Raleigh Flip House, Dennis the Menace: Before
May I introduce you to the Raleigh flip house we coined “Dennis the Menace”, because it was nothing short of a pain in our …. Just kidding. Reconstruction, in general, is a problem-solving rollercoaster and this one was no different.
The Acquisition: How We Found The Dennis the Menace Flip
We regularly receive questions along the lines of, “Where do you find these houses to flip?” The answer is that we don’t rely on one particular strategy or method, but utilize many mini strategies. Our preference is to work directly with sellers, because we can offer them a better price, but this time, we worked with a wholesaler to acquire the Dennis the Menace Flip.
**We love a wholesaler with a good deal – call The Inspiring Investment with your next one! If it works within our parameters, you can count on us to close it.
The Stats: About the Flip House
- 1000 sq. ft.
- 1950’s mill style house
- Originally a 3 bed / 1 bath
- Awful layout
- Tiny kitchen
- COMPLETE gut job
Thankfully the roof was good, replaced approximately 10 years prior to our purchase, according to the previous owner. We found evidence of a renovation around the 1970’s that included a bathroom and (potentially) the garage addition.
It suffered from a general lack of any kind of maintenance since that time. The non-pressure treated lumber used to build the garage certainly aided the house’s decomposing condition.
If it was that bad, why not tear it down?
There are a few reasons; but the main one was expense. Tear down costs for a house this size were going to be upwards of $10,000. Then there’s the cost of new footings on top of the build – concrete is expensive! The only saving grace would have been if the footings were strong enough to withstand rebuilding the house with additional square footage on a second floor. Unfortunately the footings, although sufficient for the existing house, were not appropriate for the additional weight of another floor. Without the added square footage, the expense of a complete tear down didn’t make sense. Costs outweigh the benefits in this case, therefore, we opted to preserve the roof and footings.
And that’s about all we were left with post demo.
Up Next: Dennis the Menace, In Progress…
