Flipping a stripped clean house

 People often ask me if previous occupants ever strip houses bare.  While it doesn't happen very often, it does happen.  

We found the house on the MLS when we noticed that it was a lot cheaper than any house in the area. We sent an assistant there to get photos of the property, and we quickly saw why it was so cheap.

They took the garage door....

They took the doorbell

They took the whole kitchen, and the kitchen sink.

They took all the door trim.

They took the tracks for the garage, and the garage door.

They took the water heater.

They took the toilet, vanity, sink, and the medicine cabinet

They forgot the bathtub though.

They took the master vanity, and everything that goes along with it.

They took the heater....from the attic.

While they were carefully removing the heater, they accidently bent my closet shelves.

They took the AC unit.

They took all the exterior fixtures.  I think they wanted the gate too, but must have run out of room in the truck.

It looked as though the previous occupants liked their house so much, they wanted to bring it with them to their new place!  Even though it was stripped bare, we knew there was money to be made here. Almost no owner occupant would even look at this, and many investors don't like to touch houses like this for a multitude of reasons.  The bank just sees a completely stripped house, so they knew that they would have to let it go for a hefty discount.  With all this in mind, we offered 75K for it, which was 10K less than their 85K asking price. They accepted our offer without much fuss.

Once we closed on the property, we immediately replaced the garage door since the HOA was getting a little fine-happy.

Not painted, but at least the neighbors don't have to live with a super ugly house on their street.

Then the real work started.  We had to replace practically every fixture, door trim, and cabinet in the house. 

We first started with paint

The house was already starting to look better after the paint job

New door trim installed

Then the cabinets went in.

The guy is standing on the countertop to mount the sink.  I did wish that he would stand on something else though...

Then the rest of the fixtures and appliances went in, and a few final touches were done. 

By the time we were done with it, 7 weeks later, the house looked absolutely beautiful.

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Once we got the property listed at $135K, we had some interest in the property, but less than we expected.  We think it may have been due to the property's proximity to a nearby pig farm.

It look us nearly four months after we listed the property, and six months after we acquired it to get it sold. We sold it for a handsome profit, but the hold time was disappointing.

Acquisition Date: December 2011

Disposition Date: June 2012

Acquisition Source: MLS

Expenses

Acquisition: $77,260 including closing costs

Rehab:

HVAC: $5050

General Repairs: $14344  ( including cabinets and fixtures)

Appliances: $877

Rekey: $90

Alarm System: $400

Utilities: $2015

Insurance: $532

Sale Price:

$137,000

Closing Costs and Commission: $5925

Net Profit $30,507

While we have completed will over 100 flips that were profitable, we have had a couple losses (3 to be exact).  On my next few posts, I will write about the properties that lost money, the mistakes we made, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes as us.