What’s the longest it’s taken you to rehab a house?

Question

What’s the longest you’ve taken to rehab a house?

Account Closed · Answer

My very first investment property I didn't know was infested with termites, and it turned into a total gut-to-the-studs-then-replace-the-studs project that totally overwhelmed me. It took me about 2-3 years to finish, but I was also working fulltime. Thankfully it was a small and cheap house, so the holding and opportunity costs were low.

It was a total birth by fire, every project since then has felt small in comparison.

Account Closed · Answer

I dont know what beliefs it changed. If I was smarter and more willing to spend money, I would have hired people to do everything. Even now I do way too much myself, which slows down projects and takes away from my time to do other things.

I've thought about what I would do differently.  If I was smarter, willing to spend the money, and more motivated I'd have graduated from SFH BRRRRs by now and into MFH BRRRRs when the chance presented itself.   I'd have worked to build up reliable relationships and outsourced the grunt handyman work while building up a real business.

I was listening to someone explain a business book, and they said something like, to be truly successful you have to "work ON your business, not IN your business" and I basically slapped myself in the forehead and realized how true that is.

Now, people have already built up large teams that are aggressively finding all the deals either too big or too "pocket" for me to get access to, and while I have built up a lot of good relationships with contractors and other skilled labor, I am still working IN my business and it is totally slowing me down.

I watch these other guys leap ahead and I totally see what could have been.. No regrets though, I don't work super hard and I probably don't have the stress they do.  Net worth wise I am far ahead of where I was when I started, so it still all worked out.

Getting really sick of tenants though, especially in the current economic and political environment.  I am trying to figure out if I should 1099 my way out of SFHs and into something else without managing tenants myself, or just bite the bullet and hire a PM.

Jacob Bohrer · Answer

@Jesse Morrell My wife and I did what we call a “live in flip” we have lived in our home for 3 years and flipped it in our spare time, every surface has been touched. We get the tax benefits of owner occupancy when we sell and can get our feet wet in the flipping world, plus some appreciation over time in addition to forced appreciation from repairs. It is our hope that this equity can get us started in SMF rentals when we sell soon. So my answer is 2-3 years.

Jesse Morrell · Answer

@Jacob Beg maybe I was mistaken in my first posts. Maybe the second mortgage is bringing the property to foreclosure and the winning bid is supposed to pay off both the first and the second lien, as the property is collateral for both loans?

I’d like to know the answer here too.

Evan Polaski · Answer

@Jesse Morrell 14 months.  It was a "pop-top" so the bungalow roof came off and became an additional 1400 sq ft of true living space.  Purchased Feb 2017, CO issued in April 2018.

For a property that didn't involve an addition, about 4 months of rehab.

Of course, some of our own homes we lived in 7 years and redid the kitchen, bathroom, painted nearly every room, mechanicals, exterior paint, etc.  But those were all for us, not to try to get any financial return out of.

Sean Rana · Answer

Wow that is incredible! Can you share more about your experience and how that changed certain beliefs that you've had about RE investing?

Lynnette E. · Answer

Well....I bought one in March 2019 and have only demoed it so far....There is no interest in doing that house for me.  All the things it needs are not the things we like doing, so it will forever be last.

Bonnie Low · Answer

Funny you should ask....sigh. We bought the house we're currently working on Oct 28th 2019. So here we are nearly a year later and are still finishing it up. This was a massive rehab. To call it a gut rehab would be misleading because we ended up removing all but a couple of walls and saving the part of the foundation that was slab. So, basically, it was a rebuild. What slowed us down was the time it took to have plans drawn up, revised, engineering and energy calculations to meet code and then getting all the subs lined up and getting them to show up when they said they would. In our area, there have been massive wildfires that we're still rebuilding from so we didn't factor in that all of the available trades would be booked out for months! The latest delay is the countertops. We're waiting for the installer to come out and template for the granite. They can't get out until October 12th. Then we have to wait another 2-3 weeks after that for installation. I've called around and tried all my other options but unless we want to switch to laminate countertops (we don't), we're out of options. Thankfully, our hard money lender has been accommodating and is letting us extend.

What’s the longest it’s taken you to rehab a house?

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