Know realities before flipping old house
Q: I’ve decided it’s time to take a chance and flip a house that was built in the 1890s. I’ve watched plenty of shows on cable TV and feel it can’t be that hard. Have you ever done this type of construction work? It seems like it’s an easy way to make a sizable profit. — Paul T., Erlanger, Kentucky
A: There’s an old saying: “A half-truth is a whole lie.”
If a TV show about flipping houses told you the entire truth about a project, you might end up with a sour taste. Shows are taped and edited so you feel happy; producers want you to watch the next episode.
Flipping houses is hard, dirty, dangerous and risky work. You might have better odds of making a profit roaming the Bellagio casino, placing bets every 10 minutes at different $100 blackjack tables. This is especially true if you’ve got no real construction experience.
Indulge me in a trip down memory lane.
I’ll never forget the house I built for Habitat for Humanity on an old city lot in Cincinnati. When we dug for the new foundation, we discovered a massive sub-basement where the original house stood. It took 200 cubic yards of budget-blowing flash fill to provide enough support for the new house footers.
I’ll never forget the shock I felt at another old house when I opened up a wall to install a new window. I interrupted a family feast hosted by a giant nest of termites.
Oh, and then there was the first old house I flipped. I decided to replace the rotten cast-iron plumbing drain lines with new PVC ones. Once I had the system put back together, the toilet didn’t flush right. It turns out that 80 years of scale and rust buildup at the bottom of the full-sized castiron vent stack was blocking necessary air from getting in.
As I write this column now, I’m less than 10 miles from where you live. A few days ago, I was touring a very vibrant community in Cincinnati called East End. It’s filled with old houses and small businesses built at the same time, or slightly before, the house you’re looking to flip.
Many are currently being pushed off their foundations by a massive landslide. The landslides you see on the news in California grab all the attention because they’re violent and come down the mountainsides like an avalanche of snow.
These Cincinnati landslides are slow, and because of that, many in the community are complacent. But on my visit I saw tilted foundation walls, patio stones bulging up, and entire structures pushed off their foundations.
Can you imagine what it might cost to stop or repair damage like that?
Lead paint, vandalism, thievery of building materials and tools, and tough code restrictions also will challenge you as you jump into this project. Out-of-level floors, ancient sewer and water lines that may have reached the end of their lives, and other money-sucking surprises await.