All Forum Posts by: Dale Couture

Either the seller paying for repairs or offering reductions in price to compensate for the repairs. 

My wife and I are looking into buying the townhome we currently rent. One advantage to us already living in the place we may buy as that we are pretty familiar with all of the problems it has. Unless our inspection says otherwise, we are pretty confident we don't have any major problems. But my main question is this: how minor of a problem is too minor to ask for seller credits for repairs when going through escrow? 

For example: we have one spot on the kitchen floor near the back sliding door that flexes when you step on it. It probably needs to be reinforced underneath. We have several places where the baseboards or other interior trim pieces have separated slightly from the walls and need to be caulked again and maybe even tightened up. We have a water stain on the ceiling from when an upstairs toilet was clogged and it was running and eventually flooded through the floor. 

Most of these things are mostly cosmetic and relatively minor I would say compared to say plumbing or roofing failures. Is it reasonable to ask for credits to repair things like this in the buying process?

Ok this makes more sense. So by fixing up a 100k house in a 100k neighborhood, I may not get all my money back out of the improvements. But by getting a 50k house in a 100k neighborhood, I can put 25k into it and possibly get it back to 100k, thereby making 25k. Very simple terms but this makes it clearer for me. 

So it seems that in all the estimates and guides I have found online so far, that no individual renovation increases the value of a home more than the cost of the renovation. So how exactly does anyone make money by flipping unless they are doing all the work themselves?

Forgive me if this has been answered somewhere before...

I am planning on getting into real estate investing in a few years once I finish paying off my student loans. In the meantime, I am trying to learn as much as I can about it. One of my main questions currently comes in the realm of home improvement. I am thinking of buying a single family home for my first investment and I would like to buy something that I can make moderate improvements and repairs to and see a ROI on it.

When looking at real estate listings, without paying for an appraisal for each property, how can I look at a home needing some TLC and estimate what it will be worth before and after repairs and improvements are made? Is there a guide or calculator somewhere that estimates these sorts of things? I am sure every case is a little different. I just need some guidance on spotting the right opportunities out there. Thanks!