One of the ways to tell if a property is a good deal or not is if you can use this formula: Purchase Price + (Improvements + 30%) = Future Value. It’s not appropriate to knock the things you want to do off the asking price, but rather to say, “If I bought for this, and I did this work (the 30% accommodates unforeseen expenses which ALWAYS come up), would it be worth what I anticipate the future value to be? If you can do it for less than it would be worth, good on you. The only difference with a “flip” house is you need to budget cost of purchase and sale (land transfer tax, carrying cost, real estate fees, lawyer fees, etc) on the left side of the equation.
A few of today’s homes I’d rather put my own touch on. But remember – it’s not as simple as writing a cheque. Good trades and a strong design plan on a strict budget makes it work. Enjoy the list – we’ve got 19 homes, including one of the best deals for a larger townhouse with a finished basement, plus a nice home with a pool and another one backing onto a forest in the lower-$600’s.