I bought my parents house at sixty thousand three years ago, gutted it, did a lot of the work myself, and spent around twenty five thousand (keep in mind that I used better stuff because I wasn't selling it again) So all in all 85 thousand put into it. I could get about 120 for it today...maybe more. It depends on the market.
On the same street one sold to a real estate agent and he flipped it and made thirty thousand in three months...
That's how you trade up.
The most expensive rooms to renovate are kitchens and bathrooms. You need an inspection to find anything that's going to be very expensive and possibly the sellers will pay for it or lower the price.
Stuff doesn't have to be expensive if you are the project manager. Tiling is easy to do and I got my tile at an outlet. The jacuzzi bathtub was on clearance at Lowes. Granite counters are not so expensive if you get a common color. Appliances were bought at the Sears outlet (dents on the side make no difference) Cabinets are Ikea (highly recommend and easy to install)
Keep in mind though that working on it yourself to flip, won't get you much money if you're doing a kitchen or bathroom because a house costs money to carry every month. Time is money.
My dream home is like this, with bright sight, colorful carpet on the floor.
Obviously you can go big the first time and be in debt for the rest of your life, but that's not what I want to do. I've met a few people who have dream homes, but they know how to do a lot of stuff themselves. They know carpentry, cabinetry sometimes even electrical and do at least half of the work themselves. I unfortunately don't know how to do any of this. I am not a skilled laborer. So, I guess it's best to start small and then maybe by the time you're 70 you can be in your dream home. That is something that I design myself and looks the way I want it to and has all the fixins I want it to have. I know not a lot of people on Yahoo Answers probably own their dream home. To be honest my goal or dream is to own multiple homes across the country. I am quite perplexed as to how people do this. Obviously some of them are celebrities or sports stars. But there are others who are not. I would like to know how to do this. I am 36 years old now, so I have some time. I currently am not in a mortgage and just rent a small apartment, so I want to do this the right way the first time around. You very rarely make a profit on a home unless you invest more money into it and remodel it right? So how could you end up selling your first home for more than you bought it for? If you start with say a $100,000 home, that's going to be a while before you're in a $1,500,000 home. Thanks.
