It is no secret that there is a lot of money to be made by finding real estate bargains with water damaged houses. Bargains are always there, you simply need to be in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.
When I was a boy of around 12 I was riding home with my family from a Denver Broncos football game when my father stopped to see what was going on at an auction taking place nearby. It turned out to be house that was being sold at auction because the city was going to run the new highway right where this house stood: it had to go.
To my amazement, my dad bought the house for $60! Granted, it wasn’t much of a house; just a small, water damaged, wood framed house with no insulation , other than old newspapers. I recall the newspapers because I had never seen such a thing before and it was interesting to look at the old papers and read the picture captions.
My dad grew up dirt poor during the dust bowl era in Oklahoma and was a born entrepreneur. In fact, at the age of 19 he built a house and sold it for a tidy profit. He was skilled at making something out of nothing and eventually had over one million dollars in the bank, though you would never know it his lifestyle.
He had a plan for this little house and I was about to find out what that plan was. You see, my grandparents lived in a village in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and we made frequent visits there. My father had purchased a house lot high up above the village and planned on moving the little house to this lot.
He hired a crew to move the house 50 miles to the village, up the very steep road and onto the stone foundation that we were building. I say we because I was part of the mason crew, or so I imagined. My job was to find stones in the river bed and load them into our truck for use on the foundation, stone wall and fireplace. I was sure my muscles were getting bigger every day and checked every few hours to see.
The big truck finally made it to the village and started up the hill with the house on the flatbed behind. Somewhere along the way up the road the truck brakes gave out and the house and truck barreled down the road right for the schoolhouse. It was a slow motion disaster taking place and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Directly in front of the schoolhouse stood the flagpole, with the stars and stripes shining in the clear mountain sunshine. Bam! The truck slammed into the flagpole and to everyone’s relief stopped just before hitting the building.
I don’t know how the house made it up the hill later on, but soon there stood a cute little red house on the hill with a stone wall around it. My dad rented it out for years and eventually sold it for something like $50,000. Pretty good profit, I’d say! My brother recently went back to look at the house and discovered that it was for sale again, this time for $285,000! Incredible!
Remember, bargains are always there, you just need to be in a position to take advantage of the opportunity. I might add that you sometimes need to be willing to take risks and have a lot of endurance to bring the project to completion. Also, when you find a water damage real estate bargain, keep your mouth shut about it.
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