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.
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
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...
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."
♪ I'm turning heads, uh-huh ♪
♪ So get your Instagram out ♪
♪ I'll break the Internet down ♪
Ashlee: Isn't it funny that Duke called us?
Earlier he called and told me he had a project.
Yeah. You know what, though? For him to call us
out of the blue and say he wants to show us something,
I feel like we're going to get punked.
[ Laughs ]
Keith: Duke is our old partner
who helped us flip zombies in the past.
He reached out to see if we might be interested
in getting the band back together
for one more renovation.
We're in SoDo.
This is not the hottest part of SoDo,
but it's an area that's ripe for investment
because-- - It's affordable.
Yeah, it is. I mean, it's
actually affordable. - It's near downtown.
Yeah.
Ashlee: This part of SoDo, or south of downtown Orlando,
is kind of entry-level homeownership,
so, the houses tend to be
on the less expensive side of the market.
But it's also a neighborhood in transition,
so, that means there's good opportunity here for us,
As this area adds new restaurants, shops, and bars,
the demand for houses will also increase.
Where are we going, somewhere on Raeford?
Yeah, he said it's like Bumby and Raeford,
you know, that kind of like-- - God, I know that area pretty well.
I'm trying to imagine what could be over there.
There's that house that's been abandoned on the corner
for like 100 years.
The one with the really steep roof?
- Yeah. - No. - And the tarps.
Guys, that's a scrape, though.
Like that's not.
You know how much Duke hates old houses,
like really old houses?
He wouldn't have anything to do with that.
Here we come.
Well...
that's it.
- Yeah. - That's the address.
And...
it looks worse than I remember.
[ Suspenseful music plays ]
♪
This is a cartoon of a house.
Look at the roof. It's like folded up
and falling inwards.
Keith: Look at the zombie.
This is scorched earth.
Just glancing at this house, I'm terrified.
It's like something out of a horror novel,
where like the house eats the flippers.
Seriously? Nightmares are made here.
Ashlee: Oh, my goodness.
Duke: What's up? This thing is gnarly, huh?
- Is this a funny prank? - Yeah, this-- this is a joke, right?
It's not, actually. Like I really think this house has hope.
Wait until you see the numbers on this project, okay?
I guarantee you you'll find the strength to pull through this.
Justin: What can you tell us about the property?
So, it's a two-story home on a big corner lot
and it's just over 1,800 square feet.
The downstairs has a huge living and dining area
and what could be the primary bedroom.
The second floor has got three more bedrooms, a bathroom,
even this cool bonus room.
And, plus, there's that separate garage.
Ashlee: How many years of tarps have been put on this house?
Look at it. Keith: One for each hurricane.
Duke: [ Laughs ]
It's not that bad. Keep going.
Look how straight this is.
The wall's not bowing out. It's not bowing in.
So, we found one wall.
I think we're wasting our time.
I mean, look at the concrete block.
It looks almost new, Keith.
I'm liking it more already, Duke, keep selling it to me.
Tear out all these bushes and shrubs.
Keith: The bushes and shrubs are the only reason
you can't see how ugly the house is.
Oh, my goodness. Are you crazy? The roof.
You know, this roof is a good pitched roof,
so it's probably not the case that water sat
and ate its way through the boards and stuff.
So, you tear it off, you put a new roof,
you repair where as needed.
Yeah, but pitched roofs are expensive,
so, this is probably a $17,000 roof.
Just guessing. - Maybe it is, maybe it is.
But, you know, all the rafter tails I see
are in pretty good shape.
Can we put that in the MLS,
the rafter tails are good?
Shall we continue our tour here, please?
Ashlee: Ooh, I'm scared! - Come on, this way.
Into the belly of the beast we go.
♪
Oh, man! Oh, my God.
This is way worse than I thought it was going to be.
This is-- This is awful. Keith: [ Laughs ]
Guys, I can see the sky.
I can literally see the sky from here. Look.
Keith: [ Laughing ] Skylight.
The rug is rotten, so rotten,
that it's like it's part of the floor now.
Duke: Oh, look at that beautiful hardwood under there.
Keith: Ugh! Ashlee: Ugh!
Duke: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ashlee: What is that,
mold everywhere?
Alright, let's zoom out, take a big picture.
So, let's assume that all of this drywall
is going to have to come off.
You'll open up the walls.
You can fix any wiring you need to
because it's actually quicker just to replace it all
than to go and repair all these water spots, right?
We can work this out.
Keith: [ Laughs ]
Nice and open here
to the outside of the world.
Yes. Yes. That whole wall should be rebuilt.
Aah! Ashlee: Aah!
There's a [bleep] dead raccoon.
Oh, my God! We're going to get rabies.
Let's get outta here.
- [ Laughs ] - That's ridiculous.
This house isn't like anything I've ever seen.
I mean, raccoons can survive anywhere,
except for here, apparently.
If that's not a sign that we should split,
I don't know what is.
You want to sit on the front porch
and miss out on this lotto ticket?
Come on!
Ashlee: Oh, God.
This kitchen's ugly.
Keith: Nothing in here can be saved.
Duke: Look how straight all the floor joists are.
This house can be saved.
Okay, let's go check the second floor
because I have a feeling it's going to get worse.
I can't even believe I'm going up here.
Wait, guys, I found a great bathroom.
Oh, God!
Duke: Well... No-o-o! that's horrible.
It can't get worse than that.
I don't think we should say that with this house.
We haven't been to all the rooms yet. - Yeah, that's true.
Let's keep looking. Keith: Yeah.
Duke: Alright, so this is another bedroom.
Ashlee: Look at that bowing tarp. Keith: Ooh.
Duke: It needs a little love,
but it's a decent size and it gets good natural light.
Look at this hidden troll room here.
Alright, so there's, like, a closet that leads into...
Duke: It's really awkwardly shaped.
Can we make it into a bathroom or something?
Yeah. Think it'll be cool with a cool ceiling.
I think this is where we start the fire
that burns the house down
so that we can build something new. Mm.
There's still one more room left in this horror show.
Let's go check that out.
Keith: I'm not sure what anyone sees in this place.
In my mind, this house should be scraped
and rebuilt from scratch.
It's a complete disaster.
Ashlee: This is the last bedroom up here?
- Oh, yeah. - Right?
Justin: This room is so jacked.
Ashlee: Don't go outside. Oh, my, God. The door is--
Don't go outside? Like I need a warning?
Yeah, well, maybe you do. Oh, my God, Keith. Watch out.
Yeah, careful where you step. - Okay, that's the whole wall.
Justin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Keith.
Keith, I wouldn't even lean on that wall.
I mean, it's all cracking off.
You're just going to fall through.
Keith: Does this still seem like a good idea to you?
This can be fixed. You get a framer here,
clear all this mess off, and start putting it back together,
in two or three days, you'll have a new wall.
Why on earth would you want to do this?
You hate projects like this.
We have a chance to make some real money,
and I think you guys are specially equipped to do it.
This house all fixed up-- can I say 500 in this area?
$500,000? - I would list it for $495,000.
Or $499,000, yeah.
Okay. So if we say $500,000,
repairs-- what are the repair bits for this house?
Who's got your estimates? I've got--
-$175,000. -$175,000.
- High, high. -$150,000?
Yeah, I'm with her, but okay, somewhere in the middle there.
Let's just say you take off a $175,000 repair
from the $500,000. You're at $325,000.
- Yeah. - Okay.
I deliver the house to you for $200,000.
That's our cost basis, leaving a spread of $125,000.
We take off some commissions, you're making six figures.
I'm too busy to take this house on myself right now,
but I can finance the deal.
And then we'll split the profits like we used to.
- Four ways. - So like you'll purchase the house
and put up all the money to rehab it.
And we'll just do all the work
- Yeah. - And we'll all profit.
Yeah.
So do we have ourselves a deal?
Hmm? - Sure. - Alright, man.
- You sure? - Yeah.
- Alright. Put it there. - Alright, let's save the house.
Duke: I'm really excited the team's on board.
I'm not even that worried about making money myself
on this flip.
The house is an eyesore
that's bringing down the whole neighborhood.
If we fix this house up, it's going to raise property values
across the whole neighborhood.
And that will make other flips in the area more profitable.
- [ Laughs ] What?! - What?!
And they're only going to give you 90 days to fix all of this?
If we can fix everything up and get all of the issues
addressed within 90 days, they'll zero it out.
Keith: These kind of deals from Code Enforcement
are actually somewhat common.
A homeowner might let leans pile up for years and then pass away,
leaving Code Enforcement unable to collect.
But Code Enforcement's main concern
is actually getting the house compliant for future owners,
so they'll give somebody the chance
to fix it up and erase the debt.
But getting this house compliant might take a miracle.
This place is a disaster. It's going to need everything.
It's going to need new everything.
You know, if it was easy, someone else would have done it.
Justin: I still say we do it.
Dude, are you serious?
That's quite the bomb Duke just dropped on us.
And I can see it has Ash and Keith a little bit spooked.
But Duke is right.
If anybody can take on this job, it's the Zombie team,
and I'm ready to prove our mettle.
We carry pickax around with us all the time.
Uh-huh.
And we've never used it inside a house.
Like, this seems like the last thing in the world
- you'd use inside a house. - It is.
Except for this one.
Where do you start?
Aside from with a bulldozer or 10 Dumpsters?
Yeah, I think we just try to take out some of the stuff
that, like, seems super dangerous.
[ Chuckles ] Yeah, like...
Like the-- Like the whole.
That's the house, dude.
I've never seen a house more in need of demo day than this one.
It needs to be stripped down to the studs, maybe lower.
Fortunately, we brought the right tools for the job.
♪
This house is crumbling.
It's frightening how easily this place is falling apart.
You barely sneeze on something, and it just crumbles.
Honestly, it feels like a death trap.
And I know at least one raccoon that would agree.
♪
[ Laughs ] What in the hell?
♪
[ Laughs ] That's not supposed to happen!
We've made a big enough mess of this place.
So it's time to have our crew come in
and clean this house out.
But there is one thing we will clean up ourselves.
Let's go pay our respects to this raccoon.
- Yeah. - Put him in his final resting spot.
and let's wait for the pros to get back here.
Keith: Yeah.
♪
Keith: Dude, they took all the windows out.
Justin: Dude, at what point are we just going to
bulldoze this house and realize it will be easier?
Wait. There's a red tag.
Justin: Was it Code Enforcement?
Orange County-- oh, it's so much worse.
That's a building official.
Usually a Stop Work Order means that a Code Enforcement official
couldn't find one or even all of your permits.
So you have to fill out a form,
and then you can get back to work.
But if it's a building inspector,
well, I mean, they're questioning
whether our site's even safe to enter.
And that's a much bigger problem.
Keith: They're serious. It is shut down everything.
I bet they're concerned about the condition of the house
and its ability to stay standing.
Keith: This could destroy our 90-day schedule
and stick us with that $350,000 lien.
What if they're trying to condemn it?
What happens if you get condemned?
It's a whole process. You have to prove that the house
can be renovated and the whole nine yards.
Keith: Look, this is-- this was so rickety,
We had to shore up-- shore up the stairs
just so the demo guys could go up and down.
Look, this is what's on top of the front door.
The sheeting is bad.
The 2x4s are bad. The header's bad.
The rafters are bad. The floor's bad.
Oh, yeah, this is the worst house we've ever done,
and we have done some nightmares of houses.
One of us needs to get on the phone ASAP
with Orange County and get this sorted.
Yeah. Dude, Ashlee is going to lose her mind.
Yeah. We're walking the plank on this one.
♪
- Ah, look at that. - Amazing!
- Hard-earned permit. - Bouncing-baby permit.
Normally we wouldn't get one of these,
but kinda had to get to work, so our demo is done.
And now... No more red tag.
...get back to building.
- Thank goodness. - Alright. We're legit.
Whoo-hoo.
Keith: We inquired about the Stop Work Order,
and it turns out it was just a simple misunderstanding.
We thought our building permit had been fully approved,
so we started demo, but it turns out
that we just hadn't had that final sign-off yet.
Thankfully, we cleared it up quickly so we can get back
to this 90-day flip without losing any more time.
♪
Now that we have the green light to proceed,
it's time to start raising this zombie from the dead,
literally.
We jack up the subfloor under the old enclosed patio
so that we can replace all those rotten crossbeams.
Then we cover them up with fresh plywood.
Now we can start rebuilding this side of the house.
We frame up the lower-level outer walls,
and then we add a lean-to roof, also known as a shed roof,
going up to the rest of the house.
The extent of the damage here
cost us a lot of money for the wood,
but worse, it took us a week to fix it,
and we're already falling behind in this flip.
♪
I have to fill you in on some stuff.
See this room? Remember I was going to keep those windows?
- Keith: Yeah. - They had to take all of that out.
Literally every piece of wood was rotten.
I believe it.
To my mind, this house started out as a horror movie,
and it's only gotten worse.
What I see right now is a whole lot of new wood,
and new wood means money.
Ashlee: I mean, every time I come over here,
I get stressed to the max.
Yeah.'Cause none of it's going correctly.
It's all more and more wood all the time.
It's every bit of plywood now.
The whole roof deck had to be removed.
The electrician couldn't start
because the roof didn't go on on the right time.
Speaking of all new,
- that's the old stairs. - Yeah.
That's the new stairs. We had to build new stair--
a new staircase entirely out of nothing.
- Yep. - 'Cause I'm looking at this.
I'm not super tall,
and I almost hit my head on this.
Yeah, that is not okay.
That has to be moved back this way. Damn.
Everything that's being done at this house
is taking twice as long as we want.
There's more to fix than we thought.
And some of these fixes are not being done correctly.
This is not a job
where we can afford to lose this kind of time.
Do you know how much framing?
Like, we're going to have to cut--
Oh, man, I'm, like, nearly hitting the top, too.
Step-- Yeah, step up.
- I want to hit my head. - Yeah.
So the only solution-- We can't--
This is to code. We can't change that.
The only thing we can do is move this back.
Okay, well, let's check.
And that's going to be expensive.
The walk up to the stairwell is built for somebody
that's maybe no taller than 5-foot-9.
Any taller than that, you're going to bang your head
on the second floor.
And, man, you can't have that in a house
that's going to sell for this price point.
Oh, this would cut into the hallway.
You need 36 inches.
This is-- looks like it's maybe a little bit over.
We got 1 1/4 inch to spare.
The hallway has to be 36 inches wide.
So there's not even room to move that back.
We can move it back an inch.
Okay, so this whole wall might have to go back
that's already been built?
In the upstairs hallway, as it's laid out right now,
there's no space to shorten that walk-under height.
The only thing we can do is move that wall back,
and that's expensive and it takes time.
It's like new construction.
By the time we're done with this,
this will be new construction.
♪
Keith: Today our contractors are fixing the stairwell clearance.
And there was a simpler solution than moving our upstairs wall.
We're cutting the ceiling joists at an upward angle
parallel to the stairs,
then connecting them to a smaller 4-inch header.
Now we have the clearance to avoid any headaches
when we're moving between floors.
♪
Ashlee: Today our roofers are rolling out an underlayment
that'll act as a protective barrier
between the elements and our house.
Then it's time for shingles.
We're going with the medium-gray asphalt shingle.
That's not only good looking, it's also affordable
and can last up to 20 years.
On the sharply pitched roof,
the installers use ropes to hold them in place
while laying the shingles from bottom to top
to ensure proper overlap.
♪
Siding is easy to work with.
It's low-maintenance and cost-effective.
It's tough enough to withstand hail,
and it's ability to repel moisture
prevents damage,
keeping it looking great for up to 60 years.
♪
Keith: I cannot believe we're still doing framing.
This is absolutely the craziest flip
we've ever gotten involved with.
Nobody-- Nobody in their right mind would do this.
The entire house is brand-new construction.
We're using the old hardwood floors for subfloors.
We're a third of the way through our 90-day flip,
and it's already feeling like a lost cause.
Everything's taking longer than expected.
We're spending way more money than we intended.
And I don't think Duke really understands how bad things are.
I asked him to come meet us today
'cause we got to have a talk about this place.
- What's up, man? - Dude, do you remember
the original conversation we had about this place?
It was like, "Yeah, it'll just take a little bit
of this, a little bit of that."Mm-hmm.
Every bit of siding on the house is new.
All the interior wood, the headers, like, every--
this is a new-construction house at this point.
Mm-hmm. We've done all these things on houses previously.
We never did everything on one house.
We're fixing it, and we're doing it right.
What do you want to do? Like cut corners midway through?
I mean, we all got into this project
knowing this house needed a ton of stuff.
So I'm really-- I'm really surprised
that Keith is surprised about all the work we're doing here.
But maybe it's just that thing where expectations
kind of clash with execution,
and it's just not what he thought he was getting into.
I think the biggest impediment right now is Keith's attitude.
Keith: The amount of time it's taken to do all this stuff,
I mean, is absurd.
Duke: This house had a lot of stuff hidden
that we didn't know about, and we're fixing it as we go.
Yeah, that--But if we don't get it done within the 90 days,
you know where that leads us, so why are we talking?
Let's get back to work and get stuff done.
What else needs to be done in this place here?
- We're just showing you around. - Come on.
I mean, you can see that this is progressing, right?
Yeah, it's ready for electrical
to be finished, it's ready for the plumbing.
Wait, let me interrupt.
It's ready for electrical to be started.
I don't see a single electrical wire up here, so--
Alright. That's true, too.
- Starting tomorrow. - If I knew how to do electric,
I would be here at night with a spotlight doing it.
Right. But I don't, so find someone that can
and give them what they need to get it done quick.
Duke thinks we can just say the word
and make this stuff happen, as if all this stuff
doesn't take a tremendous amount of time.
The problem is, he's right about our situation.
We've already invested time in this house,
so the only way to get paid is to see it through
and hope this doesn't turn out to be a house of cards.
Okay, well, the electrician is coming tomorrow.
This is the oldest new construction I've ever seen.
♪
Keith: We're finally, finally getting our electrical system
installed in this place.
We're basically starting from scratch,
running new 14-gauge electrical wire
to every room in this house,
connecting them to new junction boxes,
and routing them to a new fire-resistant breaker box
that will keep this house humming safely.
Next, we're giving that siding a bold new look
with some white exterior paint.
This house has been an eyesore for so long,
it only seemed fitting to give it a bright,
eye-catching appearance as part of its transformation.
This flip has been a struggle so far,
and it's showing in our budget and our schedule.
We're more than a month into this 90-day flip,
and of the 170 grand we anticipated for reno,
we've spent more than $91,000.
That's more than half our budget gone,
thanks mostly to all that expensive woodwork and framing.
We still have tons to do on this flip,
and we cannot afford to go long,
so I really hope things start going a bit smoother.
♪
Now we got to talk about something
I'm not qualified to talk about.
Yeah. What's that?
- Landscaping. - Oh, no doubt.
We got these giant hedges. So what do we do?
Like, these have to come down
to window height anyway, at least.
I say we get rid of this and then just trim these up.
I mean, they look okay. Put some color in.
- Yeah, pops of color. - Okay.
We'll make it look - like my shirt. - There you go.
Justin: This house doesn't really have a tropical vibe,
but we're in Florida. Everything's tropical.
You know what it does have, dude, is a water leak.
Look at this. Oh, dude.
Keith: Main supply line to the house.
Justin: Oh, no!
That's a fair amount of water coming out of there.
I mean, look at the hole that it's pissing.
Yeah, dude, that's all soggy,
and it's getting under the foundation of the house,
so we got to get somebody out here to clean that up.
By itself, it's not a huge problem,
but what it's doing is holding us up from other things.
Guys are going to be here that need water,
and they can't work without water.
That's time. Time costs us money.
We need to get a plumber out here pretty fast.
Alright, so how about this? I'll call the landscaper.
I'll get a proposal going. You call the plumber,
see if they can get out here today or tomorrow morning,
swap out that connection so we go keep draining water.
- Yeah. - Divide and conquer.
Alright, let me get on the phone here.
Alright, let's go!
♪
Ashlee: We got in touch with our plumbers,
and they were finally able to come in
and redo our entire system.
We've decided to go with PEX piping instead of
the more expensive copper plumbing.
PEX is less susceptible to cracking
under extreme temperatures than copper,
and its flexibility makes it easy to run
hot and cold lines through the walls to every tap.
For the bigger drain lines and that leaky main line outside,
PVC is the way to go.
With this durable new system in place,
our other teams now have the water they need
to get back to work.
Now we can tile our bathroom floors.
For the primary bedroom downstairs,
we've chosen large hexagon tiles
that are mostly white,
highlighted the stylish streaks of gray.
The upstairs guest bathroom gets the same tile,
creating a nice uniform look.
♪
In order to keep this home energy-efficient,
we've opted for spray-foam insulation.
Unlike fiberglass, spray foam forms a complete seal.
It's also moisture-resistant and adds structural strength
to the surrounding wood.
♪
Now we can start putting up drywall.
There's not a room in this house
that doesn't need fresh Sheetrock,
so our installers get busy screwing in
4x8-foot sheets to the walls and ceilings.
When this is done in a few days,
this place will actually start to look like a home,
just a lot later than we wanted.
♪
We now have less than a month in our 90-day schedule,
and if things don't go perfectly from here on out,
we might not hit our deadline.
Our expenses are also in trouble.
Of the $170,000 we set aside for reno,
we've now spent almost $145,000.
There's not enough left to cover the remaining work,
which includes the kitchen and bathrooms.
So we're definitely going over budget.
But right now, it's that 90-day deadline
that really has me worried.
That massive lien could cripple our business.
♪
- Ash! - Hey.
Drywall looks good.
Ashlee: That's completely crazy to see it with drywall, right?
- Justin: Yeah. - I mean, now you can see the rooms.
It's been sticks for so long.
- Yep. - Yeah.
But now we have to wait for the mud and tape,
and they don't have a date for when they're
going to start that.
Really? We're just--
Oh, they don't have anybody to do it.
Yeah, they're just so busy and they're so slammed
that they said that they can't send anyone today or tomorrow,
and they're not sure when.
The drywall's up.
But that's only like 40% of the job.
The real work goes into it when you do the taping
and the mudding and the texturing.
You said not today, not tomorrow,
and they don't know when, so what does that mean?
They're figuring it out.
People are working everywhere, and it's just--
I don't know, this housing - market's crazy, you know? - Justin: Yeah.
Yeah, but that sounds like we're heading towards like a week
of standing still with nobody working.
- That-- We can't have that. - Yeah, I know.
This is a big job. This is a lot of mud and tape.
That's going to take a full week itself.
- Yeah. - You know?
And that compounds, because then all the other trades
that we have scheduled, you know, are out of luck.
Believe me, I understand. It's crazy.
Ashlee: Without the mud and tape, we can't do the trim,
the doors, the flooring, the kitchen, the everything.
I mean, we're at a standstill.
What's really annoying is there's four pallets of flooring
that's ready to be picked up that I thought would be starting
- to be installed soon. - Oh, my God.
Are you guys not worried about the massive lien?
- $351,000? - Oh, for sure.
I'm going to call the drywall company
and see if there's anything I can do
to accelerate that process, alright?
And I'll just call everyone and tell them
our timeline is delayed.
- Yeah, fingers crossed. - Let me give them a ring.
Yeah. Let me give them a ring, see what I can do.
These delays are killing us. - I know!
♪
to someone else and give us their labor.
You know what? I do know a job site where there's some--
where there's drywall actively going on,
and I recognized a few of the guys.
If they recognize me, maybe we can work something out.
Yeah. Yeah. Go visit them, please.
We're going to try to hijack a drywall crew, for real.
Or we pay the $351,000 Code Enforcement lien.
That would saddle us with a debt
that could take years to pay off,
and it would cut into our profits on every single flip
we do until that time.
Come on. Let's go save the day, dude.
- Godspeed. - Alright.
Let's go get some drywallers.
♪
Justin: Alright. This looks like the place.
Yeah.
Hey. My name's Keith. How are you doing?
Ron. Nice to meet you. Pleasure.
- Ron. - Yes.
- Hey, nice to meet you, man. - And pleasure.
So I drove by here the other day.
I recognized a few guys on the--
on the drywall crew I saw loading in.
We have a two-story house that we're trying to finish.
Our drywall crew bailed. We have to get this house done.
We need a crew.
And I know your crew is a good crew.
Any way we could take your crew just to install tape, mud,
texture of the house and then have them come back?
I don't know, but let's see. I have my drywall guys inside.
I mean, I can have you talk to them.
Oh. Oh, hey.
Justin: Hey. What's up, man?
So I was just explaining, we got a house
that's probably about 2,000 square feet.
What did you say? Around 100 boards?
Yeah, we've probably got 100 boards,
but I just don't have a crew to put it together.
If we could just steal your crew...
- Now? - Now.
We're on this job for another four days.
We'd make it worth both y'all's while.
Are you okay with it? I mean, this is your job.
You said you'd make it worth our while?
- I will, I will. - What exactly you're-- you're thinking of?
If I were willing to pay your your crews
double their day rate,
and then if I broke you off 2 grand?
Now that we have a drywall mud team,
we can get cranking on all the remaining fixes.
♪
The mud-and-tape crew covers the seams in the drywall,
giving us a complete and clean surface to work on.
Next comes texturing.
We spray a joint compound mix on the ceilings and the walls,
creating a splatter pattern that we flatten
with a rubber squeegee to create a subtle 3-D effect.
Now we can paint. For the common areas,
we're using an off-white shade called Creamy.
The bedrooms get a soft green tone called Sea Salt
for that perfect hint of color.
♪
And with the walls complete, we can finally install the floors.
We've chosen a luxury vinyl plank
in a light wood tone called Willow.
It has look of wood but at less than half the price.
♪
With just about a week left,
it's time to tackle our big finishes.
In the primary shower, we're installing large-format
30x60-inch porcelain wall tiles.
They're white with ribbons of gray and brown
the pair perfectly with the floors.
Then we put in a beautiful oak-colored vanity
with an off-white quartz countertop.
In the upstairs bath,
the tub surround gets classic white subway tile
installed both horizontally and in a herringbone pattern.
We finished the room with a glacial-green vanity
topped by a stunning marble counter.
Then in the kitchen,
as the new jewel of this neighborhood.
♪
I'm not sure how we pulled it off,
but we finished this flip on time,
and we avoided a financial disaster.
It cost us a steep price, though,
because the 170 grand we had for reno wasn't enough.
We ended up spending over $203,000,
which cut into our potential profits by more than 33 grand.
But considering the alternative,
I'm happy to know there's still a chance
we might make a profit on this flip.
♪
Look at this house. Oh, my goodness.
- Wow. - Night and day, right?
Keith: That doesn't even begin to describe it.
- It's completely mind-blowing. - Yeah.
- What? - [ Laughs ]
- Hey! - Hi!
When he bought this, - it came in a blister pack. - Please.
Ashlee: Who cares about the car? Look at this house.
I cannot believe the transformation.
Do you remember what this thing looked like?
It was ready to fall right into the Dumpster that we'd set here.
No, no, it had. The roof was caved in.
And there was a door up there that was falling in.
Six flavors of tarps up there.
It looked like a sailing ship with the mast collapsed, right?
Duke: This was absolutely the worst house
that we've ever laid our hands of.
Ashlee: It was the worst house in Orlando.
- In Orlando, yeah. - Yeah, possibly Florida.
But now look at it. I mean, it's incredible.
Keith: I can't believe what a change. It's beautiful.
Remember the old siding?
- Oh, yeah. - It was horrible.
Justin: The old paint was just chipping away
everywhere you looked.
But now it's got beautiful curb appeal.
Ashlee: Love the paint color, don't you guys?
Keith: Gray and white seem like really basic colors,
but when you put them together, it's an incredibly sharp look.
It was a pity we couldn't keep the original windows.
But, I mean, thinking back, you couldn't have kept them.
No, that's the thing I can't say enough
about the brand-new windows-- energy efficient from Eco Glass.
Yeah, they look incredible.
I remember the front, you couldn't really see it
because the vegetation was so tall, overgrown.
The front looks amazing now.
You can see it really clearly from any angle.
Remember? Duke was like,
"The roof is perfect. It's fine. There's no-- "
Ashlee, your idea with the kitchen was probably
the biggest change to the whole house.
What was this room before it was the kitchen?
Just kind of a huge open living area.
- Yeah. - And then it had a little door
going into a closed-off kitchen over there.
But now it's a great layout. I really like the use of space.
It looks incredible. Really flows, right?
- Yeah. - I saw the cabinets coming out of the boxes,
and it took my breath away, but to see them in place--
you know, I'm not even a huge fan of gold anything.
Oh, we know.
But, like, the navy with this kind of gold, it's gorgeous.
I think he's finally turning the corner.
Gold looks great.
Ashlee: Put in this gorgeous farm sink.
Look at that. These are my favorites.
Alfie knocks them out of the park, too.
Yeah, this was Alfie, yeah.
Justin: Ashlee, this stone's amazing.
I know. Is this gorgeous? It's quartzite.
So it's real stone. It looks kind of like marble,
but it's more durable and it's cheaper.
- Oh, I love this. - Wow.
You can see worlds inside them. It just has so many layers.
- Yeah. - It's really good.
So this is like a dine-in kitchen.
But we also have the dining room over here
with plenty of space on this side
where the kitchen used to be.
Do you remember the big hole in the ceiling right there?
Yeah, and the plaster was coming down.
It was just a mess.
There's a lot of small details that went into,
like, all of the things we did to renovate
and make the floorplan work better.
And it's all connected so you can see your guests
when you're in your living space.
Yeah, it's such a huge living space.
You could just envision of family, like,
enjoying this area and the whole kitchen.
This outcome looks great to me.
Guys, should we go check out the primary bedroom
that's now downstairs?
- Yes. - Yeah, sure.
Remember, when we first came in, it was a pile of trash,
tarp, and raccoon.
Keith: Aah! There's a [bleep] dead [bleep]
It looked very peaceful and relaxed.
It was the worst!
Look at the room now. It's absolutely fabulous.
Duke: Well, it was a tiny little bedroom.
But what happened was we captured that space
off of that back area and incorporated it
to make that the bathroom for this bedroom here.
And so it's got that, it's got a nice walk-in closet,
you know, actually two of them.
And this thing exploded. It's got so much room now.
Yeah, it's amazing. Check out the bathroom.
- Yeah. - Ooh! I love that tile choice.
It's so light and bright in here. Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah, with the new skylight
Duke: The skylight's a big deal.
The natural light that it lets in here
makes the place just dance in the daytime.
Ashlee: Looking good.
This whole bedroom suite is a giant transformation.
Let's go check out upstairs.
- Yeah. - Yeah, let's go.
This place definitely wasn't safe enough
for all of us to walk up at the same time
a couple months ago.
- Oh, my God. That is for sure. - No.
Keith: It is super sketchy.
Do you remember this bathroom before?
It was just a mess.
This came out great.
- Yeah. - Look at the vanity.
Ties in with the colors on the wall.
It's just-- the whole thing came together really well.
Justin: Let's go see all those bedrooms.
Keith, do you remember this part was, like,
- completely falling down? - Keith: Yeah.
Ashlee: Anyone could have killed themselves in this room.
This was a gaping hole. The floor was a hole.
There was a doorway there going to nowhere.
It was just so dangerous.
And now it's crazy.
These spare bedrooms look great.
Plenty of space.
And we got the barn door.
But it's actually practical in a space like that,
because if you put a swung door,
it would either take up all the closet
or block half of your bedroom passage, so...
And not only looks great,
but it's got a functional aspect as well.
- Absolutely, yeah. - Yeah.
What about these interior doors? Solid core.
They're gorgeous, from Timberland.
Duke: Oh, they're super nice.
I want to see what the stagers - did to the secret nook. - Yeah.
Remember this was, like, that dank little room in the attic?
Like, one misstep and you were going down.
Justin: Dude, I love this nook. The hidden room, man.
And honestly, the stagers kind of nailed this one.
Like, this house was nothing but drama,
and now that it's done,
let's go get some boutique beers,
'cause that's what we need right there.
- Definitely read it. - First sell, then celebrate, okay?
- Yeah, okay. - We conquered.
Keith: Triumphed over that zombie, right?
Guys, the most incredible part about this--
we beat the deadline for the Code Enforcement lien
with like minutes to spare, practically.
That's nuts.
Yeah, that was a stress I've never had to deal with before.
I'm just so happy it's over.
- Yes. - Yep.
This place was such an eyesore.
And now we've done such an amazing job.
I'm super excited to get it on the market.
I can't wait to see if the market loves it
- as much as we do. - Let's do it.
This was the riskiest job we've ever done,
and I would not make this deal ever again.
But things ended up working out.
We listed this property for $500,000
and soon got an offer for $515,000.
The purchase price was 200 grand,
and our reno costs reached $203,000.
We had no loan interest thanks to Duke putting up the money,
and the closing costs hit just over 28 grand.
That makes an all-in cost of over $431,000.
So this sale price creates a profit of more than 83 grand,
three quarters of which goes to the Zombie team.
It's money in the bank, which I thought
might not be a possible outcome on this house.
Duke: I got something else I want to talk to you guys about.
- Yeah. - I have something else waiting in the wings.
I've got another house.
I mean, if you thought this place was bad,
this place is really going to take the cake.
- [ Laughs ] - What do you talking about?!
You guys have proven yourself on this one.
I think you can make something out of this other house.
- No, dude, we proved ourselves? - Yeah!
All this proves is we should not listen to Duke anymore.
- Yeah! - Right?
This house almost did me in.
I do not want to do another house like this.
- You guys did a great job. - Thanks, but no thanks.
Keith: Yeah. Take your toy truck and get out of here.
Bye, guys.
♪