Mine: Real El Dumpo that the city was about to schedule for demolition. Seller called and said he needed to sell a house fast because he was going to jail. Got to the house and it was a young guy covered in tattoos.
Just started thinking that I hope he didn’t think I actually brought cash with me to pay for houses. House in horrible shape. Not the worst I’ve seen though. I didn’t really want it so I offered him $1,000 and hoped that I was not giving him another reason to be going to jail. He thought about it and came back with $5,000. I told him the most I would pay was $2,500 and he accepted.
He then told me I would have to go to his Dad’s house to have him sign the contract as it was still in his name. Geeeeez. Now I have to explain to his dad that we agreed on $2,500 for his house! Well…the dad did not even flinch…signed quickly, without hassle.
Quickly sold to a landlord (fully disclosing the demo hearing with the city).
So, what? It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t say how much you sold it for, what the ARV is, or what houses on the street were selling for. It doesn’t seem like there was a lesson learned here. For all we know, you sold it for less than you bought it for, which is pretty dumb and nothing to be proud of. Here’s a guy who bought an el dumpo house in Detroit for $1 and I think it’s going to be a white elephant he’ll end up giving back to the city and wasting a lot of time and money on.
I’m sorry you didn’t learn anything from the post. I apologize for having you read it. :rolleyes
Just thought some people would like to hear about some of the cheapest houses each of us have bought and the stories behind them. Obviously I did as I posted to find out.
Houses in the area sell for $60k-$85k. I sold the house right away for $6,500. The landlord that bought it had his money back within about a year.
This thread was not meant to be a bragging post. Simply a matter of curiosity. I was not trying to be the one with the best ever deal or the cheapest ever deal. Just wanted to share the story and appreciate the others that share their stories. I understand that they are not bragging.
Not trying to start an argument here. Just wanted to say thanks to the people that are willing to share and discuss. That is what we are here for isn’t it?
This was not my best deal, just my cheapest, hence the POST TITLE. :biggrin
Thanks for the comments Bluemoon and for sharing tatertot. :bigthumbup
Cheapest one so far has been $9100 purchase price. About $15k total in the property after rehab. Successfully rented for $490/mo over the past year. ARV is probably 30k even in the bad current market.
Might have another one even better soon. Just bought it for $10k. Needs maybe 2k or so of work. Already approved an applicant to rent it at $500/mo.
The cheapest for me would have been $30K an apartment and cleaning them up and fixing up the financials to get them up to $40-$45K reappraised in a year or two. What I spend per apartment varies. After the first apartment building, it’s fairly easy to find no money down apartment buildings in decent areas that I can reappraise down the road.
The cheapest building I’ve ever bought was $135K. I don’t even get involved in buying another building unless I can see it increasing my net worth by at least $150K within two years. I love apartment buildings. Commercial building materials are to a much higher standard so you don’t have to maintain them as often as houses, you can get better tenants and they are easier to manage, and there are many ways to raise the financials, and if I’m selling them in a year or two, I’m paying half the tax (through capital gains instead of income tax) and I’m making as much if not more than a house flipper who’s really busting his ass and hustling with more expensive repairs and carrying costs
Ten years ago, a former client of mine got into real estate, sold his expensive house, and started rehabbing and flipping $25K houses in Chatham. He had a lot fun dealing with all the city inspectors one they saw his name on title.
Forward to a few years ago. He was telling me he moved outside of Kingsville and found even cheaper bulk reos. He was breaking up packages of buildings and mobile homes, fixing them up and renting them out and selling them individually. A couple months ago, I got a phone call about his funeral date–he died of a failed cancer operation. I wonder if the stress of dealing with the kind of tenants who’d live in these cheap homes and the carrying costs of holding properties he’s not collecting rent on did him in. I personally don’t think that cheap houses are better. But, each to their own I guess.
Best deal I’ve bought so far is $80K for a 3BR/1.5 BA ranch in a nice suburban neighborhood. It needed about $20K in repairs and rehab is nearly complete (another 3 weeks or so until finished for a total of 5 months full time rehab) ARV is about $220K. I expect to rent it for $1600/month.
It doesn’t sound like much compared to some of the deals on this thread, but it was a really good deal for this area.
Bought 3 lofts for what the owner paid for them new in 1972 so that he didn’t have to will them to his kids that had not come to see him in over 17 years.
Bought biggest one for $146,000 Appraised at $987,000 Rents for $4,200
Second I got for $77,000 Appraised at $688,000 Rents for $2,900
Third I got for $33,000.00 Appraised at $296,000 and rents for $1,300
This was about 5 years ago I still have them there now almost free and clear. HOA Fees are a little high yet I won’t complain.
jmd_forest,
Wish I could find a deal like yours here. I can find cash flowing rentals all day long, but ones where you can do a moderate amount of improvements and make that much of a difference in the value of the house don’t seem to be in my area.
The $20K in rehab included: Completely rebuilding the floor(sill plate, header, joists, and subfloor) and gutting of a bedroom addition, replacing about 40 feet of sill plate and header in other areas around foundation, demo of a 1/2 tall brick front, replacement of 80% of the exterior sheathing, 13 new construction windows, new vinyl siding, converting a bedroom into a new bathroom “suite” (poorly utilized “walk through” space to get to gutted bedroom addition), completely gutting and replacing the existing main bath, completely gutting and replacing the 1/2 bath, completely gutting and replacing the kitchen, major refinishing of all remaining sheetrock (I should have gutted it and replaced with new sheetrock), replace all door and trim woodwork and I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of other stuff.
I wish I could find one at that price that only needed a moderate amount of improvement too! The only reason I can do it for the low $$ I have is that I do almost all of my own work although I have hired 2 different all around handymen at different times to help with this job at fairly low rates since they were sitting around waiting for their union jobs to restart and a few $$ was better than no $$.
Heres a good one. It was a few years back and a lady called about a house that she wanted to sell me. I went an looked at it and wasnt really anything i wanted to deal with. Time went buy and she called and told me that she just wanted to get rid of it and that she needed new tires for her truck. I said ok, so how much are the tires. She said $300 so i was joking and said ok well ill give you that for it. She took and and i closed on it for $300. Now it wasnt the greatest, but i sold it for $3500 in about a week without doing anything. So not much profit, but a good story. I can still say i bought a house for $300.