How to do a rehab for 8-12k per door

BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat

How to do a rehab for 8-12k per door

Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes

My wife and I have been able to do complete rehabs for under 12k per door. The key to our success is to not view the property as our own home . We do not go above and beyond and keep expenses to the minimum. We buy everything 2nd hand. We’ll purchase kitchen cabinets off Facebook market place, water heaters, appliances, and etc. Our building materials we buy from retail discount stores that purchase Home Depot/lowes returns by the trailer loads. Most items have small imperfections that a home owner wouldn’t want but for a rental property they are perfect! An exterior door that has a dent or scratch for 100$ vs 500-1000+, a bathroom vanity that has a crack on the backside for 50$ vs 500$, and so on. We’ve been able to purchase 32 doors in 2 years with no private money following the brrrrr method and doing everything ourselves. I am now a licensed insured home inspector/contractor that can redo plumbing to wire up electrical panels and etc and currently becoming hvac certified. YouTube is a powerful resource to learn everything.

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Mike Dymski

Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

Awesome! THIS is real estate investing. Put this guy on the podcast!

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Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
3y
Good for you! Yes, it is possible to do remodels like this if you keep your head on straight and do not stray from the path. Very important, as you said, to not treat this like your own residence. I fell prey a lot doing Flips to the idea that I could make it a little nicer and put in stuff that I liked. Big mistake......
Having your own license will be a big help as you move along....
4 Reply
Jaron WallingPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2018 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
3y
@Patrick Eldridge Did you hire out any heavy lifting to remodel the properties? 32 doors in 2 years is insane so kudos to you!

It took us 3 months to remodel our last property. We hired a few contractors for bigger projects, saved money on materials, but labor is always expensive. Your personal TIME is expensive. Meaning at best (if we killed our self) we could BRRRR about 4 properties per year.
3 Reply
Alex L.
Rental Property Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2023 · 128 posts · 124 votes
3y
Is this including labor, or doing the labor yourself? I'm in the process of remodeling two 1k sq ft SFH's and all interior materials are only running me about $8k-10k for brand new stuff throughout, for mid-tier stuff. I thought about going the second hand route, but FB market place in my area is a bit lackluster. Glad to know it's working well for you though.
2 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Jaron Walling:

@Patrick Eldridge Did you hire out any heavy lifting to remodel the properties? 32 doors in 2 years is insane so kudos to you. It took us 3 months to remodel our last property and we hired a few contractors for projects. We also saved money on materials but labor is the expensive part. YOUR TIME is the expensive. Meaning at best (if we killed our self) we could BRRRR maybe 4 properties per year.
We had a couple people we hired part time to help with painting and flooring and etc. they were friends looking for extra work that could come and go as they want. Which worked for them and helped us

3 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Good for you! Yes, it is possible to do remodels like this if you keep your head on straight and do not stray from the path. Very important, as you said, to not treat this like your own residence. I fell prey a lot doing Flips to the idea that I could make it a little nicer and put in stuff that I liked. Big mistake......Having your own license will be a big help as you move along....

Thanks our goal was to quit our w2 jobs. Which we accomplished after 1 1/2 years. Originally it was like a 10 year goal and then we realized how easy/good we were at this and things exploded. At one time we were closing on 6 properties at the same time!

1 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Alex L.:

Is this including labor, or doing the labor yourself? I'm in the process of remodeling two 1k sq ft SFH's and all interior materials are only running me about $8k-10k for brand new stuff throughout, for mid-tier stuff. I thought about going the second hand route, but FB market place in my area is a bit lackluster. Glad to know it's working well for you though.
That’s including labor and I did all of the major renovations myself from plumbing/electrical/hvac, which saved us thousands per door.

1 Reply
Alex L.
Rental Property Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2023 · 128 posts · 124 votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Alex L.:

Is this including labor, or doing the labor yourself? I'm in the process of remodeling two 1k sq ft SFH's and all interior materials are only running me about $8k-10k for brand new stuff throughout, for mid-tier stuff. I thought about going the second hand route, but FB market place in my area is a bit lackluster. Glad to know it's working well for you though.
That’s including labor and I did all of the major renovations myself from plumbing/electrical/hvac, which saved us thousands per door.

That's impressive, and definitely something to be proud of. Congrats, 32 doors in 2 years is insane!
1 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Alex L.:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Alex L.:

Is this including labor, or doing the labor yourself? I'm in the process of remodeling two 1k sq ft SFH's and all interior materials are only running me about $8k-10k for brand new stuff throughout, for mid-tier stuff. I thought about going the second hand route, but FB market place in my area is a bit lackluster. Glad to know it's working well for you though.
That’s including labor and I did all of the major renovations myself from plumbing/electrical/hvac, which saved us thousands per door.

That's impressive, and definitely something to be proud of. Congrats, 32 doors in 2 years is insane!

thank you it was a lot of work, my own 8 hours days at Pepsi and another 5-8 hours afterwards at the rentals everyday!

1 Reply
Michael Hutchinson
Lender · Fort Mill, SCinstal · Member since 2016 · 68 posts · 64 votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

My wife and I have been able to do complete rehabs for under 12k per door. The key to our success is to not view the property as our own home . We do not go above and beyond and keep expenses to the minimum. We buy everything 2nd hand. We’ll purchase kitchen cabinets off Facebook market place, water heaters, appliances, and etc. Our building materials we buy from retail discount stores that purchase Home Depot/lowes returns by the trailer loads. Most items have small imperfections that a home owner wouldn’t want but for a rental property they are perfect! An exterior door that has a dent or scratch for 100$ vs 500-1000+, a bathroom vanity that has a crack on the backside for 50$ vs 500$, and so on. We’ve been able to purchase 32 doors in 2 years with no private money following the brrrrr method and doing everything ourselves. I am now a licensed insured home inspector/contractor that can redo plumbing to wire up electrical panels and etc and currently becoming hvac certified. YouTube is a powerful resource to learn everything.
I did something like that with an 8 plex. My approach was to:
- Set a standard floor plan. The key for me was flooring, paint, countertops, appliance refresh.
- Budget was $8k per unit on average and I rehabbed the first unit after an eviction
- When a lease would expire, I would offer the renter market rent without a move or to move to my rehabbed unit at market rent. Everyone moved to new units and I got to what I thought the market could hold in about 16 months.

Good for you ... always nice to get a win.
3 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Alex L.:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Alex L.:

Is this including labor, or doing the labor yourself? I'm in the process of remodeling two 1k sq ft SFH's and all interior materials are only running me about $8k-10k for brand new stuff throughout, for mid-tier stuff. I thought about going the second hand route, but FB market place in my area is a bit lackluster. Glad to know it's working well for you though.
That’s including labor and I did all of the major renovations myself from plumbing/electrical/hvac, which saved us thousands per door.

haha one time we were doing a 1031 for a 6 unit and the buyers saw that in the sales agreement and tried renegotiating. My wife and I took a moment to find out how we could buy the 6 unit without selling our one property. Her and I completely gutted a kitchen and remodeled it in 1 week and has the bank giving us a line of credit to cover closing costs. We no longer needed to sell the property and stuck to our price and the buyer proceeded with the purchasing our property and everything worked out and we used those funds to purchase the 6 unit and still had enough funds now to buy another property with the line of credit from the bank lol

That's impressive, and definitely something to be proud of. Congrats, 32 doors in 2 years is insane!

0 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Michael Hutchinson:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

My wife and I have been able to do complete rehabs for under 12k per door. The key to our success is to not view the property as our own home . We do not go above and beyond and keep expenses to the minimum. We buy everything 2nd hand. We’ll purchase kitchen cabinets off Facebook market place, water heaters, appliances, and etc. Our building materials we buy from retail discount stores that purchase Home Depot/lowes returns by the trailer loads. Most items have small imperfections that a home owner wouldn’t want but for a rental property they are perfect! An exterior door that has a dent or scratch for 100$ vs 500-1000+, a bathroom vanity that has a crack on the backside for 50$ vs 500$, and so on. We’ve been able to purchase 32 doors in 2 years with no private money following the brrrrr method and doing everything ourselves. I am now a licensed insured home inspector/contractor that can redo plumbing to wire up electrical panels and etc and currently becoming hvac certified. YouTube is a powerful resource to learn everything.
I did something like that with an 8 plex. My approach was to:
- Set a standard floor plan. The key for me was flooring, paint, countertops, appliance refresh.
- Budget was $8k per unit on average and I rehabbed the first unit after an eviction
- When a lease would expire, I would offer the renter market rent without a move or to move to my rehabbed unit at market rent. Everyone moved to new units and I got to what I thought the market could hold in about 16 months.

Good for you ... always nice to get a win.
that’s awesome! You have to set budgets and stick to them. Only time we never did was when we ran into unforeseen issues such as plumbing/furances and etc but now we can’t factor that into our budget because we got tired of paying someone else to repair those items and I do them myself now lol

1 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Michael Hutchinson:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

My wife and I have been able to do complete rehabs for under 12k per door. The key to our success is to not view the property as our own home . We do not go above and beyond and keep expenses to the minimum. We buy everything 2nd hand. We’ll purchase kitchen cabinets off Facebook market place, water heaters, appliances, and etc. Our building materials we buy from retail discount stores that purchase Home Depot/lowes returns by the trailer loads. Most items have small imperfections that a home owner wouldn’t want but for a rental property they are perfect! An exterior door that has a dent or scratch for 100$ vs 500-1000+, a bathroom vanity that has a crack on the backside for 50$ vs 500$, and so on. We’ve been able to purchase 32 doors in 2 years with no private money following the brrrrr method and doing everything ourselves. I am now a licensed insured home inspector/contractor that can redo plumbing to wire up electrical panels and etc and currently becoming hvac certified. YouTube is a powerful resource to learn everything.
I did something like that with an 8 plex. My approach was to:
- Set a standard floor plan. The key for me was flooring, paint, countertops, appliance refresh.
- Budget was $8k per unit on average and I rehabbed the first unit after an eviction
- When a lease would expire, I would offer the renter market rent without a move or to move to my rehabbed unit at market rent. Everyone moved to new units and I got to what I thought the market could hold in about 16 months.

Good for you ... always nice to get a win.
that’s awesome! You have to set budgets and stick to them. Only time we never did was when we ran into unforeseen issues such as plumbing/furances and etc but now we can factor that into our budget because we got tired of paying someone else to repair those items and I do them myself now lol

0 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
3y
How did you get your first one? Small down or did you have all cash?
Hint - Make sure to hit the enter button until the cursor is below the previous posting, or your reply will show up there.
0 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

How did you get your first one? Small down or did you have all cash?
Hint - Make sure to hit the enter button until the cursor is below the previous posting, or your reply will show up there.

Haha thanks I was wondering how to add my reply. My wife and I actually planned everything. So I use to work for Pepsi as a driver and wanted To use my 401k & pension to secure our first property but they only allow you to borrow so much of the 401k as a loan. We wanted wanted to cash out both my 401k and pension completely but the only way to do that was to leave the company. So I did but thankfully Pepsi will allow all employees to return within 1 year. I returned within months after cashing out both my 401k and pension which was around 88k and after all the penalties and taxes it left us with around 55k. 2 years later we’ve turned that 55k into 2.5 million in property and around 30k a month in passive income before mortgages and etc. So it was well worth the penalties we paid in the long run.

6 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

How did you get your first one? Small down or did you have all cash?
Hint - Make sure to hit the enter button until the cursor is below the previous posting, or your reply will show up there.

Haha thanks I was wondering how to add my reply. My wife and I actually planned everything. So I use to work for Pepsi as a driver and wanted To use my 401k & pension to secure our first property but they only allow you to borrow so much of the 401k as a loan. We wanted wanted to cash out both my 401k and pension completely but the only way to do that was to leave the company. So I did but thankfully Pepsi will allow all employees to return within 1 year. I returned within months after cashing out both my 401k and pension which was around 88k and after all the penalties and taxes it left us with around 55k. 2 years later we’ve turned that 55k into 2.5 million in property and around 30k a month in passive income before mortgages and etc. So it was well worth the penalties we paid in the long run.

You are a smart dude.... :-)
2 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

How did you get your first one? Small down or did you have all cash?
Hint - Make sure to hit the enter button until the cursor is below the previous posting, or your reply will show up there.

Haha thanks I was wondering how to add my reply. My wife and I actually planned everything. So I use to work for Pepsi as a driver and wanted To use my 401k & pension to secure our first property but they only allow you to borrow so much of the 401k as a loan. We wanted wanted to cash out both my 401k and pension completely but the only way to do that was to leave the company. So I did but thankfully Pepsi will allow all employees to return within 1 year. I returned within months after cashing out both my 401k and pension which was around 88k and after all the penalties and taxes it left us with around 55k. 2 years later we’ve turned that 55k into 2.5 million in property and around 30k a month in passive income before mortgages and etc. So it was well worth the penalties we paid in the long run.

You are a smart dude.... :-)
Thank you but my wife is the smart one lol I just know how to fix things.
2 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:
Thank you but my wife is the smart one lol I just know how to fix things.
Fixing things is important! You will save yourself a ton of money over your career by doing it yourself. I specialized in finding the worst properties in a decent or gentrifying area, and taking them on sight unseen, no inspections. You occasionally get burnt but you can get some killer deals this way!

5 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:
Thank you but my wife is the smart one lol I just know how to fix things.
Fixing things is important! You will save yourself a ton of money over your career by doing it yourself. I specialized in finding the worst properties in a decent or gentrifying area, and taking them on sight unseen, no inspections. You occasionally get burnt but you can get some killer deals this way!

That’s actually what we do as well! We buy condemned or should be properties. I’m a licensed home inspector also, so I check just the roofs,foundation, pest, and etc before we submit our offers. We make a killing when it’s time to do a cashout because we do everything in house.
4 Reply
Bruce WoodruffPro Member
Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:
Thank you but my wife is the smart one lol I just know how to fix things.
Fixing things is important! You will save yourself a ton of money over your career by doing it yourself. I specialized in finding the worst properties in a decent or gentrifying area, and taking them on sight unseen, no inspections. You occasionally get burnt but you can get some killer deals this way!

That’s actually what we do as well! We buy condemned or should be properties. I’m a licensed home inspector also, so I check just the roofs,foundation, pest, and etc before we submit our offers. We make a killing when it’s time to do a cashout because we do everything in house.

Yep, I was a GC and a Lic Home Inspector as well. Even had a RE license for a short time (but no real value there). You're doing it smart!
2 Reply
Palmer Thomas
Member since 2015 · 53 posts · 88 votes
3y
Awesome job, Patrick!!

I've been doing about the same thing over the last few years. I'd buy properties for cheap, many right off the MLS, that had sat without interest for a while because they needed some rehab work. I then did the rehab myself instead of going with a contractor. I'm up to 16 units now. The cash flow from these properties has been good, but the equity gains have been fantastic.
4 Reply
Lucas Dalton
Baltimore, MD · Member since 2015 · 10 posts · 7 votes
3y
That is an awesome success story @Patrick Eldridge It’s a great counterpoint to the people saying contract everything out, hire people, systematize, scale, etc. Thirty-two doors in two years is a result that cannot be argued with.

It would be great to hear more about your process. Reading through the replies, it looks like you said you did some multi unit properties at some point. That makes sense, given your rate of growth. Did you start with multi units or were your initial forays single family? Which do you prefer now?

Also, can you share whether you do anything special to find your deals? Given that you’re rehabbing more than a house each month and doing most of your own labor, you must have come up with some pretty efficient techniques for identifying distressed properties that are in your “buy box.”

1 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Lucas Dalton:

That is an awesome success story @Patrick Eldridge It’s a great counterpoint to the people saying contract everything out, hire people, systematize, scale, etc. Thirty-two doors in two years is a result that cannot be argued with.

It would be great to hear more about your process. Reading through the replies, it looks like you said you did some multi unit properties at some point. That makes sense, given your rate of growth. Did you start with multi units or were your initial forays single family? Which do you prefer now?

Also, can you share whether you do anything special to find your deals? Given that you’re rehabbing more than a house each month and doing most of your own labor, you must have come up with some pretty efficient techniques for identifying distressed properties that are in your “buy box.”

Thank you it was a lot of work but my wife and I were determined to quit our jobs. We’ve only done multi units because our area sfh do not make anymore money than a 1-2 bedroom unit. We actually started out with a turn key property and quickly changed our method. We found it was quicker to grow doing value adds vs turn key. It left us with more money to buy the next. We’ve also gotten creative with our financing. For example if someone is asking 120k we’ll offer them 150k with 16% sellers assist. Leaving them with 123k at closing and us 27k towards our closing. This has been a key to our growth. Being able to trick to banks into financing our 20% downpayment. There’s no cap on sellers assist with commercial loans. We’ve been able to secure distressed properties now by word of mouth. People have seen and heard we buy properties others would not and without inspections.

4 Reply
Mike Dymski
Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
3y
Awesome! THIS is real estate investing. Put this guy on the podcast!
7 Reply
Patrick Eldridge
OP
Member since 2022 · 46 posts · 65 votes
3y
Quote from @Palmer Thomas:
Awesome job, Patrick!!

I've been doing about the same thing over the last few years. I'd buy properties for cheap, many right off the MLS, that had sat without interest for a while because they needed some rehab work. I then did the rehab myself instead of going with a contractor. I'm up to 16 units now. The cash flow from these properties has been good, but the equity gains have been fantastic.

Congratulations! Have you noticed it picking up with more doors? We really started seeing it take off at 16.
1 Reply
Palmer Thomas
Member since 2015 · 53 posts · 88 votes
3y
Quote from @Patrick Eldridge:
Congratulations! Have you noticed it picking up with more doors? We really started seeing it take off at 16.
It's actually dried up for me. I'm one of those sad schmucks who can't get a bank loan anymore due to high DTI ratio. I have some cash saved up. Maybe I can start again with some DSCR loans once rates come back down. Until then, I'm fine being a lazy bum for a while.
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