Does This House Have Any Potential?

ruskent

In the last week I decided I may be better off buying a fixxer up and not building new. I figure it would be better to take advantage of the poor market conditions.

Here is a pic of a house I am looking at. It has a good lot. Its a good price. The house just sits to close to the road. So to get good resale out of it I need to make it look good and ad on to it. I think the house has some character and with a good archeict it could look good. What do you guys think? I just do not want to live in a house that looks like a barn with some dormers!

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Kaiser

Maybe it's the pic, but it looks like it's falling over

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genecarp

assuming the house is basically structurally sound, it looks like a fun project to me. rooflines are nice, i would have fun redesigning that place, also in new york, there is a big tax savings when you renovate instead of building new. GOOD LUCK

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mdshunk

That stupid addition sticking out of the front either needs to go or converted back into the porch it probably started out as. Other than that, I think it's charming. Looks like the last time anything was done major to it was the late 60's, so it's about due. Story-and-a-half with garage in basement?

ruskent

Its a 3 bedroom 1 bath. Basically I need to add 1 bedroom, 2 baths and a garage. The more I look at the pics I see that I can make this house look like whatever I want.

genecarp

ONE GOOD PLACE TO START, designing. that gable that comes off the front, with the one window in it, make that the front door entrance, then add to right side, with mirror image of left side. then build right and left covered porches in the setback that is created by the front entrance gable.

bring garage in from side extension, no visible garage from front of house

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mickeyco

Can't tell if it's a Dutch Colonial or a converted barn, but I'm with MD, that addition has got to go. I wouldn't sink a fortune into it unless you're planning on staying there a long time (or the neighboring houses are expensive). No sense in having a Rolls Royce in an Impala town. Do the minimal, but do it nicely, creative landscaping or a wall will help isolate it from the street. If it has nice trim work and doors, restore them, don't replace them with crap, it's those feature of old that give a house it's "charm", a new coat of paint, refinish hardwood floors (if applicable), maybe a new kitchen, new roof if needed and an additional bathroom and bedroom is all I'd do. Maybe a full shed dormer on the back to get the needed space for extra rooms or increase the size of existing rooms. Forgot the garage, that's the first thing I'd do if I was going to be living there.


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ruskent

There are 5 or 6 devlopments with million dollar homes up and down this rd.

mickeyco

Buy it, live in the "barn" until the housing market picks up (do no work unless it's necessary), build a huge new house on the property, tear down "barn, sell house, make millions, hire person to walk around behind you with a cooler full of snack treats.



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GregS

What he said. If there are big houses going up around it, you don't want to be the little guy. If the land is good, build a custom home on it. By the time you are done your economy should be on the rise again and you can sell it for big bucks.

ruskent

You guys make it seem like its so easy to knock the house down and build a million dollar custom on the property!!!

I am just trying to buy a fixer upper that for my first house that I can make a profit on!,

I figure I can sink 150k into it over 2 years. Then the market will be better and it should sell for a nice profit.

neolitic

Not being a smart azz, but are we
looking at the back or the street side?

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ruskent

Street side. I am suppose to look at it with the realtor tommorrow and I will get better pics.

Its exciting to buy a first house! Also makes me rethink my business model and stragety. I am going to be doing a few things different starting this week. I trimmed some fat from my company last week and plant to trim some more this week. I think I also tried to be a hands off business owner to early in the game and will be in the feild full time now. I worked a couple full days last week with my guys and I absolutly smoked my high dollar guys, which really openned my eyes.

Basically I have guys earning way more money then they are worth, so I need to can them. Then I am going to do what I should of done 3 years ago and just train someone with good attitude.

Looks like I will spend the rest of the bear busting my butt with 2 laborers.

Susan Betz

I'd go with the renovation.

Lorne and I renovated a house in 2005 and made good money. We took the best house on a street and made it much better. You would be doing it the right way, taking the worst house on the street and upgrading it. You can make *really* good money that way.

Yeah, you can knock it down for a custom, but then you've got even more money tied up in it, and you're pretty young - why would you want to do that? Better to keep it rolling right now.

What I'm really saying is, ignore mickey and listen to me.

By the way, sometimes you don't get out of renos. We're still living in one we bought in 2003. We've done so much to it we can't justify moving until we can really upgrade. We keep doing just one more thing... and now we're sitting on a place that's worth about three times what we paid for it.

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mickeyco

You might want to look at mickey's properties and Susan's property(ies) before deciding who to listen to.

You do it right you can live in that house tax free, make a profit without paying capital gains taxes and then turn a nice profit for you business.


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Susan Betz

Two years for no capital gains. You know that, don't go misleading the young'un.

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ruskent

Hmmm thinking about taxes mickeys idea might be better. Now it would take 2 or 3 years living in the house to be able to to this financially. BUT building a custom on the lot would most likely make me more money then doing 2 fixxer uppers of this caliber.

rbsremodeling

If you buy, sell and buy another no capital gains

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lawndart

I've got a deal set in place with a well known builder out here on my 160' x 220' piece of property. I can't wait for the market to turn around.

mahlere

where is finley?