Justin: Real estate is a hot commodity.
But around every corner, danger lurks...
from zombie houses.
♪
These rotting corpses aren't just ugly...
Keith: What happened?
...they're dangerous.
Whoa!
Fire! Get out of there!
And they can drag down an entire neighborhood...
Justin: It's the ugliest house on the street.
...but their days are numbered.
♪
Here in Orlando, Florida,
taking on these monstrosities is our specialty.
These are wrecked, but we don't shy away from things like that.
Ew. Our team tracks these filthy zombies down...
Ashlee: 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.
Justin: ...that we can sell... We are ready to go.
...for an even sweeter payday.
Here's to selling another house.
This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
♪ Pour me up a red cup ♪
♪ It's been too long, how you holding on? ♪
♪ Am I gonna see you blowing up? ♪
♪ Let me see you standing tall when it got too tough ♪
♪ I'm movin' on ♪
Keith: So where are we going this morning?
A family home that they've had in their family for decades.
The parents and the uncle - had passed away. - Okay.
And they want us to come take a look, make them an offer.
It's an old wood framer. It's in Colonialtown.
- Okay. - And it is a time capsule.
- That's beautiful, dude. - Oh, my God. It sounds amazing.
Colonial Town is a neighborhood just outside downtown Orlando
that is highly sought after by young professionals,
families, and hipsters.
It has a lot to offer, like great schools,
even better restaurants,
and a lot of great parks and lakes.
With the median home value being in the mid-300,000s,
the desire to live in this neighborhood is extremely high.
I seriously love this neighborhood.
Forecasted growth for next year
in this neighborhood alone is 17%.
It is the most desirable area
for anyone under the age of 50 to live.
- Yeah. - So what are the specs in this house?
Well, it's a two-bed, one-bath house,
around 1,300 square feet.
It has a living room with a fireplace.
There's a utility room in the back,
and behind it is a separate building
that I think was used as a workshop.
It's a small lot.
You kind of are, like, stacked on top of your neighbors.
It's kind of just funky, you know?
It's kind of like one of the original houses on the street,
and everybody else built around it.
And it just wrapped up in probate. Okay.
Probate is the legal process to figure out who becomes
the heir to a property
once the homeowner has passed away.
If there isn't a clear will in place,
the court can assign a personal representative
who's free to put the house on the market,
and then the proceeds will be divided amongst surviving heirs.
Probate houses are often outdated,
and a lot of times the beneficiaries just want
to sell them and be done with it,
which could end up being a good bargain for us.
Did they give you a price?
Yeah, they said they were thinking
$215,000 for the purchase price.
- Holy cow, that's... - That sounds really good.
That's land value.
What Justin's found here could be a real diamond in the rough.
It does sound like there could be a lot of work needed, though.
But picking up this house in this neighborhood
for around $200,000,
there should be a good amount of profit in it for us.
It's this one with the American flag?
Yes, the one with the American flag.
♪
So here she is.
Oh, my God.
I see what you mean about being right next to the neighbor.
This is not even a 50-foot-wide lawn.
You got a chicken-wire fence separating these neighbors.
You got no fence separating those neighbors.
It's kind of brutal.
This house is definitely squeezed in.
It's a great street in a gorgeous area.
And I love this tree and everything.
And is that a newer roof? Do you know?
I don't know.
Keith: Could use a little bit of TLC on the landscaping.
I mean, it's a cool little hideaway bungalow.
Let's go see the inside.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Ashlee: Oh, my goodness.
- Holy moly. - Whoa!
♪
Ugh! Looks like some pretty compulsive hoarding
going on here.
This front room here was a porch at one point, right?
'Cause, yeah, you can feel the--
It's kind of slanted.
Yeah, the floor slopes down slightly.
So this was, like, an add-on.
They captured square footage here the old-school way.
The first thing we find under all this junk
is a half-assed fix.
It's great that they made the house bigger,
but the fact that they didn't level the floor
shows a lack of attention to detail
that could mean a bunch of other hidden problems.
Okay, let's see the rest of this place.
Oh, God, guys, look at the ceiling.
I see leaking over there.
- Yeah, woof. - That's pretty bad.
Maybe that roof might not be as new as we think it is,
'cause look at how wet and soggy this filter looks.
Look, there's attic access.
Keith, see what the underside of the roof looks like.
Oh, don't break the...
I'm not going to--There's a chair right here, bro.
- Oh, my God. - I'm not gonna break it, guys.
Uh... See a roof?
Yeah, it's a board roof.
And it looks in pretty good shape.
Keith: So this might be as simple as replacing
the rusted-out A.C. and all its pipes.
It's expensive, but it's cheaper than a roof.
Justin: Okay, so here's one of the two bedrooms.
- Wow! - I don't even know how deep this bedroom goes.
- Yeah, and there's wood floors. - How can you tell?
Keith: The entire room's a junk pile.
Keith, your next girlfriend.
That's so creepy.
This is the other bedroom. - Yeah.
Justin: Equally junky,
but decent-size rooms for this house.
There are some highlights, though.
I mean, if you think about it, you don't see, like, drywall
being torn up by water leaks under the windows.
We see-- I mean, we see roof leaks,
but I think that can be cleaned up easy enough.
So far, there's nothing in here that has me super scared.
Other than removing all the clutter in here,
this junkyard dog could be the real deal.
Ah, did anyone look at the bathroom yet?
- I'm scared to go in there. - Let me see.
You guys go first.
- Oh, my God. - It's gross.
On the bright side, the bathroom's kind of big.
- We can work with this. - Ashlee: Yeah.
This house is starting to feel like one of those relics
you find buried in the attic
that ends up being worth thousands of dollars.
I think that buried under all this stuff is a decent house
with good bones, a little bit undervalued,
and will bring the team a surprising profit.
There's a whole kitchen and a back porch room.
Ashlee: Oh, my goodness.
- It's kind of a big kitchen. - Yeah, it's huge.
Honestly, like, I feel like you could just
demo it out and reconfigure it.
This, I don't think, was the original layout for the kitchen.
This wall here looks pretty thin,
like somebody just made up their own interior dividing wall.
Ashlee: Oh, what is this? Like, a dining room?
Yeah. So the kitchen may have been in here, too,
at one point in time.
Justin: Kind of a small, useless dining room, if you ask me.
Let's check out that utility room.
More than big enough for your washer and dryer.
You could do, like, a sitting area in here, too,
like, a sun-room.
Okay, let's see what's in the back.
Not a lot of yard space here, that's for sure.
Ashlee: Is this the workshop you mentioned?
- Look how nice it is. - This used to be a garage.
It looks like there's a bathroom over there.
- A whole bathroom? - Uh, it is.
Oh, my goodness. Wow.
Oh, this is a shower with exposed plumbing.
Justin: Kind of cool that we have a bathroom, though,
so we can make this, like, a 1/1 if we wanted.
- Yep. - Yeah.
And what's over here? A back door.
And then what's this? Oh.
Oh, my God. Look at this. A tool-shed thing.
Justin: Oh, wait, tools?
So this is the workshop.
But now I'm thinking it could be the kitchenette.
This rear building is blowing me away.
Forget a workshop.
With just a little bit of renovation,
we could turn this unit into a moneymaking rental property
for whoever buys this house.
I'm not sure the sellers realize the potential on this property.
So, guys, this place could be great without a ton of work.
Right?
Ashlee: If we're turning that back unit into an ADU,
I think the property is undervalued
and we can get it for a steal.
Keith: So what are the numbers?
Honestly, I'm thinking if we don't have to do the roof,
we could probably get away with spending...
- 60 - ...70.
- Yeah, 60, 70. - 80. Okay, 70, yeah.
Okay, but I think we can get at least...
- 475. - ...425.
Oh, I was just gonna to be happy with 425.
Yeah. When I'm finished making this super cute,
we will get 475.
So what's the offer?
Well, I think we offer him 200.
- Yeah. - Let's get on Anna.
Let's go back to the blueprint office.
We'll write up an offer, and...
- Alright. - ...get this thing done.
- Great. Fine, man. - Yeah.
Let's get out of here.
Justin: We got a hold of the family,
and they accepted our offer of $200,000,
which is a great deal for us.
We're giving ourselves a budget of 70 grand for this flip.
We've also decided to fund this deal with all of our own cash.
Interest rates have gone up recently,
so we love the idea of not having to pay anything
for a loan, especially if it means our cash
is only tied up for a little bit.
And I think we can finish this flip in six weeks or less.
Closing costs when we sell should come in around 20 grand,
bringing our all-in cost around $290,000.
But in this hot market where buyers are scarfing up
renovated houses,
especially ones with rental units,
we think that 450 grand
is a solid middle-ground expectation for the sale price,
which would net the team around 160 grand profit.
It's a small house, so there's not a lot to redesign.
But we are gonna make some basic adjustments
to the floor plan.
For the back unit, our layout's still tentative,
but we do want to remove
that wall that extends past the bathroom
to help open the space up.
For the main house, we'll start with a simple fix--
adding a closet to the utility room
so the washer and dryer can be tucked away out of sight.
But the big fix is to create a better flow
through the common areas.
We're gonna take down the wall
between the kitchen and the dining room,
creating an open connection
all the way through to the living room.
♪
Demo day! Yeah! Let's go.
It's time to strip this place down and get it ready for reno.
First, our team clears out about 40 years' worth
of knickknacks and assorted junk.
Then we get smashing...
...opening the kitchen up to the adjoining room
and tearing down the dated finishes
and ugly walls of this home.
Ahh!
Once we're done with the main house... Ugh!
...we head to the rear unit...
...gutting the inside...
- Come on, now. Be careful. - Oh, my God.
Ashlee! Be careful, I'm telling you.
...and clearing the way for a modern rebuild
from the ground up.
- Oh. - Alright, Ashlee wins!
Whoo!
♪
Today it's time to upgrade the plumbing system.
We're installing new flexible PEX pipe
throughout the main house,
along with durable PVC under the kitchen and the bathroom.
We also dig out the old line to the back unit
and upgrade it as well.
♪
Next up-- the electrical system.
With the old breaker box removed,
our electricians run from fresh wires to new junction boxes
and fixture connections.
The work will have to be inspected
a few times along the way,
starting with a rough inspection of the basic layout.
But our pros know what they're doing,
and we'll have this place shining in no time.
♪
Hey, dude, we got a problem.
I was just down at City Hall. Yeah.
We don't have permits for the back house
at the Minnesota Project.
Is it not attached to our general build-out permit?
Somebody went and got a separate address for the back unit,
and that means it requires its own permit.
So all the permits that we had that were for--
for the combined property have to be separated.
For real? Please tell me it wasn't your idea
to get a second address.
Well, I asked the city commissioner
what to do to get another power meter out there.
- Oh! - And it's multifamily zoned,
so I was like, we should have two power meters
so whoever buys us can have an ADU with separate billing.
You asked for a separate meter, not knowing that
that would compel - a separate address. - Yeah.
Keith: This meter confusion is a major snafu.
There used to be a time when you could have two meters
on the same address,
but the regulations have changed.
Justin didn't realize that.
Now we have to get new permits for the back house,
and that could take quite a while.
Keith: With the length of time that it takes
to go through the permitting process--
I mean, review by itself is three weeks,
and then they issue the permit, and then, like,
we're seven weeks out by the time we get that finished,
and we can't sell the house with half of it not done.
With our money tied up, this hang-up could cost us
months on this flip.
This permit glitch is big, and not just for this house.
With our cash tied up in this place,
if we don't finish it and sell quickly,
we're gonna have to borrow more money for our other flips,
and that's gonna drive those costs up even higher.
I've never been in this situation before.
This is an odd one.
When I asked the city about the separate electric meters,
I thought they would just make it, like, Unit B.
- Really? - Yeah. Yeah.
Maybe that's our hook, right?
That's our leg to stand on, if we can go and say,
"Hey, listen, we had no idea
that you were gonna give us a second address
and it was gonna destroy
our whole permitting process," right?
- Yeah. - We can go in and say,
"Because that happened, could we ask you to expedite it?"
Maybe they'll recognize what that did to us
and speed it through permitting.
Yeah, maybe they'll cut us a break.
The good news is we've worked
with the folks from City Hall before.
They know who we are, so they might understand this mistake.
and fix it quickly.
Hopefully, we'll be back to flipping in no time.
I'll call you as soon as I got an answer, man.
Alright, brother. I'll see you.
♪
Keith: With our back unit temporarily on hold,
we're gonna get cranking with the framing work
on the front house.
We start by putting furring strips on the ceiling,
which will allow for some fresh drywall
and still leave room for electrical conduit
to run underneath.
We also use furring on the outside walls,
which will be used to attach new siding.
The misunderstanding about the meter request
means the back house now has a new address altogether.
That means that our permits no longer apply there
and all work has to stop.
So I'm meeting with Lillian and Patty
to see if they can help untangle this mess.
Okay. What's going on?
Well, so we bought a house on Minnesota,
and it was a main property with a ADU in the back.
And what happened is that
we wanted a separate meter for the rear unit.
So we made the request. It got put through.
And not only did they give us a separate meter,
they gave us a separate address.
Meanwhile, the permit that we had submitted
for the entire project
just got kind of shrunk to just the front part
because I guess the rear unit now with its own address
requires its own permits.
And so we're making great progress on the front part,
but we're not making any progress on the rear.
- Okay. - And it's really holding us up.
Typically, we do have to, if it's a new address--
and typically with something like that it is--
it takes some time for it to go through our system
and the county system,
because they have to actually - issue the address. - Okay.
Is there any way we could continue work
in the absence of the permit?
'Cause we do have our electrical, our plumbing,
what have you in the walls.
We can't cover anything up until we get the permit issued.
- Correct. - I mean, we could take pictures of the work done.
It's all being done by licensed professionals.
Is there, like, a hold-harmless type of thing
that we could do in the meantime, or...?
We could look at that. We can also get an inspector
out there to see what's been done...
Okay. ...and then continue from there.
We can work with you on that.
Okay. That would be amazing, 'cause sometimes it can take
a little bit to go through the system
and then request the inspection and so forth.
Do you think we could,
I don't know, perhaps expedite it?
Like, you try to get an inspector out tomorrow?
Sure. We can absolutely do that.
Most of our inspections are done next day,
so it should not be - a problem at all. - Really?
That-- that solves everything. That'd be amazing.
This is what we do.
Keith: That meeting went even better than I hoped.
I mean, getting an inspector out there tomorrow--
that means we can be back at work in just a couple of days.
It won't make up for lost time.
But it will prevent any more time from getting lost.
And that's huge.
♪
Justin: The inspector signed off on our back house,
so now we have two separate permits
for two separate addresses,
and we're free to work on both units.
It's time to install our new tile.
For the shower floor, we've chosen the small black hex.
Then outside of the shower, we're using a larger black hex
to create a visual continuity.
For the walls, we've selected a light elongated hex.
The color offers an elegant contrast to the floor,
while the shape of the tile ties the theme all together.
♪
Ashlee: We're also getting to work on the bathroom tile
in the back house, starting with the shower.
For the walls, we're installing a 4x4 tile
in a retro shade called Wood Violet.
Then for the floor, we've chosen an olive blend mosaic tile,
sticking with the retro theme.
When we're done with this bathroom,
it'll be a fully realized palette of classic chic.
♪
Justin: I got to get your opinion on this, man.
What do you think we do? Should we wrap this in tile,
wrap it in wood?
Granite. Granite?
Have it cut, like, to this-- this far out
and put crown molding on the front.
Blake: What? Hey! Son of a bitch!
[ Laughing ] What is Blake yelling about?
Yo! You messing with the electric?
- No. - No.
Blake, you alright?
Yeah, just the circuit breaker's been popping all day long.
- Seriously? - What do you mean?
Every time I get going with a cut, it just breaks off.
- Dude. - Oh, you mean the breakers pop?
- Right. - Well, that sucks.
I mean, we're still stuck on that damn temporary power pole.
That's exactly what it is.
After the rough-in inspection of our electrical system
was completed, we did more extensive work,
including the installation of a brand-new panel.
Unfortunately, that means we're waiting on another inspection
before we can electrify this house.
Until then, we're stuck using a temporary power pole
connected to the old breaker box.
And our guy, Blake, who's cutting bathroom tile right now,
is finding out it is not reliable.
We'll see how long that lasts.
Blake, you're saying this keeps happening to you?
It's been since the first part of the day.
- Seriously? - Every time I get halfway through, it pops.
Well, that's a pain, dude.
I'll call Electrical Surgeon, get them out here again
to maybe try to get us some better power, but--
Dude, we got a brand-new box.
We got a brand-new box
that hasn't been inspected and approved.
These electrical problems could seriously cripple our work here,
especially since we've already fallen behind
thanks to that permit mix-up we had earlier.
This property seems to have it in for us.
Ugh.
Alright, so we gotta call Electrical Surgeon,
gotta get them on the phone.
We gotta get this flip done.
Well... Well, thanks, guys.
- Alright. - Yeah, yeah.
Sorry about - all this, Blake. - No problem.
I mean, I thought we were comfortable
with what we were doing, but now this is uncomfortable,
so we gotta work faster.
Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
♪
Justin: We were able to get another inspection done
within a couple days, and we passed.
So that means we can start covering up all these new wires
with fresh drywall.
Our crew has a big job ahead of them,
since pretty much every single wall and ceiling
in this house is in need of some new Sheetrock.
Once those pieces are in place,
we mud over the seams and the screw holes
and get this place smooth and ready for paint.
♪
Ashlee: It's nice to see some work happening here
after all those hang-ups.
- I love a busy job site. - Me too.
We've made some progress at the main house on Minnesota,
but we haven't made as much progress on the rear unit,
mostly because we haven't settled on
a proper design for it.
It's time to take care of that.
It's looking so cute.
- It is cute. - Yeah.
And what I'm thinking is,
I think we need to lose this wall, you know?
- Really? - I do.
'Cause this is just a studio apartment, you know?
Like, literally, your bed and your living room
- are in the same room. - Yeah.
But you got this massive kitchen over here.
This is too big of a kitchen for this small of a unit.
If we drop this wall,
I think it would just make this place feel so much bigger.
Okay, so drop the wall and then, actually,
you could have the kitchen-- like, move it over
where that wall unit is,
'cause that's probably gonna go away.
Yeah. Maybe keep that window blocked in
and have the kitchen come across the back
down here in front of these windows.
Mm-hmm. It would feel a lot bigger,
and you could have an island right here.
I knew I could win her over with my idea.
All I had to do was suggest that we go with an open plan,
and Ash stepped in, took the idea, and ran with it.
I mean, it's still gonna be kind of tight.
Where do you put the fridge with all these windows and all that?
Where do you want to put the fridge?
What I'm thinking now is take it down.
And what if we switch and don't put the kitchen over here?
Maybe keep the bedroom here. Uh-huh.
And then come on over here. You have a sectional here.
So I'm thinking, look, L-shaped kitchen.
- You're the fridge. - I'm the fridge.
And then there's lowers going the whole way around,
sink in front of the window...
- Uh-huh. - ...uppers.
And then it's a cool little L-shaped kitchen.
- Cool. - And you still have room for a bedroom over here,
and the closet will go in behind here.
Okay. Sounds like a plan to me.
Justin: Even a small space like this
can have a lot of possibilities.
But we talked it out, and I think we nailed
the right layout for this unit.
We're clear to take this wall out?
- Take it down. - Alright.
We got ourselves a new plan.
Yeah, and the wall comes down.
Yeah, well, you know, that's what we do.
- Design. - Design!
Justin: We're two weeks into the six-week renovation,
and of the 70 grand we planned for reno,
we've spent just over 29.
That keeps us on track budget-wise
to flip both of these units,
but finishing them both on time might be a challenge.
♪
Hey, dude. What's going on?
Do you get these spam texts like I do that's like,
"Are you the owner of XYZ property?"
Oh, I get those and I get the calls.
Like, people call in from, like, obviously a far-off place
asking me if they can buy my house.
A result of this red-hot real-estate market that we're in
is unsolicited texts and robo calls from people
claiming that they want to buy your house.
They're almost always wholesalers looking to
lock up a property under contract
and then sell that contract to investors like us for a profit.
We prefer selling to an owner rather than a middleman,
but sometimes it's interesting just to hear their pitch.
[ Line ringing]
Hello, this is Freddy.
Hey, what's up, Freddy?
I just got a text from this number
about a property I have
that apparently you're interested in.
Awesome.
So I've been tying to get a hold of you.
I have a couple clients that have put me in charge
of finding them a house, budget around 500.
They're looking to move quic, though, that's the only issu.
They're coming into town in 14 days.
They're moving for work,
and they need the house ready to go and move in.
Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, wait.
Freddy, I'm gonna be upfront. We're still struggling
to assess whether you're legit or not,
but you're actually a real Realtor?
I know it's kind of an odd thing,
but I'm actually in Orlando.
Well, so here's the situation at the house.
The front house, the main house--
we could have it done in 14 days.
The rear house-- very unlikely to be done in 14 days.
Yeah, they don't need you to finish the back house.
They can do that later on their own.
They just need you to finish the front house in two weeks.
The back house comes with it.
Like, it's, like, the same plat.
Could be a good cash-flow house.
If y'all are legit, y'all want to come
take a look at it, or what?
Yeah, so they've been having me FaceTime,
'cause obviously they're not here.
So I could come by and I'll--
I'll FaceTime them, and we'll see what they say.
Alright, well, like I said, man,
it's still a job site, but we can work out a time
to leave a key in the lockbox for you.
Awesome. Thank you, guys.
I appreciate the time.
Yeah, man. See ya.
Dude, magic phone call.
That's the phone call that never happens.
This guy sounded legit.
Keith: Man, this crazy market is prompting some crazy offers.
We're way behind on the back house
because of all those permit problems.
We also self-financed this flip,
which means tying up all of our cash.
If we can sell this place
for the top end of our range in two weeks,
and we don't even have to finish the reno in the back house,
that solves everything for us.
We should check out his proof of funds.
We'll see if his clients are legit,
and if they actually want to buy it from us,
then whatever, we'll sell it to them.
For sure. Let's roll out of here.
Let's go.
♪
Keith: We followed up on those buyers,
and they were legit.
If we can finish the front house
to their satisfaction within two weeks,
they'll buy this place for $475,000.
Obviously, no deal's locked until it officially closes,
but with the money we'd save by not having to finish
that back house, we gotta go for it.
The next step? Paint.
As a courtesy, we're going ahead and painting both houses,
starting with a medium gray on the eaves and soffits,
as well as window frames and even the porch ceiling.
It's a strong but neutral color
that provides a solid outline for both units.
Once that dries, we tape up those outlines
and get started on our body color--
a bold red that'll give these smaller houses a real presence
and help them stand out.
And the buyers like it, too.
♪
With nine days to our deadline,
it's time to get our flooring done.
We've chosen luxury vinyl planks for this house.
They look like wood,
but they're actually more durable and more affordable.
They're also easy to install.
We're using Gorilla Glue adhesive to lock them in place.
The light-brown tone adds a sense of warmth to the rooms,
and the herringbone pattern adds the perfect touch of style.
♪
Justin: We're down to just five days left.
So today, our crew is starting to build out our kitchen.
They're installing white Shaker cabinets,
which will give this room a nice, clean look.
While they're at it, they're putting the new stove in place
we have been cranking on our renovations,
and we've gotten a lot done.
But I was just alerted that things might not be going
as smoothly as planned.
Cabinets just got assembled yesterday,
but I gave the cabinet guys, I think, the wrong layout.
Oh. I did a-- yeah.
- What the heck? - That's frustrating.
How'd that happen?
Like I said, I guess I gave them the wrong layout.
This upper shouldn't be here, though.
We're supposed to have a chef's hood.
And you know what sucks is we had to delete the dishwasher.
But I was like, this house is so small.
It is what it is.
Why did we delete the dishwasher?
It didn't fit in the kitchen right.
Like, the cabinet guys set it up.
And then when the guys came and built it, they're like,
"Uh, you got a dishwasher delivered.
Where does it go?"
And then I was like, "Oh, my God."
There were two different layouts,
and the one that I guess I gave him
was the not-dishwasher one.
I can't believe what I'm hearing.
Justin designed a kitchen with no dishwasher,
no range hood, and drawers that don't open?
We're under a deadline!
And there might not be time to fix it in the next four days.
This is really bad.
So we're gonna try to sell a house for top dollar
without a dishwasher?
I mean, they can pop it in somewhere else afterwards.
- It is what it is. - Oh, my God.
Justin seems to think this is no big deal.
But kitchens are the heart of any rehab.
If our buyers aren't satisfied with this house,
they can back out of the deal.
Meeting this deadline is becoming a real killer.
I really hope this doesn't blow up on us.
♪
- Okay! - Okay.
We're getting close. - Getting closer.
What are we gonna do with that?
There's granite that's going on top of that
and crown molding in front.
Our deadline for finishing this house is in just a few days.
And while we do have a few final things to wrap up,
I think we're gonna make it.
Any decision on painting this, or no?
Uh, I don't know.
We might even let the buyer decide that.
That's the thing-- we have the buyer,
and they are ready to move in.
- Has he seen the inside yet? - It's an out-of-town guy.
He hasn't seen the inside, inside,
but he doesn't care--Oh, my God.
So just let me tell you, I think--
This house is not as perfect as we wanted it,
so I guess it's smart to dress it up nice for its first date.
And hopefully it'll be love at first sight.
Alright, I'll call the staging crew.
Justin: The good news is
we anticipated $70,000 for this renovation
and only spent about $53,000
since we didn't have to complete that back unit,
assuming the deal still goes through.
Here's to hoping the buyers are happy with the results.
♪
Ashlee: We've decided it's better to be safe than sorry.
And we're gonna go ahead and stage the house.
Our friends at the staging company
are making sure this house
looks like a perfect place to call home,
using a blend of comfortable furniture
and friendly accents to win our buyer's confidence.
♪
[ Cellphone ringing ]
It's the buyer. It's the buyer.
Buyer: Hi, Keith! How you doing?
Good. Doing very well. Doing very well.
We're getting the place ready for you for tomorrow.
That's great. That's great.
You know what?
Okay.
Our buyer surprised us as we were staging the house.
We were expecting him tomorrow where we would have had
a lot more finishes set up in the house,
the staging set up.
But today, not so much.
Two minutes away? That's unbelievable.
Keith: I don't even know how much better
we can make it look in two minutes, guys.
Uh-oh. Who scratched this? That just dirt?
Here. Let's move this box.
We still have--
we still have rooms full of stuff here, guys.
I mean...[ Knock on door ]
- Somebody here? - Oh, my God.
- Hello! - Hello!
- Hey. - Hi, Keith!
Hello. Hello. Great to see you.
It's a surprise.
Thank you for coming by.
Sorry I'm a day early, but, you know,
as you know, the market is really crazy.
Yeah. I could not wait for other people, like,
come and make offer, whatever.
No, no. It's your place. This is Ashlee.
- Hi. - My pleasure.
Nice to meet you. How's it going?
Excited. I just see pictures, but, you know,
they're before. I want to see the after.
Yeah, well, let's show you a few things.
This place has been really transformed.
This room used to have very dark paneling.
The floors in here are also bit sloped
because this used to be a porch.
It was pretty much a mess everywhere.
But now we've got all of that fixed.
We painted it all, so it looks really good.
It's nice and bright.
It's an open, welcoming entryway for your guests.
And this living room was really something.
It had old wooden paneling and lime-green carpet.
And then we did the same floor throughout the whole house.
- In a herringbone pattern. - Yeah.
Wow. I like the flooring. Yeah, it's really good.
Our anticipation was that the mantel,
for example, would have granite.
We would use the leftover granite from the kitchen.
Do you want to pick the granite yourself?
We'll just leave it as is?
Yeah, leave it as it, 'cause I will make it.
Okay. And you like to pick your own finishes?
- Yeah! - Okay, yeah, yeah.
Alright, let's show you the kitchen.
Yeah, show me the kitchen.
We actually did a good bit of work here.
Originally, it was two rooms. There was a wall.
And when we took it out, it really opened up this space.
I think it came together really well.
Keith: Yeah, farm sink.
Yeah.
- Oh, yeah, of course. - Okay.
There's just a few finishes that have to be added.
We'll make sure the main house is finished before you move in.
Beautiful.
Let's show you the bathroom over here.
I almost wish you could have seen
how awful this bathroom was. when we first got here.
Everything was stained
or looked like it was left over from the '70s.
We've updated it a lot.
Every wall in this bathroom has been tiled.
It look really beautiful.
To clean it's going to be, like, harder, but...
[ Laughter ]
You'd probably be able to use, like, a squeegee to clean it.
The entire surface is waterproof.
Okay, that's cool for me.
And then here's one of the bedrooms.
This room used to be a pigsty.
There was so much junk everywhere,
you could barely wade through it.
But we cleaned it up and I think it looks great now.
Nice and bright and you can see the backyard.
Yeah, definitely.
I love the window.
And, of course, we're going to leave this tile here for you,
so you can finish the back house.
So, if your wife doesn't like it, you can change it.
- That's a good thing. - Yep? Okay. Perfect.
That's the other bedroom. This used to be
another disaster full of junk,
[ Laughing ] but with ugly blue carpet.
Now, it's got nice, new floors,
but it still looks a little cluttered.
These are the cabinets for the house in the back.
- Yeah. - Okay. - You'll just build those yourself
and then there's a dishwasher for the back.
It's kind of like a house do-it-yourself kit.
[ Laughter ]
- She's-- - Glad you think that's funny.
[ Laughter ]
So the one area of the house
that we haven't gotten to show you yet
is the back porch area and laundry room.
There wasn't much to it, at first,
just an oversized laundry room
with the washer and dryer exposed.
But look at it now!
This is sort of an eat-in, breakfast nook,
read-a-book area, you know, what have you.
Yeah, I see myself here, you know,
with my boys, life studying.
It's going to be really good.
Let's go see the back area.
We weren't sure what to expect
when we first headed towards this back unit.
We heard it was just a workshop.
But even though it was buried under junk,
we realized it had the potential
to be so much more.
We had a lot of cleaning to do, but now,
the transformation is well underway.
Keith: This is how you do house hacking.
You rent this place and it offsets most
of the mortgage for the whole property.
All the drywall is here for you.
You can finish yourself.
But the shower is over here.
Before, this bathroom was dim and dirty,
with tiles falling off the walls
and exposed plumbing.
Now, the plumbing is inside the walls,
where it belongs,
and it has cool, retro-style tile.
I like it. If I put like
luxury like finishes, I could get more
- Yeah. - on the renting price.
- Yeah. - And I think, when you grout it,
it'll all tie together,
you know, the green and the purple.
- Okay. - I think it's cool.
It looks very islandy.
It's fresh. - Oh, yeah.
I mean, it matches your jacket.
- [ Laughing ] Oh, yeah. - [Both] Yeah.
The kitchen is all going over here.
We'll give you the plans, okay?
So you'll have the plans.
Sink is right there.
Range, the stove, over there.
And everything is here for you.
They got all the permits to make like
a living area to rent it?
The permits are all in place
and we even actually just passed the electrical inspection.
But what's even more important going forward
is that we managed to obtain,
not only a separate electrical meter for this unit,
but a separate address,
which makes it a lot easier to rent.
So, are you happy with it?
You're ready to close?
Alright, let's-- let's do the deal.
- We're ready, yeah? - Alright.
- Okay. I got-- - Yeah, man. - Yeah.
I got the money in the bank.
I ready to wire it right now.
Perfect. Well, we'll set it upYeah.
in the next few days and it's yours.
This has been such a win-win.
In this market, things happening like this,
where buyers want to close as quick as possible,
happens more often than you might think.
Houses are only on the market for a fraction of a second.
Bids drive the prices up.
Our buyer got a house without having to worry
about bidding and, for us,
we had all of our cash tied up in this place
and this lets us get our money out of this house
and move on to other projects.
My wife is going to be happy.
My kids are going to be amazed
- Aww. - because they're going to love
the neighborhood. - Yeah.
They're going to be close to downtown.
They're going to have a lot of fun.
- Ah. - and I see a lot of memories.
Thank you. - Okay. Alright! - Yes.
- Fantastic. - A lot of good memories here.
Yay! Excellent.
The great work we did showed through
and the buyer was thrilled.
We signed the papers and closed the deal
for $475,000, just as we had hoped.
We bought this house for 200 grand
and our reno costs were only $53,000.
We saved thousands in loan interest
by financing this ourselves,
and our closing costs came in at just over $21,000.
That's an all-in cost of just under 275 grand,
which means this sale price tops $200,000 in profit.
Needless to say, the market here in Orlando is still scorching.
Wasn't that amazing?
It was something that never happens.
Ever. But in this market,
I love this neighborhood.
Yeah, but maybe don't spend all our cash
this time, Mr. Moneybags.
♪