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...
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 payday.
Here's to selling another house.
This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
Where are we with the Lake Mary flip?
Because I'm starting to get worried.
We're in permitting hell on that property.
We're frozen. We can't-- We can't build there right now.
I mean, I don't think we're going to make any money on it.
Yeah, I mean, this Lake Mary project's got us all spooked.
This thing's the longest renovation we've ever done
in our entire lives.
It's literally going to be almost a year
to get this flip even on the market.
It's starting to cost a fortune,
and we don't really have a way through this.
Today the zombie team is heading
outside of our usual territory.
I found a really intriguing listing
in the town called Lake Mary.
Lake Mary is located 18 miles north of central Orlando.
It's known for its excellent schools,
a thriving business scene, and low crime rate.
We haven't done any flips out here before,
so we don't know all the local ordinances and regulations.
But with the real estate market getting super tight in Orlando
and zombies being harder to find,
this might be a great place for us to expand.
I've heard horror stories
about doing flips in Lake Mary.
Flippers saying the city's slow.
They take a couple weeks to approve permits
that should just take a couple of days.
Then we're lucky because
the property is right outside the city line.
It's in Seminole County.
This popped up on my radar
because it's been on the market for 244 days.
Ah. So a crazy amount of time.
But it is a very interesting old home.
It's 3,000 square feet.
I think it has like four bedrooms
and like three bathrooms.
There's a formal dining room,
a breakfast nook, a laundry room.
The place is huge, but it gets even more interesting.
It's actually on its own island.
- Except there's a bridge. - What?
But it's listed at $500,000.
My flipper senses are definitely tingling.
500K is really low for an island house with these specs.
There must be something seriously wrong with it for it
to sit on the market this long.
This must be the bridge, right?
It's a land bridge, I guess.
Oh, my God. Look at the lake.
This is wild. Wow. Wow.
Here it is. Look at this.
Oh!
Oh, my goodness. Look. What?
I told you it was interesting, huh?
Holy moly. Look at this.
How is this here?
- This is ridiculous. - This is crazy.
I feel like we just crossed over the bridge to Narnia.
It looks like a movie set.
Have you ever seen anything like it?
No. No.
I mean, look at the stained glass.
It's like either a medieval castle or a church.
I'm a little scared.
There's a hole in the roof.
I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of holes in the roof.
Look at this creepy little statue.
This place is full of, like,
creepy little gnomes and gargoyles and stuff.
Is that a pond on the island on the lake?
I don't know, bro. That's the Everglades.
That looks like a swamp.
There's a bridge.
Guys, this is making a ring around the property.
Hey, it's a moat.
How many houses in the entire Orlando market this year
are going to sell with a moat? - Good Lord.
This place is really cool.
I mean, yeah, it's obviously neglected,
but it's basically a castle on an island
with a moat and gargoyles.
How much fun is that?
Look at the door.
Hey, dude, look to your right.
Whoa! Oh!
Was there a fire here? That looks burned.
I can see why this stayed on the market for so long.
Oh, that's going to take some work.
Okay, this is very creepy.
Hello?
You guys go first.
- You guys go in first. - Let's go.
- What's it like? - Oh, this is weird.
Hello?
Dude, look at this.
What?
Oh, my God.
This place is eerie.
This doesn't feel like a flip to me.
It feels more like a ritual,
like sacrificial altar church thing.
I don't know. It's so bizarre.
I think it's a practical joke, right?
No way, dude. This is my castle.
What?
My kitty.
Justin, get out.
This is some Medieval Times craziness.
Let me ask you this. If we were to flip this house,
would you keep the stained glass window
and the church vibe or what?
- Modernize it. - Yeah.
Modernize it.
I mean, it has a huge fireplace
and it's a big room.
Would we make this a nice living room?
What do we do with this house, period?
Let's go this way, yeah?
Oh, this is so good.
- Oh, Keith. - I am not a crook.
- Oh, my God. - You guys don't get it.
Are you Nixon?
That's Nix-- That'd be Nixon, yeah.
Dude, look what I just found. Another one.
We're, like, halfway to "Point Break" in this, dude.
Look what I just found. I found one for me.
Judging by how much rehab this needs,
we might have to rob a bank to renovate this place, dude.
So let's hold on to these.
What type of place has a bunch of masks like this?
The same kind of place that has that.
- Now, that's super creepy. - This house is crazy.
So, a little kitchen.
But the same cool ceilings.
There's rat poop everywhere.
Got to love these flimsy particleboard cabinets
and these fake Formica countertops.
Yeah, this kitchen's a complete redo.
Hey, let's look at the one saving grace.
- There's a pool. - We got a pool.
Guys, there's a-- there's a snake in the pool.
Uh-oh.
This castle comes with its own serpent.
- Two toilets? - Right in there.
Oh, my goodness. That's weird.
What is this, the master bath?
But there's only one sink.
The other sink was across from that other toilet.
What a funky layout. Like a two-for-one bathroom.
This space is cramped and ugly.
Yeah. Nothing in here can be saved.
Is this the master bedroom? Because it's tiny.
No, this isn't a tiny bedroom. This is a big closet.
This is the master bedroom.
This is an awesome master suite,
although it does have some interesting artifacts.
Where do you get-- like, the giant vase store?
Like, you don't get that at Target.
No.
Witch's broom, like for devil worshiping.
And a little devil mask.
Oh, there you go.
What? And there's this.
- That's insane. - Hee-hee-hee, my-- my pretty.
I'm not sure about this medieval church castle,
whatever you want to call it.
Keith thinks it's really cool, but I think it's just creepy.
This place is so weird. And where is the upstairs?
Maybe it's fake. There's no-- There's no stairs.
You think there's a room we missed?
Yeah, it was definitely a room.
Where is the stairwell, though?
There was an attic access. Would that be it?
- Yeah, look at it. - Alright, let's see.
Open it.
- What?! - Whoa!
Are you kidding me?
There's a whole room up here, guys.
This isn't the worst house we've ever seen,
but this is one of the weirdest houses we've ever seen.
I mean, it has nice high ceilings
and a gorgeous view.
Look, you can see the lake. This could be a cool room.
This house is amazing.
Every corner you turn is more strange than the last one.
I mean, it's like having your own private Hogwarts.
This house is just so much. I don't even know if we should.
I don't know.
I'm super overwhelmed by the size of this house
and the funky layout,
but I can see there's potential here.
We're talking 3,000 square feet with a pool
on it's own private island.
This could be a really high-dollar property.
For $500,000,
we spend a fortune, a lot of time.
It's 20 miles away.
Yeah, but we could sell it for, like, $950,000, right?
Maybe I got heat stroke,
but I'm falling in love with this place.
$500,000 is not that bad, and we could spend $250,000.
Oh, my God. Can you imagine what a palatial estate
this would be for somebody?
This would be one of our biggest and coolest flips ever.
- Let's go do it. - Cool. Perfect.
Okay. Awesome.
The seller was firm on their price of 500 grand,
just like they had been for 244 days.
But we think the numbers work, so we agreed.
We're going to set a fat renovation budget of 250 grand,
'cause this is an extensive renovation
on a really complicated piece of land,
but also 'cause this is unfamiliar,
new territory out here,
so we're going to have to rely on
vendors we've never worked with,
as well as some crews to help us get this job done.
We're also taking a private loan to do this deal
for the full purchase price and renovation.
And those costs are going to run us around 18 grand
for the three months of this project.
Closing costs should come in around $52,000,
which puts our all in cost at the end of the day
right around $820,000.
But based on comps and the super desirable, rare location,
we think we can sell this property for around $950,000.
That would net us a profit of nearly $130,000.
Our reno plans for this house are going to take advantage
of this massive space with a much better floor plan.
First, we're going to build a kitchen
worthy of this palatial estate.
We're going to take down that wall
that sections off the dining room
and seal off the door of the living room.
This will allow us to expand the kitchen out,
adding cabinets and counters on opposite walls
and add a huge island in the middle.
Next, we'll update that master bedroom
by connecting it directly to the bathroom nearby
and getting rid of that weird two-toilet set up.
Then we'll combine bedrooms three and four
into a single bedroom
with its own attached bathroom and walk-in closet.
Basically a second master.
And we'll still end up with four bedrooms
because we'll create a new one in the loft,
a third master with a bathroom of its own.
This castle will make everyone feel like a king.
Hey, hey, hey.
Ready for demo day?
Oh, as ready as we'll ever be.
- Want to start in the kitchen? - Yeah.
Let's take that wall down.
And then we'll get all those cabinets down.
Oh! Jeez, Keith.
Coming through.
Open kitchen, here we come.
While Justin finishes taking that kitchen
down to the studs,
Ashlee and I are getting to work in the bathrooms.
We're clearing out the vanities and the dated tile
and making way for larger bathrooms with all new finishes.
Then our crew comes in for the heavy lifting,
tearing out the remaining wall
between the kitchen and the dining room
and sending that crummy tile floor
straight to the scrapheap.
Hello?
Oh, hey.
Hey. Andrew Rolf, HD Roofing and Construction.
Okay. Excellent. Excellent.
- Nice to meet you. Ashlee. - Great to meet you.
So, did you look at the roof already?
Quick look walking up, that's it.
We need to do a quick walk - around and get on the roof. - Yeah.
Today we brought in an expert to assess the roof.
We know it's bad up there.
The question is, how much in dollars bad?
Guys, how's it looking? How bad is it?
Well, there's a hole there
that you could throw baseballs through.
It looks like we had some tree limbs that actually fell
and actually punctured the roof itself.
And they've done a temporary repair in that area.
But can the rest of the roof be saved?
Shoot me over that estimate whenever you got it.
Absolutely. Alright, it was great meeting you.
- Bye. Thank you guys. - Cheers.
It took a while to book some crews in this area,
but now we're giving that upper level the access it deserves.
No more hidden pull-down steps.
Instead, we took space from the old hall closet
and created a full-sized,
easy-to-climb staircase to our second floor.
Now we can give the second floor some new life.
Our framers install some fresh cross beams between the floors
then lay down plywood to finish the upstairs subfloor.
Then they frame up walls for a new bathroom
and a large new bedroom with a big closet,
effectively turning this space into a junior master suite.
Hey. What are you doing?
Dude, this thing's harder to get out of than a space shuttle.
- What's the problem? - What's the p--
Bro, what are you about to do right now?
What do you mean what I'm about to do?
I'm about to take this jacked-up gable
off the front of the house.
We're just going to rebuild prettier.
We don't have plans for this.
We don't have architectural drawings.
Do you know if this is going to
come off of the house easily?
It's all up here.
This is like a palace, like a castle.
You can't have this be the entrance to your castle.
There's no garage here,
so this needs to be a grand covered entrance.
I get it, but we got to get those plans approved.
I appreciate Keith's vision,
and a rebuild is probably necessary,
but we're under the jurisdiction of Seminole County out here,
which we're not used to,
and we need to follow their permit process perfectly
and hopefully not destroy our house in the process.
You're doing all of it.
- Yeah, of course. - And I swear to God,
if you rip off the front of this house,
I'm going to lose it.
That's unlikely to happen.
Let's see what you got there, Mr. Builder.
Whoo-hoo.
It took a few weeks for the county
to approve our electrical plans, so we're already a bit behind.
But now we're modernizing this medieval home with a new system.
Electrical Surgeon is here,
removing the outdated junction boxes and wires
and taking down the old light fixtures.
Then we install 14-gauge wires for the lighting circuits
and a thicker 12-gauge wire for the kitchen and baths,
and connect them all to a new electrical panel
that has a central interior location.
And now this house can run smoothly
under the demands of modern appliances and electronics.
- Hey, buddy. - What's up, bro?
We taking this thing - to the incinerator? - Yeah.
Our crews have been clearing a ton of dead brush
from all over the island, and we need to get rid of it.
A controlled burn is the safe way to do it.
And it's also much easier than hauling all this mess away.
Alright. You ready?
Yes.
We're off to the races.
Hey.
We're having a bonfire. Did you bring s'mores?
Oh, my God. Is this legal?
We're in the county.
You're allowed to burn stuff in the county.
Speaking of the county, I have some really bad news.
We're no longer under their jurisdiction.
Wait. What?
So far, we've been working under Seminole County
for all our permits because the island
is just outside the Lake Mary city limits.
But a local developer who asked us about our property
ended up buying the land up the road,
which is part of Lake Mary.
That transaction revealed that our parcel
was illegally split off from hers decades ago.
We still own our parcel,
but now we have to start our permit process all over again
under Lake Mary rules.
Nobody caught this when we first filed our building permits,
and now we're stuck in this municipality
that's known for being slow and sometimes costly.
And Lake Mary has already hit us
with a big, unexpected regulation.
They're not going to give us our permits
unless we put a sprinkler system in the house.
Not around the house.
Wait, that's only-- that's only a requirement
for three stories and above.
They said if there is a fire,
they can't get down the dirt road.
So we have to put in a sprinkler system in the house,
which is 10 grand.
Wait, and there's-- So there's no altern--
What do you mean? Like--
The alternative... Yeah.
We can also put in a bridge.
And that would be like 100 grand.
- A bridge? - Yeah.
It's all just so a fire truck--
A fire truck could not get here.
Seminole County wouldn't require this,
but Lake Mary does.
I thought a house on an island would be the perfect getaway.
But now we might be stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire.
Ten grand doesn't sound like a lot for our budget,
but it's money we didn't anticipate.
And Lake Mary could take weeks or even months
to approve our plans.
That delays our framing and our drywall
and adds lots of money to our loan interest.
The trajectory of this flip is starting to go the wrong way.
While we're waiting on Lake Mary
to approve our sprinkler plans
which is holding up other parts of our renovation,
we can at least do some window work.
We're removing that ugly collection
of single-pane casement windows
and replacing them with Eco Glass windows.
These fresh upgrades are double-paned
and designed to block out harmful UV rays,
making them as beneficial as they are beautiful.
So much stained glass in this house.
Yes.
Today, Ash and I want to settle on our approach
for this giant living room.
I really like the stained glass.
I mean, it's super cool. It's right up my alley.
The problem is, is my taste is not everybody's taste.
But I feel awful getting rid of it
because it is so cool and so unique.
Hey, hey, hey.
Hey. How are you?
Good. Good. What's going on?
This room is Valhalla,
but I don't think we can sell it like that, you know?
You want to get rid of the stained glass?
I reached out to some artists.
They said they would take it and repurpose everything.
It's not going to end up in the landfill.
But how many times have we taken something out
but then shown somebody a picture of it later
and they're like, "Oh, my God,
that would have been really cool"?
Personally, I think we should keep them.
Okay. Let's leave them for now.
But let's at least consider some options.
Ash, you and I can find some, like, rain glass
or something cool. It'll look beautiful.
We'll do - whatever you think. - Alright.
It took a few weeks,
but we finally got the green light
on our sprinkler install.
So today, this island castle is getting some new pipes.
Our crew is running sprinkler pipes of CPVC
through the upper rafters of the house.
The line set up sprinkler heads
every six feet for full coverage.
Once the sprinkler heads are in place, the spray nozzle
is held shut by two small metal plates
fused together by a solder,
which melts when it gets hot enough,
so any fire will be met with a gusher of house-saving water.
Our progress was slow in the beginning,
but getting derailed by the sprinkler system
has put us way behind schedule.
We're two months into this three-month renovation
and out of the 250 grand we set aside,
we've only spent about $60,000.
We have a lot of work left,
and we'll probably go long on this renovation.
Being put into Lake Mary's jurisdiction
has triggered a whole new look at our property,
which has me nervous
because who knows what problems they're going to find
and how long it could set us back.
Hey, buddy.
How's it going?
- Kevin, man, how's it going? - Good to see you.
I promised Justin I would come up with a new design
to replace that rotted, dinky entrance gable we used to have.
So I'm working with our framing expert, Kevin,
to build something I think is going to be great.
We got the extended gable. It's actually--
You know, it's a much bigger gable
than the one we did away with,
and we're turning it into kind of a porte-cochère.
Let me get the lay of the land here.
We'll be able to pull cars right-- right in here.
Park, get out of the rain,
carry groceries in, stuff like that.
It's looking good from down here.
You mind if I get the bird's-eye view?
Yes, sir.
I saved some money designing this myself,
but that means I want to make extra sure
that's it's built correctly and it'll pass inspection.
That's where it was rotted.
We removed some more of the shingles,
cut the old wood out, put some new wood in.
Now we're working on
getting the rest of the entry roof framed up.
I just want to make sure we meet all the hurricane codes,
'cause with-- with an area like this that's open,
this is a-- this is a prime area for a lot of uplift.
So what kind of clips are we using?
It's kind of like a horseshoe. They're in that box.
Oh. It's called the H10.
And that'll stabilize this in--
in a couple different directions.
It will never move.
I got to say, Kevin and his team are killing it.
This porte-cochère should be finished and up to code soon.
And that should help us avoid any more delays.
Hopefully we'll be done tomorrow.
Then we can re-roof the entire structure.
And then that also lets us re-screen the pool.
Hey, I'm going to get down and go see what's going on inside.
There's nothing going on inside
till the inspector gets out here.
Oh, my-- They haven't come by yet?
No, we're waiting on them to proceed.
I haven't seen them yesterday or today.
Oh, my God. Okay.
Here we go again. First, we had a three-week delay
in getting our sprinkler plan approved by the city,
and now the building inspector
decided not to even show up at all.
All the structural work we're doing
has to be inspected at various stages.
And if we don't get an official Lake Mary approval at each step,
we can't proceed.
This is a cost of doing business
outside of our usual jurisdiction.
But with the interest we're paying,
we cannot afford another extended delay.
Yeah. Look at this rock wall.
We continue to lose time
with the inspector delays slowing work inside the house.
And we are desperate to make some sort of progress here.
Today we're doing some exterior upgrades
that will add to the style
of this 16th-century medieval retreat.
We've hired a cement company to install some steps
and a low accent wall around the property,
but they're making it look like old stonework
using some innovative construction processes.
Wow. This is way cooler than what you sent in the drawing.
Well, what we did is it's concrete without forms.
And that's what we like.
It looks amazing.
Alright, so I'm going to take you to the back.
We got a little surprise.
There's some things we need to talk about
at the back there before we go further.
I got a feeling this isn't a good surprise.
Let's go find out.
So the idea was to have some kind of
little water feature here to cover that up there,
- the pool equipment. - Yeah, yeah. That's what we wanted.
So I brought my pad. I got an idea for you.
I'm going to try to stain this and seal it
and get a little more color out of it
instead of it-- it just looks old and dilapidated.
- It looks awful. - We need to do something with it.
Yeah. - Yeah. - So we can do something there.
And so we're talking closer to $10,000 extra.
No way. Oh, my God.
You know, everybody wants to add a little bit more to this house.
I know that.
But I'm just saying I can go big or go home.
Well, I don't want you to go home.
Getting hit with a $10,000 change order
is something I never like.
But let's be honest, pools sell houses in Florida.
I guess this is just another
one of those worst-case scenario fixes we have to do.
It's starting to pour rain. You've got my approval.
- Let's go for it. - Alright.
You have the approval. Just do it.10 grand.
Let's go. I'm going to draw it up for you.
Let's just get it done.
It's been a couple weeks,
and we're still waiting on Lake Mary to send an inspector
out here to check on our interior structural work.
And we only have about a week
left in our original three-month timeline.
Of our 250 grand renovation budget,
we've only spent about $80,000.
It feels like we've barely even started
considering we still haven't gotten through
framing and plumbing.
I'm nervous how long this flip is going to take
because every single week that goes by from here,
we're just eating in our profits.
Today we're finally getting an inspector
to sign off on the structural work
that we've done inside the house.
Hi.
- Hi. How you doing? - A little late.
Good. Good.
It looks like he got here ahead of us,
so hopefully he's already seen what he needs to see
and we're good to go.
Upstairs here, you-- you guys don't have any permitting.
Maybe since the '70s.
It's only supposed to be an attic.
It's never been permitted to be occupied at all.
I've been looking for the permit all day. I haven't found it.
Let's clarify this.
You're saying the upstairs was only ever an attic?
It was never permitted to be occupied?
Correct. I can show you now. You want to see?
- Yeah. Yeah. - Come on. Let's go look.
Man, first we have trouble getting inspections done.
Then when we do, hidden problems pop up.
We're the first buyers of this house in, like, 50 years.
Apparently, some things were done that got buried.
They weren't flagged on Seminole County's records,
but they're being uncovered now.
Okay, so what are you showing us?
Upstairs never was permitted.
So according to the paperwork I have,
upstairs has never been deemed a dwelling.
So...
Upstairs has never been - deemed a dwelling? Ohh.
And I got to shut you down.
When we bought it, it was livable square footage.
No, it was an attic.
The only way to access this was those weird
attic ladder door things. That all make sense now.
This was an attic, and somebody just decided to live in it.
It's not set for a live load. It's engineered for static load
that, you know, you just store stuff in.
Right. Correct.
When we first submitted our building plan,
we got the green light to start work.
But it should have been flagged because the upstairs
was never actually approved to carry live loads.
Basically people walking around.
So even if our fixes were strong enough,
which I'm sure they are,
we still got to start that approval process from scratch
and fix what they missed.
We're probably going to have to reinforce stuff
if it's not sufficient.
And they won't let us do any work inside
if this is considered unsafe or otherwise not up to code.
This could be 50 grand.
So we need to get an architect to draw up proper plans.
Then we have to go to the engineers
and we have to ask for the permit,
get the engineer to stamp it, and then we're good to go.
Oh, my God, that's going to take so much time.
This is definitely going be a setback.
Holy crap.
You got to get your plans in, but right now,
I got to be to my next appointment.
So if you'll excuse me, I'll see you guys later.
- Alright. - Okay. Thank you.
- Yeah. - How jacked up is this?
We had a second floor in a house,
and now we don't have a second floor in a house.
It's like it got taken away from us.
This problem means our structure is unsafe,
and that's going to shut us down.
And that means more interest payments
on top of all these unexpected costs
like sprinkler systems and the attic reinforcement.
Let's go call an architect. Let's get some CAD drawings.
Everybody is so busy right now,
it's going to take months to get an architect to do this.
Well, guys, the way the money is stacking up on this property,
I mean, holy cow.
Where are we with the Lake Mary Flip?
Because it feels like it's getting expensive.
We've been building there for, what, four months now
and we borrowed 700 grand,
so our hard money payment every month is 6 grand.
And now with this wetlands issue popping up,
I think we're screwed.
It's been several weeks
since our Lake Mary flip got shut down,
and we're still trying to line up an architect
to design our second floor.
Even worse, we were just told
that this island might be considered wetlands,
which would require a conservation plan.
Between that and what we've spent on the reno so far,
we're in it for $600,000.
We're not even halfway through the renovation.
It'll easily cost another 200 grand just to finish the house.
Plus, we're looking at another
eight months of hard money if we stay doing that.
We originally hoped to make over 100 grand on this property,
but now we're looking at an additional 50 grand
in interest which we didn't expect.
When you add in all the surprise expenses
like wetland mitigation,
our profit is heading quickly towards zero.
Okay, so look, this doesn't look like it's going well,
and we don't really have a way through this.
So what other solutions are there?
Try and sell it as is to someone?
Oh, my God, that's...
Wait a minute.
You guys remember when we bought it?
There was that developer that reached out to us.
The person who's developing right down the road?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that--Yeah, yeah.
And we were like, "No, we got this. We're good."
- Yeah. - But we're not so good anymore.
Maybe we should ring them up.
Right now, we're in it for $600,000.
They have to pay over $600,000.
Yeah, that's a lot to ask
for an unfinished house that's plagued with permit problems.
We do have over an acre on that an island
that they could potentially parcel off along.
Yeah, I mean, new construction is not our thing,
but a developer could definitely split that lot.
If somebody can get three houses on there,
that's only $200,000 per parcel for lakefront island property.
It's true. Let me see if I can make a contact
and we'll go talk to them.
- Okay. I'm good with that. - Justin, are you good?
Dude, the price of diesel fuel right now,
if I never have to drive to Lake Mary again, I'm A-okay.
Yeah, seriously.
I really wanted to see this house
become an awesome private island getaway.
But developers these days are maximizing space
and putting houses onto smaller parcels.
That might be the key that helps us
unload this money pit of a flip.
So let me make some phone calls and see what I can come up with.
Okay. So it should be somewhere along here.
Well, we're looking for a construction site, right?
Yep. That's it.
Ashlee and I have tracked down the developer, Babette,
whom we first heard from when we started our flip.
We're going to pay her a surprise visit
at one of her projects.
We know she was interested in this property once.
We're hoping that a good, in-person upsell on this place
will convince her to come take a fresh look.
Hello.
- Hey. - Oh, hey, there.
How are you? Good, good, good.
- I'm Keith. - Babette.
- Hi. Ashlee. - Ashlee, nice to meet you.
We have a potential deal for you.
We have the property in Lake Mary.
I guess you're doing - some development up there. - Yeah.
And we spoke months ago when we first acquired it.
I do remember. You remember?
I do. Mm-hmm.
Do you remember very much about the parcel?
No, I don't.
Let me show you.
- Look at it. - There it is. Yeah.
- It's beautiful. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, it's amazing. - It's beautiful.
We believe you could put three individual parcels on it.
Okay. It's an amazing spot
because it's this island that's in the middle of a lake
with its own little driveway path,
and it's so unique, and there's just nothing else like it.
- Yeah. - It's interesting.
Yeah, the thing about it is we've half renovated
the house that's there.
There's like a 3,000-square-foot house.
- Okay. - And you could technically just rehab that
if you wanted, finish that off.
Yeah, but splitting the lot, though, I think
that's where the money's probably at there.
And this has its own access, you're saying,
to get to the area, and it's the only access there?
- It is. - It's the only access.
That's why we've run into a few issues.
But we've fixed all of that.
We've had a tough time with permits,
but basically the upper level was never permitted.
We have an engineer looking into it.
The problem is the timeline for us is a little long.
So-- But for someone like you who's already developing
in that neighborhood, it'd probably work out.
We were thinking,
because it's very far from our house,
from where we live,
that we kind of want to offload it,
if possible, to someone else.
So we thought we'd come to you first.
What do you think? Would you be willing to stop by?
So let's do this.
Since I'm so busy, let me give you a call back
and then I'm going to let you know when I'm in the area.
And then possibly you can meet.
- How's that? - Perfect.
- That sounds great. - Yeah, I think you're going to love it.
Step one, done.
Now we just have to be prepared to dazzle her
with the property when she comes out.
Thank you, guys.
Alright. Take care.
- Bye. - Bye.
So you think this developer
is going to buy this house?
I don't know, man.
I mean, the numbers got to work for her, right?
Developing is all about - making the numbers work. - Yeah.
Babette the developer agreed to meet with us today
for a tour of the Lake Mary property.
This is our best
and maybe our only chance to sell this property.
We got company. Yes.
Hey.
Hey, Babette. Hey.
- Thanks for coming out. - Absolutely.
Nice seeing you guys again.
- For sure. - So this is the property.
- It is. - So what'd you think driving in?
Yeah, it's, um...
Definitely...
A lot of nature. - Unique.
You glad you have your four-wheel drive?
SUV, yeah, definitely.
You know, it's-- it's beautiful out here.
We've been working on it for quite some time.
We'd love to give you a walkthrough.
Great. Yeah, show me.
Did you notice on the drive in
how large the property is?
It's huge. If you were going
to divide it up, you could have a house there,
over there, and possibly over there.
Yeah. - Very nice. - And keep this.
Right here, we have basically a porte-cochère.
It's not a full drive through, exit out the other side.
It's a porte-cochère where you pull under it
and stop and park.
But it does provide cover from the weather.
So it's super convenient.
There's no garage, so there's a really--
This is kind of what we're doing instead, right?
That could potentially be a problem
if we don't have a garage 'cause... Mm-hmm.
...who doesn't need a garage? But go ahead.
Well, let's take a look inside.
We'll show you what we got going on inside.
Alright.
On your left, we'll start with the living room.
It was so dark in here.
There were a dark bookcases the whole way down both walls here.
We brightened it up
by getting rid of the dark and weird decor.
But we did keep some of the more unique features.
We have what we believe is authentic Disney glass.
We recently discovered this house was built
at the same time as Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World.
The builder had a connection to Disney,
and we believe those were left over from the castle building.
Well, that's pretty neat.
That's a selling point in itself. I like that.
Cinderella Castle windows.
You got King Arthur's light fixtures, you know.
Loving the chandeliers, yes.
This room could be really anything,
but I think it's like the coolest entertaining room ever.
This is what we had kind of envisioned for this room.
- Mm-hmm. - So the huge chandeliers
and gorgeous fireplace with the quartz.
Very clad marble. Yeah, I love the layout.
I love the space in here.
Alright, let's go see the kitchen.
'Cause we got some really cool plans
that would be great for the kitchen.
You should have seen this place when we first walked in.
The kitchen was very tiny.
It was crammed with faux wood cabinets
and outdated appliances.
Super ugly.
But as you can see, we've really opened it up
just to maximize the space.
- Isn't it incredible? - Yes, it is nice.
The kitchen that Ash and I have come up with,
it is so Mac Daddy.
So basically what we were thinking
was something along the lines of this.
So we've already piped in plumbing and electric
for the huge island. - For the island.
It's like a 10-foot island over there.
So the island is actually going to be right in the middle.
And then you're going to be looking at the water.
Yes, so you're looking at the pool, looking at the water.
This is the wet bar area
with a large fridge for wine here.
And then over here, we had kind of envisioned
a breakfast nook.
I like it. I like it.
So let's check out the rest of the house.
So this is the master bedroom downstairs.
Remember this room beforehand?
Yeah, it was a large space,
but the flow through the closet and the bathroom was horrible.
So this is what we were envisioning
for the principal bedroom.
Very chic, very modern,
really beautiful, huge chandelier.
- I like it. - Yeah.
And then this actually is the closet for this room. It's huge.
- Oh, nice. - Yeah.
This room has vaulted ceilings in the closet.
Definitely I love the heights of the ceiling.
And then if you walk this way,
this is the huge master bathroom.
It didn't start out huge, that's for sure.
Yeah, it was a super awkward little corridor to get in there.
Wasn't really attached to a bedroom.
It was so bizarre. Just a very funny layout.
But now it's really big and spacious.
It's a great size for a luxury en suite.
Huge double vanity,
and then a massive shower right here.
And that transom window we added really brightens up the space.
So you get a lot of nice light in here,
but have all the privacy that you need.
That's definitely another selling point.
I love the lighting.
And here we have our downstairs junior master suite.
And you got to love this house.
Junior suites bigger than most people's master suites.
Yeah, this was two bedrooms,
and we actually put this beam up to join them.
- Fantastic idea. - Put your bed here.
King-size bed. And you've got this gorgeous
sliding door outside. - That's great.
Yeah, the view is wonderful.
Let's show you the rest.
There was no stairs here when we first got here.
It was just a ladder.
This upstairs area seemed to be
used as like a living space,
but it still had that creepy attic vibe.
Now, not only does it have proper access,
but it's got natural light
and all the makings of a third master bedroom.
But there was one problem.
The previous owner turned it into a living space,
but he never permitted it.
It's easily fixable with some basic reinforcement.
It's just a matter of navigating the permitting process.
We were thinking of staging it either as a game room--
A game room, a movie theater.
- Like a media room, yes. - Yeah.
- Okay. - But either way, you know,
we did build it out to be another master.
So it does have a proper huge bathroom, a proper huge closet,
and then a proper-sized master.
I like it. I like it.
And remember, there's that pool out back
which could be fixed up really gorgeous too.
Now that you've seen the house and the plans for it
and where we're at with the house,
the rest of the value proposition is in the land
and what could be-- what can be done with it.
We know for sure, after looking at the site plan,
that we can put two properties on it, maybe a third.
What's going to be required going forward
is new construction.
New construction's not what we do,
so that's where you come in.
Mm. So what do you think?
So I was thinking,
with everything we just walked through,
I think, say, $500,000.
Ooh. Mm.
We want to move on, but not that badly.
Yeah, we were looking for $700,000.
Like, realistically, we could take a little bit less,
but we're not in the $500,000 range.
I'm taking it off your hands.
Yeah, but this is a-- this has so much potential,
and we know we'll be able to find a buyer
a little higher than that.
How about $650,000?
That's still going above my budget.
I'm thinking that's not going to hit the numbers for me.
Maybe the max, $600,000.
I mean, that's-- that's-- that's the best,
best that I could do.
So do we have a deal?
We have so many other jobs that we can do in town
that this is holding us up on
'cause it's tying up our money and time.
I say we do it.
- Alright. - Sounds like a deal.
- Alright. You got a deal. - Awesome.
- Thank you, Babette. - Thank you, guys.
So this flip didn't end the way we wanted it to,
and that's unfortunate.
But it's important to understand that in this business,
nobody bats 1,000,
and frequently discretion can be the better part of valor.
Making the decision to sell it allowed us to break even
and move on to other projects that will make money.
And that's a lesson we can all learn from.
So selling for 600K means
we get out in one piece not any richer,
but definitely wiser about the pitfalls of our profession.
It's time to get back to Orlando
and find some zombies closer to home.