Update: I completely changed my mind about buying a fixer-upper after seeing my friend's house

I was dead set on only looking at move-in ready homes for months. Thought fixer-uppers were just money pits and stress machines. But my friend bought a 1970s ranch in Portland three months ago that looked like a total wreck. Last weekend I finally saw it after he did the kitchen and one bathroom. He spent about $12,000 total on materials and did most the work himself on weekends. The place actually looks better than the new builds I was looking at for twice the price. The before pictures he showed me looked like something from a horror movie with old shag carpet and yellow cabinets. Now I'm seriously reconsidering my whole approach to house hunting. Has anyone else gone from totally against fixer-uppers to actually wanting one? What kind of budget did you set aside for surprises?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby69818d ago

Started shopping for a fixer upper after a friend did the same thing (she turned a total dump into the coziest house I've ever seen). I set aside $15k for surprises and honestly only needed about $8k of it for the big stuff like plumbing and electrical.

the_jordan18d ago

My buddy @abby698 set aside $12k for his fixer upper and ended up blowing through the whole thing on old wiring.