The Renovation Steam Roller Wants to Flatten Me

I have a definite love/hate relationship with home renovations.

I love seeing an old dump-o house come back to life. I’m not even talking about a glitzy, made for HGTV type of renovation. Even a plain-Jane rehab makes me smile – something that turns a dump into a simple, clean, tenant-ready house.

Then there’s the other side of it. Let’s call it the surprises. Surprise, there’s water damage behind that wall! Surprise, the contractor is running late! Surprise the city wants that window to be tempered glass! You get the idea.

And don’t even get me started on the cost. Regardless of how well you set-up the financing.

So I showed up at my favorite REIA sub-group this week & declared my concern. It’s like an AA meeting for engineers there. We have an uncanny way of attracting people like myself - the over analyzers.

“Hello, my name is Jay. I am an engineer.” (Muffled gasps fill the room). But there is love and support.

Alas, where was I? Oh yeah – so I was talking to the group about renovating some dump I’m involved in. Telling them I want to renovate. And over-renovate. They talk me down. They remind me that the plans needn’t be so involved. I know that – I just needed a friendly reminder.

I don’t want to oversee a full-blown renovation. I won’t get into all the reasons right now. There’s so much to talk about when it comes to renovating that this could go on and on. But let’s keep it simple. I am, after all, committed to avoiding blogs that are seven pages long.

So my approach (at least this time) will be to not overdo it. I’m talking a sort of sweat equity / rent to own cross. By that I mean seek a tenant who wants to own and is willing to do some work. Guru’s smarter than me have courses on this stuff. We can limit our renovation effort while we offer folks a bona fide opportunity to ultimately buy a house they could otherwise only rent.

Now I can tell you it’s not all roses and lollipops. We have another place where we’re in the process of evicting someone on a similar deal. It doesn’t always work out. But structure it well and you won’t really get hurt. That’s one of the things I love about real estate. So many avenues that aren’t risky or speculative.

Now I need to get on the real meat of the deal: marketing, marketing, marketing.