What’s the consensus on buying a fixer upper home and slowly making the repairs yourself. Buying the tools etc..

My question if you use online resources i.e. YouTube, google etc.. take your time and plan ahead.

How much would your time have to be worth for this to be bad. Or is it bad flat out because these tools skills are economically unjustifiable?

Imagine having this thought and then posting it in the financial section of a poker forum?

Fair.. this forum appeared broad to me and I felt this was a investment of sorts.

“Economically viable” was the value prevalent meme - the mental mentality of the forum as a whole. I would argue against you - that is exactly the collective I should pose this question to.

But yes, your right. Just because this forum is in a position to offer the best response to a question does not mean it should be asked here. I would also argue that if you were in a position to ask a question you would seek a source capable of offering the most valuable feedback?

Or perhaps you would seek a second hand source that is more in keeping with the outlined prerogative?

Oh jeez I’m not doing myself any favours. I was curious though...

I assume now - doing some thinking for myself.

It depends on the repair. Lame...

Problem: spending money on tools...

Supplies vs labour can be rounded easily.

Common tools vs rental tools(finding a baseline)...

I guess I’m just interested in people with a more sophisticated cost analysis applied to a common domain..

I think the bigger question is do you enjoy this type of work? If so, then it's a good hobby and you'll enjoy (re)building your home. I know several people who have done so and taken great pride in their accomplishments.

If don't enjoy this type of work, then you're in a for a long, hard slog and likely to hate every minute of it after the initial excitement wears off. If you're doing it for an investment, then surely there are easier ways to make money?

This is great a side hustle...

1. buy a fixer and get livable( at least 1 functioning bathroom, heat and ac)

2.move in

3. over course of 1.5 years fix it

4. list on market , close sell after 2 years and profit is tax free

5. if you sell sooner then 2 years , tax free if reinvest proceeds into another primary residence.

If you are worried about the cost of the tools it isn't for you. It's a great way to make money, where are you going to find that fixer upper?

Tools are nothing, they're just a drop in the bucket.

This is a cool idea and something I'd like to do in the future, myself.

Point 2 is very important. If you aren't living in the home then you are burning money by slowly making repairs as described in the OP.

As someone who's been down this road, you need to ask yourself how much fun it is to live in homes in a perpetual state of construction. Bringing women home to sawdust, and a pile of drywall, isn't the panty dropper you might think.

About the time you get it livable is when you get an offer. Then it's back to square one.

It has nothing to do with the tools. You either have an ability to work with your hands, and an eye for detail, or you don't. All the tools in the world won't solve whether or not this is for you.

Also, do you have any experience at all with construction or home repair? Depending on the market and where/when you buy and how you go about fixing it up I'd certainly say there is value to be gained there; but to other poster's points it is honestly more of a lifestyle and hobby/activity driven thing first and foremost. if you dont enjoy the work and living there you'll drag things out and then lose the financial value you should be gaining. so if you enjoy the work then by all means explore away. also unless you are dead set certain to be doing this several times over do not buy the tools. just plan and organize your work schedule and rent most of what you need (plus it'll push you to keep on track with completing projects since your paying more the more you keep them.)

How do house flippers make money? They buy at a good price, reno, and sell. If they can do it and have to hire people to do the reno, then you can certainly do it when you don't have to pay for all the labor of reno.

The real question is whether you can do it.

Two of my close friends did this. I was actually roommates with one of those guys for a while. Their reno results looked very half assed. Things didn't match, things were crooked, little bits and pieces were unfinished, some things looked odd. It was a weird mix of good, bad, and the ugly. It was better than before but I really wonder how much value there is in making a 3/10 bathroom into 6/10 bathroom. I would guess that most buyers don't want a 3/10 or 6/10 bathroom and would still want to do full reno on both.

BTW, simple things don't add much value. It is the big things that add substantial value. (Kitchen, bathroom, adding additional bathrooms, finishing out the basement, etc.)

Both of these guys sold their houses. The result? Both made a few 100K profit. Why? Because it was an area that went through very high appreciation. It is hard for me to say how much value the renos added.

So it goes back to the original question. Some people can do it but can you do it? The actual 'how' is not brain science and you can figure it out with help/internet, but renovating a house while living in it is not that easy to do well.

Back many years ago when I worked in IT I had a coworker (early 20s) that was remodeling homes on the side in an up-and-coming neighborhood. The first home he bought for $180k, and he put $100k into it plus 11 months of his time and sold it for $410k. He probably added a bit over 1,000 sf to the home to make it 2,000 sf total. I recall he did virtually all the work himself, although he hired electricians that worked at our job to do the electrical work cheap.

The next year he did 2 remodels at once and then went full time into it. He now builds homes from the ground up in the nicest area of Dallas. He's currently building multiple homes between 5,000 and 7,500 SF with price tags between two to five million.

Tools are not very expensive. You can get hand tools at garage sales. Corded tools are like 1/3 the price of battery operated. Look at Harbor Freight for tools you will only use for one project.

If you have any kind of white collar job the time will not be "worth it". If you enjoy the work it's worth it. It's a very good feeling when a project turns out well and you get to look at it everyday. I was able to do decent tile, drywall, electrical, insulation and plumbing from youtube videos.

Before starting I'd also make sure and have a clear vision on how you're dividing labor based on your experience/comfort level. For example, most wall and floor repairs are going to fall (depending on type of materials etc) into more of a manual labor category versus installing say new appliances such as sinks or rewiring electrical. So when looking at the property think about what you're comfortable handling and factor in the blind-spots to your costs/decision.