Flip, Flop, Fix, Up...Renovation for Real!

Now that the real estate market is heating up, it seems people are getting excited about buying and selling homes again.  The problem with a hot market is the lack of supply to meet the needs of the people that are looking to buy.  Depending on which market you live, you may find yourself challenged to find that perfect home that fits into your budget.  As a Realtor, I work with clients every day that are frustrated when they can’t find that perfect home.  As a consumer, I recently joined the thousands of other folks in the greater Charleston market in trying to find that perfect home for me and my family.  And we, too, became frustrated.  Homes would come on the market and within days (and sometimes hours) had ratified contracts on them. 

When you move from one market to another (and in our case, from one state to another), you will likely find a big difference is home styles and prices.  In some cases, it will work to your advantage.  In others, if might make it harder to afford what you previously had.  Before getting disappointed, it is important to look at all factors that will affect the ultimate affordability of your new home.  For instance, tax rates vary from state to state, so what may seem like an unobtainable goal is simply a matter of how your monthly payment breaks down.  In our case, we moved from an area where the tax rate was almost three times what it is in our new market.  So we were able to afford a higher purchase price since our annual taxes were so much less.  In order to find out what price you can afford in your particular area, you have to start by getting pre-qualified.  (We will go over that in more detail in the next post.)

So what about a fixer-upper?  Would we be able to get what we wanted if we went that route?  Hmmmm.....

Several years ago, before moving to Charleston, my husband and I started talking about a career goal to expand my real estate business into a family business of buying and selling fixer uppers.  Since I have the real estate expertise, my daughter is an interior designer and my husband has man-power forecasting and project management experience, it seemed like a natural progression for my career.  Little did we know, our first “project” would be our own home that just so happened as the result of a random drive through a neighborhood and seeing a crooked “For Sale By Owner” sign on a house with broken, cobweb-covered porch lights, overgrown ivy-covered brick exterior, but an amazing park-like yard.

Join me for this daily blog-series as we walk through the process of buying a fixer-upper, from start to finish.  Starting with the pre-qualification process, we will move through the day-to-day expectations to celebrating the final product!

Lovin' Life in the Lowcountry,

Janie

My mission statement:  To live each day to the fullest, with excitement, enthusiasm and a strong desire to build a successful and highly respected real estate business, earned by developing relationships through consistent and predictably high work ethic of always going above and beyond, and always doing so with a creative surprise up my sleeve.