All Forum Posts by: John Taylor

Timothy, the lot is worth $20K so I would break even minus the cost of tearing down the house and removing the debris. I have no idea what this would cost.

Since I created my post I put in a contingency contract subject to a full inspection which will happen tomorrow. If the foundation and the bones are solid I plan to go ahead with the purchase. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for the feedback David. I trust the contractor but his walkthrough consisted of inspecting the outside, the crawlspace and looking in the windows. This is an estate sale that I have the chance to buy before it's listed. I am thinking of making the $20K offer now before I can get inside of it. The house has a metal roof and vinyl siding that appear to be in good shape. This gives me hope that there has been no water coming through inside but as you know that may or may not be true. He did not see any major issues with the foundation or the framing that he could see in the crawl space.

After looking at comps this morning I think my disaster plan would be to tear the house down and build a new home. I think I would break even and this would give me the chance to live in it for a while and get to know the town. My first choice is to restore the home which is what prompted my post.

The contractor that did the quick inspection estimated that the total cost would be around $100K depending on finishes. (This equals $68 sq.ft.) I had found some articles that said a true total gut could cost anywhere from $80-$100 a square foot. Your estimate of $20 a square foot would mean I could rebuild for $30K and this is obviously not going to happen when you consider high cost items such as new electrical, new plumbing, new HVAC, new kitchen and baths, etc. Did you mean $200?

I am thinking about buying a condemned house in western Virginia. The home was built in 1898 and is 1456 sq ft. The cost of the home is $20K. I have had a contractor inspect the property and he said that it is structurally sound but will need to be gutted down to the studs. I estimate that the after repair value is $175,000. I am not sure at this point if I will flip it or live in it and want to make sure that when all is said and done that I am in a position to sell it and move on if I decide to do so. I have some experience with the costs associated with a remodel but not a total gut job. I will be using my own money for all work and no financing will be used.

My question is, is their an average square foot cost for doing a complete gut job that I can use as a rough guide? Are their any resources or links that anyone can provide on this subject? Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

I'm just curious if anyone has replaced the wall panels in a doublewide with drywall and later sold the home. Do you think you broke even on the cost, made money or lost money. (Why do these manufactures use wallpaper designs that your great grandmother would have picked out?)

We are thinking about moving into a rental property that we already own so that we can save money for a house we would like to have built in 1-2 years.  This is a nice 4 bedroom 2 bath 2100 sq.ft home on 3 acres. All the other homes on the street are stick built and more much more expensive. (If you want to see the house go to Zillow and search on 228 Gardner Rd. Temple, GA 30179) Although I'm not sure how long we would stay there my guess would be 2 years and we'd like to spruce the house up a little for our own enjoyment. New floors and maybe the drywall. Once we are done living there we may rent it again or sell it if we want to use the money for the house we have built.

I'm just curious to hear from other people that have actually replaced these ugly panels with drywall and do they have any idea how it affected the sales price or rent? The only reason I'd even consider this is because we'd be living there and it would be for our own enjoyment.

We have one 2003 Fleetwood Doublewide home that is mounted on an FHA approved foundation. It sits on 2.8 acres. We bought it as a REPO for $50,000. The home is 2100 sq ft, 4bed 2 bath and the inside to me is as nice as $130,000 stick built house in a standard subdivision. We rented this for $850 in two days and looking back it should have been $950. We live in Temple Georgia and the $130,000 stick built house mentioned above would rent for $1100. I think there is a demand in this area for doublwide homes on an acre plus lot that is surrounded by pretty countryside and nice stick built homes. People who might dismiss mobile homes do a double take when they see how much more house they can get and how nice the area is. For some, not all, people a nice, spacious manufactured home makes a lot of sense. My area happens to have a steady supply like the one we bought and I will be looking for more. I'd rather spend $50,000 to get $950 rent than I would a more expensive stick built house that doesn't rent for much more. That's just my two cents!

I recently purchased two books, "The Book on Flipping Houses" and "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs" and just wanted to pass along to others that if you don't own these books it's worth your time to check them out. I especially liked the layout of the estimating book and how at the end it listed a quick reference of cost based on category. This is very handy to have in one location especially for those like me that are new to flipping. The bottom line is both books are great and I'm sure I'll be using them time and time again. Thank J Scott!

David,

Without knowing anything specifically about your operation, my initial thought was I would be real reluctant to do this if there was ANY chance my hard earned good credit could be impacted unless the payoff would be worth it. If your family member invests in stocks he might argue that he can keep getting the same, or better, rate of return you are offering without the additional risk. That's just my personal thought.  Whatever you decide I would weigh what you offer him based on what the returns are for other investments such as stocks. I'd then sweeten the deal to give him a reason to make the jump. Good luck and i hope it works out for all of you.

Let me state up front that I am asking this totally out of curiosity! I'm too inexperienced to even consider this but I just wondered how it works. 

You see on TV, and on the internet, where someone buys a home at the court steps or online sight unseen.  How do people make this work. Are they using a a worse case formula that is used to rehab a house based on square footage? For example, do they buy a house that's priced so low they know they can totally redo the home and still break even on a worse case scenario? I just don't understand how even an expert flipper can do this and not lose their shirt 50% of the time?  On the flip side, I'm sure some people have hit a gold mine. 

Thank you so much for your reply. The foreclosure did occur at the same time of our bankruptcy. If I'm hearing you correctly then the 4 year rule you mentioned may apply. I'll contact some local lenders in my area and see if they can help with this. I really appreciate you mentioning this. I incorrectly assumed that since we have $50K in cash and a home that is paid for 100%, valued in excess of 75K, that we would be able to get pre approved for a loan of no more that $30-$40K. I now know that I was wrong. Oh well, I'll figure something out and once again, thanks for your help.