is not for everyone, I do what I do because I enjoy it a lot. I love fixing up the places I hate dealing with the tenants but I still do it anyways. 

I wasn't always able to do this scope of work. I started small and got the confidence which is 80% of the battle. If you can find the confidence to believe in yourself you can easily tackle most DIY projects. It takes a lot of dedication and research, but it can be done, I am living proof! I couldn't lay a piece of tile 3 years ago, holes in dry wall scared me, and bugs...don't get me started. Fast forward 3 years and I'm laying hundreds of SqFt of tile, replacing ceilings, and now I eat bugs for lunch (not really). I had no idea what I was doing at first but my mind set was this house is completely screwed up if I SCREW UP is it really going to be any worse and if it is I just can retry. The beauty is you are not being scrutinized but anyone but yourself, now I am a perfectionist...so I'm probably harder on myself than someone else would be. But you get the point. It's OK to make mistakes when you are learning. 

I work a full time job, change into my construction clothes at work (some days I'm come home first) then I head to the property to get to work. I have long days, but it does pay off. 

Some people will say "screw that, I could be finding other deals while you are fixing that place up, my time is worth more then that. I would rather hire someone to do it." And that's fine, but this is something I enjoy, as mentioned earlier if you don't then this strategy is not for you. The beauty of real estate is there are many ways to be successful. 

This is the 3rd property that I finished, that has numbers stated in the subject. I will post some before and after pictures of the lower level, I have more but I need to dig them up. But this will give you all an idea. 

The purchase price was $10,000 I spent a little over 4k in materials and about $1500 in closing costs.

* I will note I did contract out one thing and that was carpet upstairs. It made absolutely no sense to do it myself with how cheap I got it contracted from Lowes for about $550 labor/materials.  

As always I am here to help so ask away if you have any questions. 

sdc

[Jay Helms]

Motivating Tariq Bahay I've done this before too, personally satisfying. But when I went back and crunched the #s it made more sense for me to contract it out. For one example, it took me 4 months of long nights / weekends to get a property ready to rent. Missed revenue = $2,400 ($600/month).

Contractor bids: $1,200 with a 2-3 week turnaround :(

Not to mention the family time I missed out on. Have you looked at your properties this way?