My first true Rehab was a shipwreck (literally). You will see the before and after pictures below. I like to flip houses that are really run down. There is more room for negotiations, but of course, more rehab work to do. I found this particular house through an absentee owner’s (real estate owners) mailing list I get through the tax records. I can explain more about marketing at a later date. The homeowner responded to my letter and that is when I discovered she was also in foreclosure. This was a prime win/win situation. The homeowner saved their credit and escaped foreclosure and I got a rehab project. The house was a 12 bedroom 5 bath house. The previous owner turned the property into a rooming house. A rooming house is a house with furnished rooms to rent; with common areas such as the kitchen, bathrooms and possibly a sitting room to share. Some rooms have their own bath. The previous homeowner turned the back porch into a bathroom because there was not a bathroom on the first level of the house. They also added a bathroom in the basement which had 3 bedrooms and a kitchen for rent. The home was originally built as a large single family property and that is what I decided to restore the home back to. After finalizing/hiring my contractors, my first order of business was to start from the top-out to the inside-up. What that meant was that I needed to repair/secure the roof so I could stop the water from dripping into the house to prevent continual water damage. I start my rehabs from the outside in, unless I’m able to work on both the inside and outside at the same time. That depends on my budget and contractors hired. The roof is the first item that should be fixed. But, I also like to restore the outside first (if needed) because I want to generate spectators quickly. People will notice the restoration of an “ugly” house and began to talk about it in the neighborhood, which is great for the flipper because your ultimate goal is to sell the property. Neighborhoods are especially happy to see a transformation. You will find that they are not shy about thanking you during the process. The outside of the home had the old style shingles on the top half and stucco on the bottom half. There was a tree in the front that was so large that it made it hard to see the front view of the house. I put vinyl siding on the top and repaired and painted the stucco on the bottom. I also cut the branches at the bottom half of the tree to make the front of the house more visible. See the transformation below.

BEFORE (click on photos to view a larger size)

AFTER (click on photos to view a larger size)

By the way, did you catch my cameo in the picture? Yes, that’s me (Jersey Girl) in the front door of the before picture!