An A-Frame Adventure

[John Allen]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Hot Springs National Park.

Purchase price: $55,000
Cash invested: $21,000
Sale price: $117,000

This home was run down and had sit on the market as a foreclosure for over a year when we found it. I was very interested right away as I have always wanted to work with an A-frame design. We purchased it even though I was building a custom home at that time as it was cheap and I had the cash so there would be no payments while it waited for us to get to it. I redesigned the entire space. We removed an upper floor tiny room to make full heigh (18 foot) ceilings in the living room. We took the kitchen from the back of the house to be open with the living room separated by a modified rock wall that had been a bookshelf and made it a bar. We then added 2 bedrooms downstairs and a full bath which was quite tricky inside an a-frame with sloped ceilings everywhere - it turned out very neat though! Upstairs we created the master. Originally the shower was on the slope and was almost unusable for the anyone but a hobbit. So I modified the layout with a completely fresh idea and it also turned out amazing. This neighborhood had a mix of property types but the few homes that were next to this one were actually really nice older homes that were well kept and had fantastic neighbors, which I did some work for. This is one of those projects where you feel like you took an aging neighborhood and showed them they could update their homes to have a great investment. Neighborhoods right next to it are 500k plus homes in a gated community. It is also located to where you can get on two lakes within a few miles and go to the states biggest gardens. Of all the properties I have done, this was one of my favorites for sure.

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

Always wanted to work with an A-Frame Design and location.

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

Foreclosure listing

How did you finance this deal?

Cash

How did you add value to the deal?

Completely remodeled and updated the entire home.

What was the outcome?

Great for the neighborhood as it really added a special home to the mix. Great save as this home was on the list to be destroyed as new homes come into the area. Great return on my money.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

A-Frames are really difficult to work on with sloped walls everywhere. Learned more from this home than any other in my years of flipping homes.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I did work with a great realtor who sold the house the first day on the market! I do not want to list her name without her approval first though.