# Small Home Design - Midwest



## MO CONTRACTOR (May 11, 2014)

Here is a rendering of a house that we are looking at remodeling. 

Please understand that I am not a architect or designer, just a contractor, so please be easy on me.

Renderings done on Punch! software.


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## mstrat (Jul 10, 2013)

Are you looking to remodel it for a customer or a flip or yourself? The renderings look nice, and I for one am a big fan of smaller, more realistic homes...seeing 2 people living in a 4,000ft2+ home seems ridiculous to me! I say go for it...and welcome to CT!


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## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

Welcome to the forum.

There seems to be a lot happening in that living room.

I guess you would call this a bungalow?

Personally, I don't like stepping directly into a living room or having to traverse through it to reach all other rooms.

I would want to have a mudroom outside of the entrance anyway, if a piece could be enclosed.

I'm also not sure about the laundry off the kitchen.

You must have a fairly strict set of circumstances to work under?


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## MO CONTRACTOR (May 11, 2014)

mstrat said:


> Are you looking to remodel it for a customer or a flip or yourself? The renderings look nice, and I for one am a big fan of smaller, more realistic homes...seeing 2 people living in a 4,000ft2+ home seems ridiculous to me! I say go for it...and welcome to CT!


This is a potential flip house. I wish I had pictures of it in it's current condition. It is in very poor condition currently but is for sale for pennies, more or less. We have never flipped a house before but this would be a good place to start. The house is in pretty poor condition but has great potential. It has pretty much already been gutted but will need a new roof, new siding, new windows, new drywall and interior finishes, new electrical, some plumbing upgrades, and some foundation repair or replacement (waiting to meet with engineer). 

I haven't ran a budget yet but I would guess that after purchasing it and remodeling it, we would be in it 35-50 grand depending upon the engineers report and I believe it could be sold for 85-90 grand pretty easily.


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

Just a wake up call....

You want to buy a decrepit house for 20-30k

Drop a wad into it. by your guess 30-50 k, probably underbid....

Sell for 85-90k probably overbid....

What about carrying costs?

Budget for unforseens/unknowns?

Sounds like too big a crap shoot for potential returns...


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## MO CONTRACTOR (May 11, 2014)

griz said:


> Just a wake up call....
> 
> You want to buy a decrepit house for 20-30k
> 
> ...


I guess I should have been a little more specific. The house will cost less than $5,000. 30-50 k is a high estimate even using fairly high end products. 85-90 k might be overbid, I'm not a real estate agent but I did look at comparable houses to come up with that number. Carrying cost would be minimal because the house would be purchased and fixed with cash, no credit so no interest. There would be insurance, etc. Like I said 30-50 k is a high estimate so I am already planning on some unforseens but there could be some unplanned expenses. Isn't flipping houses always a big crap shoot for potential returns? No guarantees, just a lot of risk. But if you nail it, you make it big.


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

MO CONTRACTOR said:


> I guess I should have been a little more specific. The house will cost less than $5,000. 30-50 k is a high estimate even using fairly high end products. 85-90 k might be overbid, I'm not a real estate agent but I did look at comparable houses to come up with that number. Carrying cost would be minimal because the house would be purchased and fixed with cash, no credit so no interest. There would be insurance, etc. Like I said 30-50 k is a high estimate so I am already planning on some unforseens but there could be some unplanned expenses. Isn't flipping houses always a big crap shoot for potential returns? No guarantees, just a lot of risk. But if you nail it, you make it big.


Well by your numbers it sounds way more realistic...:thumbsup:

The wild card is how fast will it sell.....


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## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

You might freak out some people when they see you can buy a house and acreage for $3,000 and it is not in Detroit.

This is not something that commonly happens in California or NYC!!


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## MO CONTRACTOR (May 11, 2014)

cleveman said:


> You might freak out some people when they see you can buy a house and acreage for $3,000 and it is not in Detroit.
> 
> This is not something that commonly happens in California or NYC!!


I know! It amazes me the difference in home prices from one region to another. If I picked my house up and moved it 2,500 miles it would be worth 10 - 20 times more than I paid for it.


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

MO CONTRACTOR said:


> I know! It amazes me the difference in home prices from one region to another. If I picked my house up and moved it 2,500 miles it would be worth 10 - 20 times more than I paid for it.





As the old saying goes; the three most important things in real estate are location,location and location !


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## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

A building lot in my town, approx. 120' wide (actually a double lot), recently sold for $90,000. Not too far out of town, you can 15 acres for that, and I bought 40 acres 20 miles away for $100,000 12 years ago.


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## greg24k (May 19, 2007)

MO CONTRACTOR said:


> I know! It amazes me the difference in home prices from one region to another. If I picked my house up and moved it 2,500 miles it would be worth 10 - 20 times more than I paid for it.


You not kidding doing all that for 30-40k. Around here an average deck will cost that and min 200k for a knockdown house on a 50x100 lot.

With that said I would tweak the plan a little, create a foyer area in the front, have a closet there to hang coats, put shoes, etc.

Office could be made a little smaller to make kitchen bigger, since it will be be used as dining room I assume. 

I would move bathroom to the front and move bedroom back, so the bathroom location is in the foyer vicinity and not smack in the middle of your living room and next to the kitchen.

Other then that, its a cute little house for what its worth.

Good luck


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## MO CONTRACTOR (May 11, 2014)

greg24k said:


> You not kidding doing all that for 30-40k. Around here an average deck will cost that and min 200k for a knockdown house on a 50x100 lot.
> 
> With that said I would tweak the plan a little, create a foyer area in the front, have a closet there to hang coats, put shoes, etc.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the pointers!

The rendering I did was not moving any walls and leaving the existing floor plan. The house was probably built around 1920 and obviously doesn't have the best layout. It could certainly be laid out better and I would probably move some stuff around if this idea turns in to a reality. You have some good ideas I will take into consideration.

This house sits on a 50x100 lot. Also, the 30-40k is only cost of materials as I will have my guys do the work. If I was gonna hire a contractor to do the work it would probably run close to 100k and blow the profits out of the water on this house.


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