Hoarder House

You know what makes my heart happy?  A good before & after.  I recently found an investor/Realtor friend in Indiana who has been busy buying wholesale real estate and renovating/staging.  Seriously, these pictures that I'm going to show you are so amazing.  You won't be able to tell it is the same house.  

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I'll be honest, with all the work that was done, I am not sure which before picture goes with which after picture, but you get the point.  Isn't it amazing what a great renovation and some home staging can do for a house?  So, the part everyone is interested in... the numbers.  The purchase price was $35K, costs that include holding, renovation, paying the real estate agent, staging and open house were around $95K. Renovation took about 8 weeks. The end sales price was $190K.  Just so you don't have to do the math, the profit on this house was (excuse me while I get out my calculator) $60K, which was split 50/50 with her funding investor.  And all that equals $30,000 for 8 weeks worth of work.  Good.  For.  Her.  The only thing I was taught to do differently was to offer the funding investor less (like 20-30%) because he doesn't have to do the work... although he does take the risk and if she has a great relationship with him, well, that would just mean more deals for everyone.  

So, my goal for February is to make at least 10 wholesale offers on houses that we would live in (in case we got "stuck" with it -- remember 2007?)

Also, I have been asked about becoming a home stager.  I took some courses from the Association of Property Scene Designers (APSD) and I am very happy with what I was taught.  It's not only about how to make a house pretty -- anyone can do that -- it's about making a house sell.  They focus on that and on how to make your business successful.  Very awesome!  If you are interested in becoming certified with APSD you can either get more info with a free CD here or you can just go for it and sign up for courses here with a limited offer for lots of free bonuses.  Or if you really want a great deal, let me know and I can see what I can do about getting you a course for 40% off.

*Please don't think that I am heartless when it comes to the problems and challenges that the previous owners of the house obviously had.  I am only writing from an investor's point of view, emotions not involved.