Does this house have issues? That’s the question!
A young real estate agent I recently met said she’d keep an eye out for me for properties we might be interested in. She’s really new to the whole world of real estate, and investing in rehab properties is not something she’s really familiar with. I’m guessing she will have a lot of fun looking for appropriate properties, while also looking for houses to sell at retail and make a good commission on.
I figure many of our readers in our target areas see houses and wonder if that’s the kind of thing we are interested in. Then our eagle-eyed potential helpers will want to know what to do if they spot a potential good one, extra sad, even. So, I’ve got some helpful information to make looking for sad houses a fun thing to do. Just spot the ones with the most issues!
This does not fit our model! Too big! Too fancy! Too perfect!
What We Want
In general, we are looking for houses that will not sell for “top dollar” in their current condition. So that would be houses that have obvious issues that you can see from the outside (don’t go peek in people’s windows):
- Poor curb appeal (dead cars, weeds, etc.)
- Broken windows
- Obvious roof damage
- Rotten trim
- A garage sale going on (sign people might be having to move soon)
- Signs that no one lives there (a sign of a house whose owners don’t want it)
We prefer to work with 3 bedroom 2 bathroom homes, mainly because that’s what people usually want. Two-bedroom houses can be hard to sell, even when nicely renovated. Two-story houses also are harder to sell, for some reason. We will look at larger houses, though, so don’t rule them out.
Another thing is we aren’t in the luxury home rehabilitation market. There are people with deeper pockets than us out there, and many of them will buy a house for way more than we would, because they can afford to gamble on whether they’ll make a profit or not.
It’s fun to just check out houses while walking the dog. Anita and I LOVE doing that.
What To Do
Take a walk or a drive around your neighborhood and see if you spot a potential house for us. We often find them when visiting friends in neighborhoods we aren’t familiar with, too.
You can also listen hard when people you know start to talk about estates they have to deal with that have a run-down house to sell, or people whose elderly relatives need to go into a care facility and aren’t able to fix up their house for sale. Mention us!
If you see houses like this in your neighborhood around Austin that aren’t totally falling down, you can message us on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment Facebook page (click “Send Message”) or call Carol at 512-807-8777. If you have a photo, that would really help. If you have a house in the Cameron area, send a Facebook message to Hermits’ Rest Enterprises. All we need is the address, and we can check out the house’s status, value, and such. And we can contact the owners.
Who knows, maybe you’ll be contributing to neighborhood improvement!
Hermann says please like and share!
We are currently gonna ster our remodel buisness back ,,R an M remodeling,,,we look for fix me up as you say and houses an would give you the information needed on them an would like the opportunity to give estimates bids on them as you need we are very dependable an for this area we meet an beat local other contractors ,in business for 28 yrs ,,have an eye for quality work an No Short Corners ,,thank you ,,I currently got away from choice builders due to different eyes on the work ,,Thank you
We are always ready to expand our team with qualified, licensed contractors who have a focus on quality, understand the business (paperwork) side of things, AND meet deadlines. Every job goes out for bid and is awarded to the contractor who completes a detailed statement of work, has a reputation for success, and can finish the job on time and on budget.