Buying Fixer Upper Houses For Fun And Profit

So you have your eye fixer-upper property one it looks just perfect for you do the minor repairs and flip are good profit. Why did this house meet your criteria? How did you decide to settle on this fixer upper house? If you are new to the fixer-upper game, how about a few tips on what you should look for to assure a profit from buying fixer upper houses.

Four major areas you should look for In any house whether they be fixer upper are not is the foundation, the roof, the electrical wiring in of course the plumbing. If you are not sure what you should be looking at in any of these areas it would be a great time to call in the services of a local house inspector you can easily find one in the yellow pages for your local area or even by doing search online for house inspector.

Start with a foundation. The cost of repairing a foundation can easily will run you as much as $20,000 in repairs so obviously this is a major concern in your search for a profitable fixer-upper house project. You may see some evidence of minor shifting this is probably something that will not be of immediate concern. Seeing serious cracks in the foundation and slab is a different story and something to really pay attention to and maybe reason enough to pass on this particular house.

Getting to the top of things, the roof. What type of construction is the roof? Is it in good condition? Do you see any missing shingles? If it is a shingle roof how many layers are actually on the house already? It is common practice in most areas to layer new shingles on top of the old unless there is ready severe damage to the first layer shingles. You can have about three layers of shingles before the old shingles need to be removed and totally replaced. This obviously will add to the cost of any roof repair you may have to do cutting into our profit margin.

A quick check of the plumbing can be as simple as turning on every faucet you can find in the house. There will be no doubt about the water pressure that exists in the home. Have you ever been in a shower in when your wife or spouse starts the washing machine you suddenly have no water? So the lack water pressure is a great indicator that repairs are needed. Replacing clogged water lines within the house can easily run over $5000. So again this to be an indication that this is a property that will not make our offer list.

The electrical system. One of most important systems of the entire house especially in an older house is the electrical system. Good quality wiring and updated wiring the meats all local codes is vitally important. Do you see any signs of any burned wires? How about rust or corrosion in the circuit breaker panel box? Do you see anything around wiring or electrical outlets it just does not look right? These could be indications of serious defects in a bad electrical system. I once had an electrical short in the central air-conditioning unit that fortunately the automatic opening of the circuit breaker prevented a catastrophe. You cannot place enough emphasis on having a good electrical system in place. So using caution and paying strict attention to the electrical space system could easily save you major repair bills of up to $10,000 or more.

So we have taken a close look at the foundation, the roof, the plumbing and the electrical systems of our potential fixer upper house. After a close inspection does this property meet the criteria for us to make an offer to buy and make a profit on this fixer upper project. Best of luck to you and all your real estate investing endeavors.