So after getting married back in July of 2020, and enjoying about a month of newlywed bliss, finishing up our current rentals and looking to get rid of any and all free time, we decided that it was time to tackle our next project ;)
Being that I own my own design company, my husband is Mr. Handyman, and we both have experience with smaller scale renovations, redesigns and remodels, we decided to try our hand at becoming the next Joanna and Chip ;)
First things first, and as a licensed realtor in both MN and WI, I decided to get a search set up on the MLS for homes within about an hour of our current residence in Woodbury, MN with a few parameters that we deemed "must-haves":
1,500-3,000 square feet (looking back, even 2,300 square feet was a lot to take on for our first full remodel, so I may suggest something even smaller, or less demanding if you are looking to do you own flip)
3+ bedrooms (or the ability to add 1) and 2+ baths (a necessity)
Garage (attached not necessary and also difficult to find in older homes)
1920-1970 build that hadn't already been updated (although we do love old Victorian homes, they tend to need too much "behind the scenes" work and $$$, so we were looking for something that already had good bones (more on that later)
Character/potential/room for added equity (more on how I evaluate properties and determine a good deal in my next Blog post)
150-250k is where we started to look, knowing we would adjust that depending on the amount of updates and rehab the property required
Easy enough right? Ha, not even close.....As many of you know, the housing market over the last year has been pretty crazy...and when I say crazy, I mean you had better be willing to go in over asking, with a cash offer, and skip the inspection if you wanted to have a chance of getting a contract on something worthwhile...especially in the area in which we were looking...
That being said, it took about 2-3 months of daily evaluations and analysis for me to find a few homes that seemed to at least meet the majority of our criteria. Here are some photos of homes that we considered, if you weren't following along on my IG page during this time:
They all definitely had their perks and potential, but there were also different variables with each that put them in the "not for us" category pretty quickly. Namely - no garage, complete gut job, undesirable area, no character, or simply didn't feel right (in no particular order)
Finally in December, I found a house in the quaint Wisconsin town of New Richmond, that seemed to fit the bill on most if not all of our criteria. I went out and did a walk through, did some quick computing on remodel costs (originally was thinking around 60k), and decided it just felt right. As soon as my gut told me "yep" (meaning I ran the numbers, put them into our investment property calculator, talked to the hubby, talked to my mom and dad, re-ran the numbers with extenuating and unlikely circumstances included, and called the listing agent to pick her brain on any issues with the property - analysis paralysis is a thing people!) I decided to put together an offer...
I'd like to say the rest is history, but I want this Blog to be a learning experience where I outline all of the ups and downs of what a lot of people think is just like the "tv magic" they see on HGTV. Stay tuned for my next post on my process for evaluating and running the numbers to determine which houses make the cut for our investment portfolio! I promise to make it fun and interesting and that it is a lot simpler than it sounds ;)
The following posts will be more of the before and after stuff that most of you are likely interested in, so those will be up shortly as well!
Thanks for joining me on this 6 month adventure, and please let me know if you have any questions regarding this process, I'm happy to help and guide as much as I can :)
xo,
-MacK
And for those who simply can't wait, here's a few before and after pictures to wet your whistle ;):