Should You Buy a Fixer?

Should you buy a fixer? Sure! We’re big advocates of saying yes to a challenge, especially because our friends and family were skeptical when we decided to buy, fix and sell houses back in 2013.

How we started

Naomi and I lived in Los Angeles with typical 9-to-6 jobs in finance and television. Tired of the daily grind, we wanted to work for ourselves. I stumbled onto a podcast about “real estate freedom” that walked through wholesaling and flipping houses. This was after the housing crash, and prices were rock bottom.

We were in our twenties and knew very little about the market, except that the condo we’d bought as a short sale had already appreciated nicely. So what if we used that gain to flip houses in South Florida, where homes could be bought for around $100,000?

We sold the condo and moved to Fort Lauderdale. The people around us thought we were nuts. Why leave L.A.? Why leave our jobs? What did we know about renovating houses? All valid questions. But we knew ourselves, we knew we could learn, and we knew we were a good team. If you believe you can do it, you can. It sounds trite, but it’s true.

Living in a renovation

If you have the desire and back it up with a budget and realistic numbers, you can make a profit. And if you just want to buy a fixer, renovate it and live in it, that’s great too. Just be ready for the stress of living in a home that’s also a construction site. We’ve done that too.

After flipping several homes in Florida, we moved back to California and bought our first Marin home, built in 1955. It’s no exaggeration to say everything needed to be repaired or replaced. There were nights we lay in bed and cried over how long the projects were taking and the constant disarray, especially once we had a baby.

Still, it was a great investment. We lived there seven years, we still own it, it looks beautiful, and it has appreciated to more than twice the purchase price. Our tenants have all been fabulous because they respect the home and the work we put into it. So if you’re ready for the blood, sweat and tears, we say go for it.

Crunch the numbers first

Do your research up front: purchase and closing costs, renovation costs, which renovations give the best return and which give none, the likely selling price afterward, staging, agent commissions, title and escrow costs… everything. Put it all in a spreadsheet so you have a foundation to work from and can adjust as you go, because you will need to adjust. Our best advice: if you can swing it, live somewhere else while you renovate anything big like a kitchen.

If you’d like support, we’re happy to help you spot which properties are a good value, estimate renovation costs and recommend vendors.