Reply to All of the housing stock under $1m is HORRIBLE

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think this works for people with a ton of money but for the rest of us we are spending most of our savings on a house. I cant fathom purchasing an expensive old home and plan to renovate every room only to find out that I have to do more than cosmetic renovations.

I dont need a turnkey house but I also am not going to pretend im on property brothers and can afford to completely reno a house and get it up to code -----.

The point is to buy a house for a lower price than the "pretty" ones and do the updates yourself, instead of paying the middleman flipper for his troubles. Sure, you're still spending a lot but it will be less overall than if you buy turnkey. Being willing to live with construction and having work done over time is how you build serious equity in the DC area.

We did this with a newborn. 10 years later made a $300 k profit after accounting for what we put into it. We tore out old carpets ourselves, laid pavers for a patio ourselves, built decorative privacy fencing with the help of day laborers from Casa de Maryland, and so on.  I painted almost every wall myself over those 10 years.

To sell it, I went to Community Forklift and bought gently used items to make it look like what uninformed DC buyers want. In bathrooms 
we  painted the 1970s tile white.  Had a contract over asking in less than a week.

If you think that all turnkey looking houses don't have at least a few surprises waiting for you, you're naive. I suppose buying a brand new house with a warranty makes sense if that's what you want. [/quote]

I agree with you that this can be an effective strategy, but there are two issues.  First, this doesn't solve problems with the location, lot, or low inventory.  I'm one of the PPs and there are exactly six houses for sale in my kid's school zone: I can afford any of them, but the lots all suck.  When I say they suck, I mean they are adjacent to I-66 or have a county drain ditch across the back yard: it's not a Backyard Makeover issue.  So when I agreed with OP, it wasn't because I don't want to replace some bad wallpaper, it's because I don't have the "make me move" millions it would take to buy a well-located house that's not on the market.

Second, you and I are both very lucky to have the time, knowledge, and physical capability to DIY so much: not everybody can.  I have done renovations on my townhouse (both DIY and supervising contractors) and I grew up in a house that was constantly being DIY renovated, one weekend at a time, for 16 years.  I am not convinced the equity gains are worth it to me anymore, now that I'm old and have kids to spend time with.[/quote]

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