Mason Fix & Flip Tri-level

[Rebecca Sequeira]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $123,000
Cash invested: $80,000
Sale price: $250,000

Updated this 3 br/ 3 bath tri-level home - replaced siding, roof, deck, sidewalk, garage door, front door, all interior doors, all cabinets/granite countertops, all new tile in 3 full baths, new paint & flooring.

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

This house was the ugliest house in a very nice neighborhood. It was ugly/dated on the outside and I knew it was also in bad shape on the inside - damage done by a previous tenant.

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

This was my 4th flip, but the first one that I found through word-of--mouth. It was down the street from a friend of mine, and he gave me the number for the out of state owner. I had several conversations with him over several months before he finally agreed to sell. His son was living there at the time, so he needed time to find his son a new place. I offered him $123k, and he said he'd think about it. He asked if I could do more, but when I said no he accepted the offer.

How did you finance this deal?

Hard money lender - our total financing costs were about $10k, rehab costs were $70k

How did you add value to the deal?

We replaced ugly dark brown diagonal cedar siding w/ light gray vinyl siding. Removed half wall b/w breakfast area and lower family room & replaced it w/ iron spindles, which visually opened up the space a lot. Removed the old wood plank "sidewalk" & porch,; added concrete sidewalk and porch. Removed large ground-level deck that filled up the backyard, & rebuilt the upper portion of the deck. Removed the pantry closet, removed the soffit, closed up the old skylights; wider door to garage.

What was the outcome?

A beautiful home! Sold easily for asking price.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

This was on a corner lot, and the house was placed very far back on the lot so there was very small backyard. Ended up putting in a fence for the buyer - lesson learned is that we should have fenced it earlier. It took a couple of weeks to sell, when it should have sold in a few days.