Save money by doing your own work.

[James Knox]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Escondido.

Purchase price: $265,000
Cash invested: $35,000
Sale price: $425,000

This place was not a great house for our first real fix and flip. We learned a lot by doing most of our own projects which saved us a lot of money in the end. We rented the property out for about 2 years to save on capital gains tax. We used conventional lending for this project. When we sold we did a 1031 exchange to invest into another fix in flip in Chula Vista. it took us about 8 weeks to get this place up to living standard that we where happy with. We had one tenant who was awesome to work with for showing the house when we decided to sell. I made a good relationship with an electrician and an HVAC company who do all my major work still.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

It was only a few blocks from my house.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

My realtor helped me find it.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added AC, updated the electrical system, made the back yard a place to hang out, put up a new fence, renovated both bathrooms, painted the entire house inside and out, did tile and laminate flooring in common areas and had carpet installed in the bedrooms.

What was the outcome?

We rented it out for about 2 years and sold it with a tenant in it who was very easy to work with.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We learned that it is hard to do a fix and flip like this while having another full time job. I spent almost every night after work doing more work and I had to travel for my real job unexpectedly a few times. I also learned how to use 1031 exchange to help save on taxes legally.