Real estate is a hot commodity,
but around every corner, danger lurks...
from zombie houses.
These rotting corpses aren't just ugly.
What happened?
They're dangerous.
Whoa!
Fire. Get out of there!
And they can drag down an entire neighborhood.
Man #2: It's the ugliest house on the street.
But their days are numbered.
Here in Orlando, Florida,
taking on these monstrosities is our specialty.
It's a wreck, but we don't shy away from things like that.
Ew!
Our team tracks these filthy zombies down...
This place is a total dump, but at least this room is huge.
...and pumps new life into them...
Maybe I got heat stroke,
but I'm falling in love with this place.
...flipping them into sweet homes.
- Wow! - This is amazing.
...that we can sell...
We are ready to go.
...for an even sweeter pay day.
Here's to selling another house.
This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
Guys, look at this neighborhood.
This is really pretty.
Yeah, it's gorgeous.
These old live oaks are beautiful.
This is Edgewood.
Edgewood is a great suburban community
south of downtown Orlando.
Surrounded by lakes, it's known for its beautiful scenery
and excellent schools.
I love this neighborhood.
I want us to check out this house I heard about.
Got a phone call the other day from this Irish guy.
He inherited a property here in Edgewood
when his brother passed away.
And the brother had these terrible tenants in there,
so he had to get them evicted, and then it was in probate.
So it's been locked up with lawyers and courts,
and it's been sitting vacant for two years.
And basically, he wants to get rid of it.
Could be a good little situation for us.
I mean, it could be full of mold or anything.
Do we know if there's an HOA in this neighborhood?
Yeah, there is an HOA.
Has anybody ever had a good experience with an HOA?
I bought one rental house one time in an HOA, and I said,
"I'm never buying another house in an HOA for any purpose."
Homeowners' associations, also known as HOAs,
are notoriously difficult to deal with, and in fact,
they can have more power over property than the city.
I had such a bad time with an HOA once
that I cut the flip short,
cut my losses, sold it, moved on.
This is it. Look. Okay.
Dirtiest house in the neighborhood.
It is ugly.
- Here she is. - What do you think?
It's a really cute neighborhood.
It's an ugly house.
I'm seeing what looks like the beginning of a train wreck.
The front door is boarded up, the lampposts are both wrecked.
I mean, planter's even overturned.
It's like this place was just left for dead.
You mean, like a zombie?
It's easily the worst house in the best neighborhood.
So a zombie?
It's pretty bad, but I mean, that's what we do.
Well, what do we know about it?
Well, it's a concrete block house built in the '60s
with just under 1,700 square feet of living space.
It has three bedrooms, which include a large master,
and it has two bathrooms plus an attached two-car garage
and a pool.
What are they asking for it?
$299,000.
Wow, that seems kind of high for a total remodel.
Let's go see the inside.
Yeah.
Oh, God, it stinks.
What happened here? Ew.
I'm guessing the bedrooms are that way.
Okay.
There's a bedroom here.
Pretty straightforward.
It ain't nothin' we can't fix.
See what else we got.
Another nasty bedroom.
- Oh! - Oh.
Looks like something's chewing on these floors.
Pets or some really feral kids, I guess.
- All right, so new floors. - Yeah.
- All throughout this house. - Mm-hmm.
Let's keep looking.
Oh, nasty bathroom.
Look at the color!
Dude, I love the color of that toilet.
It's like murky gold.
No, it's more like mustard.
The floor plan is garbage.
That toilet is the perfect metaphor for this house.
It looks like we'd have to dump a lot of money
into this place to fix it.
I'm still not even sure that would cut the mustard.
Hey, the master bedroom's over here.
This is a total dump, but at least this room is huge.
Yeah. Super little master closet, though.
Oh, yeah, that is tiny.
That's kind of useless.
Hey, there's a master bathroom.
Ugh, what a mess.
Hey. Master closet.
Oh, okay, so it does have a proper closet.
Yeah. Okay, that's cool.
So, I'm thinking this is wife closet,
and that must be husband closet.
Yeah, this bathroom, dude.
It's not too bad. We could keep this.
Just swap out the vanity and all the trim.
People love mint.
People who like mint like mint.
The rest of us, not so much.
Honestly, this will be super nice fully demo'd
and, like, all redone.
All right. There's got to be more of the house here.
Let's go see it.
Okay, big living room.
Look at all this crap everywhere.
Do you think there's squatters living here?
Maybe.
If the living room looks like this,
imagine what the kitchen looks like.
What, is it behind this brick wall?
Oh, just as I suspected.
It's nasty.
This is a horrible layout.
Ugh!
This is the most non-functional kitchen layout
I think I've ever seen.
It's like somebody tucked in a tiny galley kitchen
in a space that was not made for it.
And then it opens up into an unnecessarily large dining room.
Hey!
But only if you bend down to look under the cabinets.
Look at this fridge. Justin, open that.
No.
- Yeah, check it out. - No, no, no, no.
Man! - Oh!
Oh, my-- Ugh!
I'm out of here.
Rule number one on flipping zombies--
never open the fridge,
especially when the last tenants were evicted two years ago.
I guess we should follow Keith outside.
That's a green pool.
It's luminous green.
- Oh, it's got tadpoles. - Oh, my goodness.
So we're gonna have frogs soon?
Yep. There's gonna be a lot of frogs.
Oh, God.
All right, well, big yard. It's nice that it has a pool.
What do you figure the ARV is on this house?
I'd have to double-check comps, but maybe as much as $480,000.
So let's just safely say $450,000 to $475,000.
The house does need a significant amount of work.
Two full bathrooms,
all the flooring, a full kitchen, windows.
Pool needs refinishing.
And then, also, the AC looks really old.
It needs to be new, even though it's working.
So we should just factor in $100,000
for the rehab to be safe.
They're asking $299,000,
but I think if we offer $285,000, we'll get it.
That puts us at $385,000.
But even if it sells for $450,000, there's--
Wiggle room.
All right, I'm in. Let's give it a shot.
Let's just knock it out of the park.
Let's make a really pretty house.
Yeah.
We offered $285,000 on this house,
and the seller was more than happy to unload
the property to us.
After going over the scope of work for the renovation here,
we think we can stick to a budget of around 90 grand,
and that's actually even got a little room for padding.
This flip will easily take us about two and a half months,
which will cost about 6 grand
in the interest payments on our loan,
and closing costs for our target sale price
will cost us about $21,500.
That puts our total investment on this property
just under $403,000.
But after checking
the most recent comps in the neighborhood,
we think $475,000 is a legit sale price,
which would give the team a profit of over 70 grand.
The big money on this place is going towards the kitchen.
The first step's to get rid of that horrible galley set-up
by tearing out the peninsula and the dangling cabinets above.
Then we'll expand the kitchen along the adjacent wall,
where we'll put in a modern range and hood
along with the pantry cabinets at the end.
Then we'll add an island with seating
and use the brick wall to frame out the dining space,
completing this open and flowing room.
We're also going to update that horrible hallway bathroom.
We'll get rid of that weird half-moon counter
with the corner cabinet
and put in a proper vanity with useful counter space.
Then we'll add some new flooring,
paint, and fixtures to make the space sparkle.
Yes! Demo day!
I'm excited. Where are we gonna start?
Uh...
I want to start right here.
This thing looks like it's just waiting for a beating.
Well, I'm gonna hit the mint bathroom, I think.
Oh, my favorite one. I know.
Okay, the yellow one. - I'll do the yellow one. - All right.
Let's go break stuff.
- Let's do it. - Here we go.
This might be a little harder than I thought.
I think I need a better sledgehammer.
I love demo day!
Okay, I got the real tools that I need.
Yeah, Keith has nothing on me.
Well, while Ashlee is working her hammer
in the lavatory with Colonel Mustard,
I guess I'm gonna have to say goodbye to this mint bathroom.
Oh, what a shame, what a shame.
We always hurt the ones we love.
While Ashlee's distracted with that yellow toilet,
I'm gonna set her up for a little flour shower.
Ugh!
Oh, God.
- Yeah, buddy? - We got something for you.
Ta-da!
Oh! Thank you.
My very own...
I just touched all of that.
There's sanitizer in there, in that green bathroom.
Go ahead.
Oh! Aah!
You little...
You did that on purpose!
It didn't work! Oh, no!
What did I walk into? I did not agree to this!
There you go. There you-- Aah!
What are you doing now? No, no, no, no!
Okay, enough. I'm finished.
Demo is over.
Well, demo's over for us, anyway.
But our crew comes in to finish the job.
Pulling up all the old floors,
taking the bathrooms all the way down to the studs,
and clearing out all that unwanted debris...
and the flour.
Morning! Hey, Ash.
How are you? I'm great.
How are you doing?
Now that we've torn this zombie down to its guts,
it's time to start rebuilding it from the inside out
and flip this monster into a beautiful new creation.
Hey, there's a sign on the door.
Oh, my God. That is not good.
Wait.
We have to stop work on this place?
"Summary of field investigation report.
Alterations without permit,
electrical work without permit, plumbing without a permit."
That sucks.
We haven't done any electrical work or plumbing.
Yeah, and I actually put in loads of permits.
I put in all the permits through Edgewood,
so I don't even know why Orange County
is sticking this up.
I mean, are you supposed to go through both places?
Most cities require local permits to be pulled
before you can start renovating.
And once you submit them, you're usually good to go.
But Edgewood is a very small municipality,
so we might actually need additional permits
run through them and the county.
We've never done a flip here,
so we've never encountered this before.
It says, "Violation of this order is a misdemeanor
and is punishable by law."
This could set us back a few weeks.
We have to stop work on this place?
This could set us back a few weeks.
Something's very odd here.
Normally, if there's a problem with our permits,
the city would just call us to straighten it out.
But a "stop work" order when we've barely finished demo,
somebody is targeting us.
We obviously rubbed someone the wrong way.
That's why we don't buy houses with HOAs.
It's obvious what's going on here.
HOAs stick their noses in everything.
And if they found out that we filed our permits the wrong way,
I'm sure they were all too happy
to file a complaint and shut us down.
Somebody's got to go get the plans, get them submitted,
and try to, you know, manage the process,
like, get them through as quick as possible.
Is there anything we can do?
I mean, they just said electrical and plumbing,
so maybe we could start on the floor.
We could paint - the exterior. - Yeah.
We don't need a permit for that.
We can get the kitchen guy in here to work the layout
and get the kitchen on order.
Okay. Right.
And then design, you know?
If you want to go grab a bunch of samples
and let's just pick out everything,
order it, boom, boom, boom.
Have everything ready to go.
Perfect. All right.
Cool. We got a plan for the plan.
Typically, we don't paint the exterior
of a house this early in flip,
but one of our paint crews had an opening,
so we decided to put them to work.
First, they power-wash all the old grime away.
Then they add a coat of Swiss Coffee exterior paint,
an off-white shade that has a light-reflectance value of 84.
Unlike Pure White,
which has a light-reflectance value of 100,
Swiss Coffee won't seem too blinding on a bright day,
but it will remain warm and welcoming under any conditions.
Meanwhile, the "stop work" order for the electrical
and the plumbing doesn't prevent us
from updating these interior doors.
We're putting in single-panel Shaker-style doors
known for their simple design and impeccable craftsmanship.
We know there's a lot we can't do
until we get these permits sorted out
for the electrical and plumbing.
But it is nice to see that we're making some progress.
Oh, my goodness, look at this place.
Very nice. This is gorgeous.
We've confirmed that we need to get permits
approved by the county for the Oaks House,
which could take a while.
So I've spent the last few days working on design ideas
and picking out appliances for the property.
Today's task-- finding flooring and bathroom tile
so we can put it on order and it'll be ready
when we get the green light.
Hello.
Hi. How are you?
Hey, I'm great. I'm Matt.
- Hey, Matt. I'm Justin. - Hey, nice to meet you.
Ashlee.
I've decided on a design style for this house
that will be tres magnifique.
So, tell me about the project.
So, I was kind of thinking French country
because we have the farmhouse sink--
the single-basin kind, very country-looking,
Reclaimed wood that kind of look South France.
Let's take a look at this one.
That is so beautiful.
Is that in our price range?
Maybe we can look at some luxury vinyls
that would be close in this to color.
I love that. That actually looks more reclaimed, right?
So, what's the difference?
It's about half the price of that.
The nice thing about luxury vinyl-plank flooring
is that it's engineered from plastic instead of wood,
which makes it a little bit cheaper.
The other nice thing about vinyl flooring
is it doesn't look cheap like it used to.
Luxury vinyl is getting nice, man.
Even just 10 years ago, you mentioned vinyl,
people were like, "Dude, it's not 1970."
Companies are spending a lot of money on the visuals.
It seems very strange picking out finishes
when we haven't even framed out the walls yet.
But I'm having fun here.
It's never too early for some great design choices in my book.
You want to start on bathroom wall tile?
Let's do the master.
Yeah. I love that.
Imagine the niche, and then you could just do subway tile.
Okay. 'Cause that would save us money.
- That's classic. - That's gorgeous.
I'm thinking we make the niche nine tiles large,
so we don't have to cut any of these handmade tiles.
Yeah, you can just custom-frame it out.
Trust me, when we're done with this house,
it's gonna be one chic chateau.
- Gorgeous. - Yeah, it's really pretty.
- I'm gonna want to move in. - Yeah.
We're over two weeks into this flip,
and with those permits still not ready,
the tasks we're allowed to perform are getting few
and far between.
It's not much, but today, we're installing new rain gutters.
We're making sure they direct runoff away from the house
so that we avoid any settling in the foundation.
We're also painting the brick planter
and the posts that frame the front of the house.
The bright white draws your eye to the large palms
and the front door, inviting you to come on in and relax.
Unfortunately, we're now at a point
where we have to put this project on hold
and focus on other flips
until the paperwork comes through.
Fingers crossed it doesn't take too long.
Such a gorgeous neighborhood.
This is the house that you were talking about, the couple?
Yeah, they said it's, like, half-renovated
and they had to move out of state for a job opportunity.
So now they want to unload it.
Okay. Hmm.
Normally, we like to have, you know,
four to five flips going on at a time.
But since the Oaks House is on hold,
we're looking for a new project to add to our docket.
Is this it?
It looks like something out of a storybook.
The ginger--
- The gingerbread house? - Gingerbread house?
Yeah!
Oh, my goodness.
Wait, there's a bell tower.
Whoa.
Seriously, who are the sellers? The Brothers Grimm?
Let's find out.
Okay. So...
not your typical zombie.
Well, we're gonna see if it turns into
a scary fairy tale inside.
- Oh. - All right.
So, what's going on here?
Closet, I think.
Maybe another closet there? I don't know.
Maybe it's a master suite with a sitting area.
If so, this is a huge master.
The downstairs bedroom seems
just, like, too big for the house.
It's, like, cartoonishly too big.
Let's go see what's upstairs.
So, what's in here? Oh, look at this, Keith.
What is this?
A little kid's bedroom or an office, maybe?
Any of them. Any of the above.
And the upstairs bedroom is way too small.
It's like a Goldilocks house.
Oh, my God, it's cut on the corner.
The rest of the door is right there.
That is funny.
The question is, is any part of this house just right?
More construction going on here.
It's another triangle door there.
This is obviously the attic, but they're hardly gonna use this
as livable square footage, right?
I will say we did find one redeeming feature to this place.
All right. Here we go.
Oh, my goodness!
It's working.
That's amazing.
It's the best thing about this house.
Yeah. So, what are they asking for it?
Well, they want $500,000 as is.
$500,000?
And what I'm saying is we'd need another $200,000 to fix it.
But, like, retail's like...
I don't know, $795,000?
But it's a very specific house.
Right, we're gonna have to wait for somebody
who's really into nursery rhymes to come buy this one, right?
This house isn't a standard zombie,
and the price reflects that.
I mean, we're open to flipping a more expensive house
if the numbers add up right, but on this one,
it's just too big a risk for too little reward.
I think we have to say no.
Yeah. All right.
Okay. Sorry. That's too bad.
I liked it, but can we get a bell on another house, though?
Oh, my God. Yes.
So you're saying we do not have a permit yet?
No. We have plans, and the plans are submitted.
I just signed a check for the hard money yesterday
for $2,800.
Hard money down the drain.
In order to buy this property,
we had to secure a hard-money loan.
Now, that's a loan that's high-interest
for hopefully a short duration.
That's money we never get back.
We're now a month in, and we're still waiting on permits
from the county for plumbing and electrical work,
which has to be done before drywall, painting,
appliance installation, fixtures,
and every day this flip lasts beyond two and a half months
is more hard-money payments that we didn't budget for.
What's the timeframe for that?
It could be another couple weeks.
Oh, my goodness.
I'm getting worried that we're not gonna make any money at all.
Here we go.
Hello. How can I help you?
Hi, how are you?
Today is a red-letter day in our house flip.
After tons more phone calls
and several more weeks of frustration,
we're finally meeting with Edgewood city officials
to get our permits completed.
They do things differently around here,
so we came in person to make sure there's no more problems.
Thank you for coming in.
Take a look at your applications.
You've got it almost together.
Almost? Yeah, a few things.
Such as general-liability certificates of insurance,
workers compensation,
contractors' documents for each of your subs,
a business tax receipt for your electrical,
your plumbing, your HVAC.
We need to get their documents.
Holy crap, I can barely keep up with this woman.
She's saying a bunch of things
that I thought we already took care of,
both with the county and the city.
I mean, how many more layers could there possibly be
for us to get through?
How are you? John Dallas, the mayor here.
Oh, how's it going? - Ashlee. - Nice to meet you.
- Good to meet you. - Good to meet you. What's going on?
They're missing some contractors' documents,
so I'd like to just put a zoning hold on this.
Zoning hold sounds a little over-the-top, no?
Zoning hold will actually work in your favor.
It's just something to keep in place
so that you don't have to wait on us.
You'll still be able to get your work going,
but you won't get a final occupancy
until all the paperwork and everything has been done,
the permits are pulled.
Okay, great, - thank you so much. - Okay, all right.
So we'll try and get the info ASAP, yeah?
Yeah.
This is such a relief.
I mean, it's still not clear to me
why the last round of documents that we sent in wasn't enough.
But at this point, I'm happy to send Edgewood
a fresh copy of our contractors' credentials
if it means we can get cranking.
Let's do this.
Got a full driveway. That's a good sign.
Now we just need to get the building inspector out here
to remove this thing off our window.
The carpenter is coming.
The electricians are here. You know what I need you to fix?
The sprinkler systems. All the grass is dying.
I think these permits came through just in time.
The power to this house had been turned off,
which means the sprinkler system had been turned off.
And now our grass is developing a bunch of brown patches.
New sod would cost around five to seven grand.
But now, with some new sprinkler heads,
we can make this lawn green and lush again.
We also have our AC guy coming out today.
- Hey! - Hey, how are you?
Steve with Century Air Conditioning.
How can we help?
We need to upgrade our AC unit.
Yeah, let's take a look. See what you have.
- Here she is. - Wow.
We all definitely want to move this far away from the pool.
Maybe we could put it next to the pool pump right there?
Yeah, that's always an option.
We're gonna have to reroute the refrigerant lines
through the attic.
Well, if they're going through the attic,
maybe instead of having it in the backyard,
we can move it around the corner so we don't have to look at it.
- Yeah, or here. - That's a better idea.
So, Steve, what are we looking at?
I mean, how much is this gonna run us?
Well, I would say, to replace the indoor and outdoor unit
and relocate this, you're probably looking at
somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000.
Can we keep it at seven?
Honestly, 7 to 8 grand isn't outrageous for that work,
but I'm just hoping
that some things start to come in under budget.
With all the delays, this flip's definitely gonna
take a little longer than two and a half months,
and those extra interest payments on our loan
are gonna eat into our profit,
unless we can find somewhere else to save that money.
Wherever we decide to put it, we'd have to look
at the locations and check the local codes.
Is it difficult to get a permit to move it?
Because we've had some issues already.
We're replacing an existing unit,
so we don't need any drawings or plans or anything.
Um... Cool.
Should be fairly simple.
Now that I think about it, seven to eight grand
for a new AC unit sounds fantastic.
As long as it involves no more city paperwork,
sign me up.
Let's get out of here and get to work.
Now that we have all the permits figured out,
we can start navigating the real challenges
of today's house-flipping market--
trying to schedule overbooked crews
to come start work on our house.
It took longer than we wanted,
but we finally got a crew in here
to install the vinyl flooring we picked out over a month ago.
The limed-oak-colored planks are beautiful,
they're durable, and better yet, they're affordable.
Next up is the master bath.
We're going with Ondine porcelain
3x12-inch wall tiles,
which have a beautiful high-gloss finish.
Then we're adding a large niche with square tiles
that have a beautiful, hand-painted floral design.
For the hall bathroom, we're adding a cast-iron tub
surrounded by the same beautiful Ondine tiles.
But we have a different design for this niche.
Here, we're using a rectangular floral pattern
that pairs well with the mosaic tile floors,
which is being laid out with red spacers
to make sure it's perfectly squared-up before
the grout's added.
When it's all done, these bathrooms will feel like
a luxurious French spa at home.
Even though it feels like we're just getting started,
we're already two months into this flip,
so we got to keep those fixes coming.
Of the 90 grand we budgeted for,
we've spent just over 20,
thanks to the early shopping we did
and some of the design work.
But with a lot of high-dollar items still to come,
we need to work fast and see how close
we can stick to this two-and-a-half-month timeline
Okay, I got our stuff.
All our plumbing equipment.
Bath is going in.
Yeah. Can't wait to see what it looks like.
All right.
"Do not nail."
What is this?
What's on the other side of this?
- Let's go see. - Hmm.
It's the niche.
Wow, that's pretty crazy, I never thought it would be...
close to the other wall, I don't know.
Dude, so you're telling me that if somebody buys this house
and they're going, like, first day here,
they're hammering their, like, "live, laugh, love" sign,
nails going right through,
tiles clinking from the other side.
- Let's go figure it out. - Yeah.
Yeah, let's see the other side of this wall.
What can we do?
I was thinking we could bump out the whole wall,
maybe with more 2x4s, just reframe it all.
I mean, that's logical, but the problem is,
if we do that, then we have to take this
all the way down, and...
it narrows a hallway, right?
What about if we just double-hang drywall and pray
that nobody puts a full nail through it?
Hope is not a strategy.
What if we did a big mirror that's like built-in mirror?
God, I hate that, too.
What if we put open shelving? I don't know.
Sometimes, in renovation,
there isn't a good solution to every problem.
So you just got to make the best of it with what you got.
What if the bump-out was just from here to there?
I mean, it would look kind of weird, but...
Yeah, it'd be unobtrusive.
Nobody would even really think about it, and it protects it.
Good deal.
Let's go tell Bill to frame it up.
- Yeah. All right. - Yeah.
So, we're gonna add some new framing,
and we're going to take about 4 inches of space
from the first 3 feet of the entryway,
but that will ensure that our beautiful shower stays intact.
To me, that's a worthwhile trade.
So, I have a quick question for you guys.
I ordered all the appliances already in there, you know,
at the very beginning of the flip,
and 'cause they're on back order.
So I got an electrical range
'cause I forgot that we have gas.
So the range is gonna go over there.
The gas comes out there, so we'd have to get someone
to come pipe it over.
Is it worth it?
Gas? For gas?
- Absolutely, yeah. - I say yes.
So I need the electrician to switch it to a 120.
Hello!
There's somebody in the front door.
Knock, knock!
Hello!
- Oh!
- Oh, hi! - Oh, hi! How are you?
Good. How are you?
Oh, it's so good to meet y'all.
I'm Jojo, and I'm from the HOA board.
And I just wanted to welcome y'all to the neighborhood
and tell you how glad we are that you're here
and seeing the improvements that you're doing to the house.
- Thank you. Appreciate it. - That's awesome.
This is nice.
Despite all of our concerns with the HOA,
we finally got to meet one of its members,
and she couldn't be nicer.
It's such a refreshing change
from what we've been dealing with.
These are a few invoices that belong to the house.
If you'll look through them and take care of them,
just at your convenience.
It's the board's understanding
that now they're your responsibility.
I guess she wasn't so much just being friendly
as she was killing us with kindness
and a fat stack of bills.
I have no idea where this stuff came from.
We did our due diligence on this property,
and none of this stuff popped up.
So, I'm looking at a lot of bills here.
$1,500. I saw one for $2,000.
$150, $900.
That's like 7 grand worth of bills there.
One thing I've learned, moving to the South,
when people here say, "Bless your heart,"
they mean something else.
Something like, "Screw you, and please enjoy this
southern-fried bombshell to your budget."
Two grand. $360.
The HOA estoppel during title work
should have picked all this up, though.
I mean, 'cause what the estoppel does,
they literally hit up the HOA and they say,
"Hey, does this address have any past due,
what's the current balance,
and what are future assessments gonna be?"
That's for the HOA, not for all these utility bills, right?
Isn't that a different lien search?
Yeah. Well, I don't know.
I think we need to estop the estoppel or something.
Let's go in and make some calls.
Call the title company and figure this out.
And in the meantime...
bless your heart.
We're right at the two-and-a-half-month mark
that we set for ourselves.
So from now on, it's a race to finish fast
and limit the overreach on our loan interest.
Our next task is fixing up the pool.
First, we get rid of the luminous green water
and the cracked aquamarine tiles.
In goes some 6x6" quartz tiles called Blue Ocean.
They're really gonna compliment the resurfacing color
we picked out-- Miami Blue.
Now all that's missing here
is about 30,000 gallons of clean water,
and voilà-- we got a backyard paradise.
Today, we got word that our title insurance
will cover the debts on this property
that weren't properly flagged.
It's a huge relief to know that we did things right
and that the process actually worked in our favor
because we still have plenty of our own expenses
to cover in this renovation,
like replacing the living-room windows.
We're swapping in some custom vinyl double-paned windows
from Eco Glass.
They're user-friendly,
and they look as good from the inside
as they do the outside.
Then we got to get these interior walls
looking good, too.
So our drywall team goes to work.
And our painters are next, coating each room
with Decoration White, an off-white shade
that makes every room look clean and pristine.
We're spending cash fast and furious on this flip.
Our $90,000 renovation budget's already halfway gone.
And we've already blown through our timeline
that we budgeted for.
We've still got some major expenses ahead,
like that primo kitchen upgrade.
But the good news is we built
some padding into our reno budget
just in case some surprise fixes came up.
So there's a chance that the money we have left
will make up for any overages on our interest.
This is the one I was telling you
is the French country kind of style.
Okay. I love it.
This is the master. It's huge, right?
Yeah, put a king bed right there.
Two big nightstands.
Even though we're still a week away from finishing this house,
I went ahead and booked a consult with Joseph
from Systematic Staging so that we can line up
the furniture that we'll need for our open house.
So, what are you thinking in this space?
Are you thinking sectional or sofa?
I mean, I love sectionals, but...
Oh.
Hello? Sorry.
Hold on, Joseph. Hi, how are you?
Hi! I'm Stacy.
I'm with the Edgewood Police Department, Code Enforcement.
Uh-huh.
I was here to take down your "stop work" order sign.
Oh, perfect.
But because you guys are currently working
and there's a "stop work" order,
I'm gonna have to see all the permits.
They're all here. This is the electrical.
Okay.
And then the plumbing one I have on my phone.
Okay, do you mind if I see it?
Yeah, yeah. Let me find my phone, one second.
The "stop work" order was supposed to be taken down
weeks ago when we got our permit finally approved.
I'm so glad they're getting around to it now,
but whatever caused the delay, I now have to prove
to one more person that we're allowed to work here.
Okay.
I know where it is here.
So, that's the electrical one.
Okay, the permit for the plumbing.
You guys technically shouldn't be working
until the "stop work" order was removed.
Okay.
Let me see here.
God, how do I find the permitting?
I cannot believe this.
I can't find the permit on my phone,
and now they might shut us down again.
This is a nightmare.
I know I have a copy of this permit somewhere.
You guys technically shouldn't be working until the
"stop work" order was removed.
I can't find it here. Wait one second.
Okay.
Okay, sorry.
Made me panic, and I was like, "Oh."
This is it. Perfect.
Thank God we had a backup copy stashed at the house
because if we lost that permit and any more time on this flip,
I literally was gonna lose my mind.
So, next time, we really need the "stop work" order down
before we move on with the construction process next time.
But I'll go ahead and take it down,
and you guys are good to go.
Perfect.
Finally, we can get rid of this ugly badge of dishonor
and get back to making this house beautiful.
- Thank you so much. - Appreciate it.
- Have a good day. - Bye. Thanks.
Oh, my goodness.
There's still a lot to do to get this house finished,
and we'd like to have our open house
at the end of this week.
Right, now we're installing a Noritz tankless water heater.
The tankless design can provide an endless stream of hot water
and provide energy savings of over 60 percent
compared to tank heaters.
Next, we're assembling and installing a set of
dove-gray Shaker cabinets in the kitchen.
And we'll be covering them with some gorgeous white, marble
countertops from West Quartz.
Marble is the baker's choice
because it's a naturally cool surface
that's great for working with dough.
And it's also visually stunning.
We're also putting in a Zellige pearl-opal backsplash
that spans an array of light-gray hues,
blending all of the colors of the kitchen together.
And to really take this kitchen above and beyond,
we're installing all top-of-the-line appliances,
including a state-of-the-art gas range from ZLINE.
And last but definitely not least, staging.
All right, ready?
Perfect.
The team from Systematic Staging
is transforming this place into a home.
- Hey! - Hey!
How we doing?
We are ready to go.
Here we go. First day on the market.
we've come a really long way on this house.
Think about where we started.
This house really was the zombie of the neighborhood.
It was such a filthy, rundown eyesore,
and these previous tenants, they really left it for dead.
We've come pretty far.
It's a huge difference.
Yeah, it looks great.
Do you feel like you're in the south of France right now?
Mm-hmm.
I feel that Provence style you were going for.
Want to check it out inside?
Yeah.
Wow! This is cool.
It looks great.
Looks amazing, right?
Remember the old floor that was here?
Yeah, that old floor was wrecked.
Looks like something's chewing on these floors.
I feel like this is a very European vibe.
It's really classy,
and it really brightens up the place.
Okay, should we check out the rest of the house?
This fabulous guest room with the new windows.
I mean, the bedroom felt small before,
but these light and bright floors
and walls really make the space feel much larger.
I know. It's huge.
And check out how we set up the next bedroom.
- The office. - I know. Isn't this fab?
Sure beats its former role of garbage dump.
And then when you get sick of working,
just pop on out to the pool.
Just jump right in, yeah.
All right. Let's go check out the guest bathroom.
- This looks good in here. - It's cute, right?
This was the goofiest little bathroom.
Oh, my God, that was terrible.
But now no more mustard. It looks fantastic.
It feels so fresh and European.
We check out the master?
Yeah.
Ta-da!
Amazing.
Remember all the trash?
It was, like, literally, like a dirty old mattress
and just rubbish.
- Look at it now. - The new windows.
It's so bright and light, and it feels massive.
It's amazing, and then we did
a really nice job in the master bathroom, too.
It used to be a hodgepodge of styles,
you know, with that dark vanity out here
and that minty green tile in the shower.
Now it has this fantastic custom vanity
and a cohesive color palette.
My favorite part is that gorgeous,
hand-painted tile.
I mean, look at this. You know you've seen that in Provence.
It's a great touch, Ash.
Okay, guys, let's go look at the kitchen.
Hey!
This is a huge transformation.
Yeah, this was a terrible use of space before,
but now it's really opened up and accessible.
It looks good, Ash.
You did a knock-out job with this.
Beautiful all the way around.
And these countertops from West Quartz--
aren't they amazing?
Yeah, and there's almost like a gold hue to them, right?
Yeah.
And then just past the dining area is the living room.
I mean, looking at the pool from here, it looks so incredible.
- Let's go check it out. - Yeah.
This is so beautiful!
Yeah. It's amazing.
The luminous green swamp is but a distant memory.
We totally refinished it.
It's Miami Blue quartz.
It's amazing.
France inside, but it's still Florida outside.
Think it's gonna sell fast? I hope so.
I feel like my open house should be starting anytime.
Yeah, all right. - We'll get out of here. - Get it set up.
A lot of time and effort
went into bringing this zombie back from the dead
and making it a bright spot
in this already fantastic neighborhood.
Based on recent comps in the area,
we've decided to bump up our asking price from $475,000
to $499,000.
Welcome to my open house.
It's beautiful.
Come on in. I'll show you around.
Here's our kitchen.
Oh, my goodness, look at this.
Love the countertops.
It's engineered quartz.
It's beautiful.
The sink is-- I love that.
Do you guys like to cook?
- We love to. - Oh, okay.
So you're gonna - love this, right? - Yes.
Here we have the living room.
- Yeah, this is nice. - Oh, it's very open.
Here we have a guest bedroom.
Oh, wow. It's a great size.
Here's my office! I love it.
I work from home. This would be wonderful.
- This is the hallway bath. - Beautiful.
Everything's very bright. It's nice.
Yeah.
These floors are beautiful.
And here's the master suite.
This is an amazing size.
I have a lot of stuff, so this is great.
And then we have the master bathroom over here.
Oh, yeah, the walk-in.
Oh, wow, this is huge.
Oh, and look at this!
I love these tiles. Are they hand-painted?
They are. They're from France.
So unique.
Woman #2: There's a rain shower.
I would really be spoiled if I lived here.
- And here's the pool. - Whoo!
- This is really great. - How much is this house?
- $499,000. - Perfect.
I want to put in an offer.
Perfect. I would love that.
Thanks for coming, guys.
- Yeah, of course. - Appreciate it.
The overheads went swimmingly.
We had multiple offers, and we ended up accepting one
for $485,000,
which we were really glad to accept.
We bought this house for $285,000,
and we didn't have to use any of the buffer in our reno budget,
spending just under 80 grand.
The closing costs landed at $22,500,
and we limited our loan-interest overage to $1,000,
coming in at just $7,300.
That puts our total expense at $394,000.
So a sale price of $485,000
gives us a fantastic profit of $91,000.
Hey, hey, hey! Hey!
- How'd it go? - Amazing. Very busy.
Everybody loved what we've done to the house.
Nice. We get to close it out.
No more HOA to deal with, no more permitting.
No inspections. - Code enforcement.
Dude, speak of the devil!
Lookit, you're getting a ticket right now, player.
What? Hey, come on. That's not...
Hey!
You're parked in the wrong direction,
impeding the flow of traffic.
Aw, man!
Oh, my God. What?
The icing on the cake.