Thanks everyone for your very valuable input! This house will be a flip, not a rental. We will be landlords eventually, but want to get a few flips under our belt first. We are going to try to get this house for no more than $90,000...the ARV is about $150,000. We think the agent will work with us. We don't want to spend more than $15,000 for renovations. A previous flipper started work on this house (can't remember why he lost it) so a lot has already been done (bathroom is gorgeous), just not the kitchen or basement, and then it simply needs some paint and some minimal landscaping, that is if our contractor does not find anything amiss upon inspection. It is a 3-bed 1 bath brick ranch on a half acre lot in a prime location, beautiful neighborhood. Nice houses around it worth between 120,000 and 250,000.
As for the kitchen, we are thinking a gut will be the only answer. We like the idea of removing that wall to open it up to the living room. The room to the back of the kitchen is actually a 4-season enclosed patio that goes out to the deck in the backyard. These are popular here in MI. Don't want to block access to that from the kitchen, but that door can be removed. And yes that corner has been driving me crazy...just what is behind those cabinets, dead space? What a strange layout! We will move the counter and cabinets back against that wall to create much more space and maybe a nice snack bar.
Hubby and I are now very excited, as we just got back from a walk in our neighborhood to see about a HUD house around the corner that has just started having work done to it. The contractor working there is the homeowner's brother, who just bought the house to flip. His brother is also a real estate agent that deals with lots of investors, finding them deals. He showed us around the house (being completely gutted) telling us what he and his crew were doing. He seemed like a very upstanding guy running an honest business. We exchanged business cards and he is going to come and give us an estimate on this house! Our walk turned out to be more fruitful than we thought! :) We just hope everything works out with this crew....again we have a very good feeling about them. We will check back in 3 weeks to see the finished house to get an idea of their work. So far it looked like they were very organized, doing everything right and using quality products. We are just really happy to have found a possible crew right in our neighborhood! Not only that, but we can get his brother's number for possible future deals. Things are starting to come together for us, we are really excited!
Oh and Matt, thanks for pointing out the insert image icon for picture posting! I am totally new to this forum, and I did not even see that little image box to click on.... Thanks!!
