Fix and Flip Houses

[Fast Eddie D]

Is this a trend in your area? A bunch of houses in my neighborhood have been subject to this. It's all too common for houses to become quite dilapidated when elderly people live in them. Maintenance is typically deferred for the last ten years or so. (I'm bucking this trend because I'm cleaning and fixing up constantly and won't stop till it's done or I'm dead.) Some of the houses in my area are seriously dilapidated and I wonder about the well being of the occupants.

The adult children are typically so wealthy they can hardly be concerned with a paltry $400,000 house so they do next to nothing and just dump it. The house next door to me is a good example; the resident (he was 99) has been deceased for almost a year and his son has hardly done anything and hasn't even listed it for sale. I do point out stuff wrong and he thanks me but does the bare minimum. Of course I'm wondering about the fate of the house but I think I know what it will be.

I have mixed feelings about fix and flip because I like to see architecture preserved. However, it does restore housing to the market. It makes me wonder what my house is really worth. I intend to sell it when I am offered one million dollars, which could happen the way things are going.

So you can tell when the fix was done. At first everything was grey and white, but the last year it's been black and white. Here's some listings withing a mile of my house. The prices shock me, but I know that people are buying them because they move fast.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7626-Lowell-Ave-Skokie-IL-60076/3546421_zpid/?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4941-Lunt-Ave-Skokie-IL-60077/3554845_zpid/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3906-Cleveland-St-Skokie-IL-60076/3539639_zpid/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8621-Le-Claire-Ave-Skokie-IL-60077/3534433_zpid/

The third house was completely overgrown with weeds and shrubs, and you could smell the mold when you walked past it. Look at it now!


And an obscenely priced "el cheapo" house.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9846-Crawford-Ave-Skokie-IL-60076/3514736_zpid/

What's real estate in your neck of the woods? Zooming into the stratosphere?

 

[Joel Wesseling]

Some lovely homes in your links!

I enjoy watching the market. Prices, decorating ideas and trends etc.

Prices are on the decline and hard to say where it will settle. Doubt its a flippers market now around here,unless prices go up.

In Toronto its about land value and old houses are torn down and replaced by monster homes. well worth it in the long run

 

[phase]

Flipping is still done in my area, but imo, the best days for that are long gone. The house a couple down had been abandoned by its chronically ill owner, was a moldy mess. It sold for a crazy high price, flipper had a tough time selling it, probably didn’t make a much of a profit.
Suppose it depends on the situation in the specific area…

I remember when we could pick up a HUD house for $40k, go through it in a month and have something worth $30k more.
We didn’t flip them, but either lived in them, or kept as rental properties.

We had home improvement stores that were open 24 hours back in the early 90s!

 

[billshurv]

Although they have plenty of TV programs on people flipping houses in the uk the reality is that the value when fixed up is factored into the selling price. Bargain fixer uppers have not been a thing for 25 years.

 

[Fast Eddie D]

They're tearing down houses here too and building "monster" homes. On my block they bought three perfectly good houses, tore them down, and built two McMansions in their place. At first I thought they looked out of place, but ten years later they do not look out of place. Five houses withing a one block radius of my house are ten years old or newer.

Fix and flip is a big part of the market here. All the houses here have "good bones" but some of them are quite long in tooth.

Here's a couple quick pics of my 1960 ranch house. I love the brick, stone, and wood; I would never paint over it!

 

[billshurv]

Here they will buy a nice house with a nice garden, knock it down and build 3 houses with no garden. And then charge top dollar for them!

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Here's my home on zillow. https://www.zillow.com/homes/7800-Kildare-Ave-Skokie,-IL-60076_rb/3546069_zpid/ I've been offered considerably more than that.

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Here's the house next door. It's been empty for almost a year and still not on the market. It needs some work.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/7806-Kildare-Ave-Skokie,-IL-60076_rb/3546068_zpid/

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Two doors down been empty for a couple years. The guy is seriously underwater; he owes about $650K on the mortgage. The basement has been flooded dozens of times since I lived here. I would never buy it.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/7810-Kildare-Ave-Skokie,-IL-60076_rb/3546054_zpid/

 

[indianajo]

In my neighborhood large corporations are buying bungalow and ranch houses, tearing them down, and installing 2 story apartments covering the land to 2' from the property line. One unit becomes 4 or 8. Parking is moved to the street. There are a lot more police & fire calls to the rental properties. One rental down the street last fall, a visitor shot a dog next door that was barking at him. The rental tenant children often skip school, wandering the street during the day.
I saw on TV news that in Cincinnati corporations own 22% of the housing now for rentals. With that kind of market share the price of rent is not going to be reasonable. I get stupidly low offers by mail weekly for my house. Some include a picture of my house on the front just to be especially intrusive.

 

[wg_ski]

When that garbage starts going in the city/county has no choice but to raise taxes. They give the corporations that own that stuff (and the business property, especially) a break as “incentive” so the long time locals have to pick up the tab. Eventually, they all pick up and move (or die off). Me too when I get enough of the new place built to do it. Then the first person to offer me $350k can have it. The way they keep raising the land values I’ll eventually get that much even if the place is falling down. Apartments haven’t started going in yet - just every square inch of old ag land covered in houses ten feet apart. More dominoes falling every day. And every way in or out under construction. Apartment buildings four feet off the street can’t be much further behind.

 

[EdGr]

Here the land is extremely valuable and the houses were built in a different era. It is not unusual to almost completely tear down an older house, build a much bigger one, and call it a "remodel". 😉
Ed

 

[rif]

Abandoned or dilapidated houses are nothing but bad news for a neighborhood. They can lower the value of your own home, and of the whole neighborhood possibly. There are a few in my neighborhood, but at least someone is making an effort to keep the landscaping tidy so it looks good from the curb.

Then again the opposite is true, as people have noted above. A few higher than expected sale prices is good for your own home. "a rising tide raises all ships".

just my 2 cents from an amateur homeowner.

 

[Disco-Pete]

Not to worry, Blackstone to the rescue. They'll buy them, take over the market, maintain them, and rent them at exorbitant rates.

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Houses in any condition are in demand in this area. A dilapidated house will be bought up, probably by a fix and flipper, and marketed at a premium price.

However, elderly people tend to stay in their houses way after they can maintain them. I don't blame them really. Plus they go to a nursing home and nobody keeps the house up like it should be. Some people live years in the nursing home and won't sell their house unless they absolutely have to. But once it hits the market, something will happen with it as long as it is priced correctly.

And I'm shocked by some of the sale prices of the fix and flip houses. I thought there's no way someone would pay the asking price, but they usually sell within 90 days or so.

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Real estate markets have been distorted and neighborhoods destroyed by deep pocket real estate tycoons in places like St. Louis. There property was bought en masse to rot and when the buildings fell down or burned (usually from brick rustling and arson) the tycoon's taxes go way down. Then when they own 90% of the real estate in an area they mass develop it into a more middle class residential area, or else a factory or manufacturing facility. Whole communities in St. Louis have been eliminated by this type of investment.

 

[wiseoldtech]

However, elderly people tend to stay in their houses way after they can maintain them. I don't blame them really. Plus they go to a nursing home and nobody keeps the house up like it should be. Some people live years in the nursing home and won't sell their house unless they absolutely have to. But once it hits the market, something will happen with it as long as it is priced correctly.

I repeatedly get post cards and phone calls asking if I want to sell my home.
It's highly annoying!
I'm 70, have moved a dozen times since I moved out of my parents house, and now own and love my home.
I've fixed it up and maintained it to my liking, of course there's always something to tend to.
There's no damn way I'm going to move again! - I'm too old to be bothered with that crap.
This barrage of harrassment by these goons is like living in the Twilight Zone!
And..... it's in my Will that my home and its contents are to be left to specific trusted beneficiaries.

 

[Fast Eddie D]

Oh I get that and more. They ring my doorbell offering to buy the house. I've been offered silly money a couple times. They want to tear it down and build a McMansion. My lot is 47 foot and most of the lots are 40 foot. Plus it's on a corner so they could put an extra gaudy pimp palace on the lot.

One of these days they will make me an offer I can't refuse and I'm going to take it.

 

[wiseoldtech]

@Fast Eddie D "They ring my doorbell offering to buy the house."

I've had that happen too, right when I was cooking dinner.
The guy tried to hand me his card...... AFTER I told him the house will be my tomb when I croak, and leave it to who is named in my will.
Some idiots just don't listen!

 

[Fast Eddie D]

They think the same thing of us.