Here's our newest project. We bought a house in foreclosure from a bank. A four bedroom, living room, great room, 2 bath property that needs a lot of imagination and craftsmanship to make a nice environment to live in. An "AS IS" deal. Which means, screw an inspection, you're gonna have to deal with the problems as you discover them, and YOU'RE gonna pay for fixing them. Most people would shy away from a deal like this...and just pay whatever they must to get a nice house. BUT...they will pay today's inflated values...where we paid about half of what a property like this in the area goes for. After checking it out, coming up with a reasonable estimate of renovation costs, including a category called "Disaster Time"...I came up with around twenty thousand to fix it up...and that's me doing most of the labor. I'll hire out the plumbing for redesigned bath and kitchen areas..as well as the electrical...but I'll do all of the other labor.
By the time I'm finished...we'll have a property that will sell for around 130,000...or rent for 1200.00 a month.