We invested $300 into signs that say “I Buy Ugly Houses” with our phone number. The very first call we got was from a guy with an abandoned house on a street we’d driven down just the week before. We couldn’t figure out how we could have missed the house because we drive around every Sunday looking for vacant properties in hopes of finding the owners.
The reason we hadn’t seen it the week before was because the house was so overgrown by weeds and small trees that you couldn’t see it from the road. Our first offer was for $12,000 because my wife thought $10,000 was insulting. The owner countered at $20,000. We took it, although I now realize we accepted too quickly.
The house was structurally sound. We got prices from contractors. We are investing $2,500 into a new water well, $2,100 into a new sewer system, $3,500 into a new central air system, and another $10,000 into cabinets, new hard plank floors, paint, new front porch, etc. When we are complete with all of this plus a few miscellaneous items, we will have $40,000 into it.
Since it is only a two-bedroom, one-bath, it is only going to appraise for around $80,000. But, that’s $40,000 profit. We’re doing the work ourselves to save money and have more cash available for larger future investments.
Our goal is to be financially free and for me to be able to and retire in two years when I turn 40. I make approximately $90,000 a year at my JOB, and the benefits are worth about another $75,000, so we have a clear plan of where we need to be. The only thing slowing us down is finding available properties for flipping, but we’re learning every day how to locate them.