Chino Hills, CA · Member since 2013 · 17 posts · 1 vote
I recently purchased a property which was built in 1911. The house is almost 1700 sq.ft, which is kinda rare to have such a big house build around the same period in this area. The property is in a very poor condition and I am planning to do some SERIOUS rehab on this property. Hopefully after the rehab I can put back to the market and make some good money compensate all the effort I am going to put into this property.
The problem for me at this point is to get some idea how to do the rehab on such a old property. I have flipped some properties in the past 2 years. However, I have never work on any property built over 100 years!!! I want to keep some of the original characteristic of this house but at the same thing bring in some newer design into the property.
Anyone have any experience with on a property that old? Any suggestion, picture, or website would be welcome! :)
@Wallace Zhou I am currently rehabbing a late 1920's home that has been converted to a 4-plex (probably in the 60's). I am also a contractor. Even I learn new things all the time on how to rehab an old home. If I've learned anything it's that everything takes l
...everything takes longer. Get someone on board to help make decisions about what should be torn out and what should be restored. For example: I'm currently thinking instead of restoring the cabinets I should have gotten new doors and drawer faces made up. Would have saved me a lot of time sanding and fitting the crapy old doors. Anyway, let me know if you have any questions. I'd love to help.
Post up some pics of what you're working with, and that will help us offer advice on which things to perhaps keep original, and which things to add some flair to.
I've done several in that age range. Since I'm a finance guy by training, the first thing I wonder about your situation is the cost of your time and money. If you have borrowed money at a high interest rate (perhaps with a balloon payoff in the not-too-distant future), you need to attack this thing VERY differently than if you are buying it with a cheap conventional loan and you'll be living in it.
In either case, be disciplined about your scope. Old houses can suck you dry if you fix everything that occurs to you.