Old House Renovations

I am shopping for a new house in today’s bad real estate market and it is actually a sane and sensible thing to do. I already knew it was, but one of the major old home restoration mags confirmed my feelings with an excellent article in its current issue. That’s right - I’m  shopping for a new old house that needs some sweat equity and I’m being smart to do so.

You can find some incredible deals on older fixer uppers in a good housing market. In a bad housing market you can literally find a nice little house that needs cosmetic work and kitchen and bath updates for the price of my sister’s big new truck that has a biofuel option.  If you don’t mind a bit more work, you can find a house that is cheaper than an economy car. I’ve seen houses with solid foundations, small yards and nice architectural details for $11,000 to $15,000. These aren’t homes in unsafe areas, either. (Economically depressed, yes. Dangerous to live in, no.) When you buy a home this cheaply, you simply can’t lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on your real estate investment. You didn’t spend enough in the first place to lose even fifty thousand.

Of course, no matter how cheap a house is, you should never buy it without using a good home inspector that you selected. You need to know how much money you’ll be putting in to turn your neglected little place into a sparkling neighborhood eye catcher.

By now, you probably really want to know where I found homes this cheaply, right? I actually have several options right here in Maryland, but most mid-western and southern states have a few nice little towns and cities that have cheap housing that was built before 1930. I’ll talk about a few of the places I know about soon. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one place to check out on your favorite realty site - Decatur, Illinois.

Photo by Dez Pain - Stock Exchange

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