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BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

954: Cheap Old Houses: Buying Fixer-Uppers for Just $100K w/Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Investing, Business

4.8 • 16.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Would you buy a house for $100K? That’s right, just twenty-five percent of the median home price in America. Well, we found a couple who does just that, finding fixer-upper properties that often cost less than six figures and turning them into eye-catching, head-turning homes. They even argue that these cheap old homes are BETTER than the newer-built house flips that so many investors are targeting today. So, how do you find your next $100K home, and where do you start looking? Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein, the brains behind HGTV’s Cheap Old Houses and the social media account by the same name with millions of followers, join us on today’s show. Elizabeth and Ethan love cheap old houses, but not for the reason you think. Most investors purely look at the numbers or the profit potential, but Elizabeth and Ethan see beyond that, fixing up old houses to not only collect the significant equity gain but restore communities and bring back long-forgotten styles, materials, and looks. They’ve bought houses for as cheap as $27,000 and turned them into homes anyone would dream of having. If you’re an investor without much capital and can get a little handy, these old houses could explode your portfolio. But who SHOULD be buying these cheap old houses? Stick around as Elizabeth and Ethan give their expert advice on what to DIY vs. hire out, which old pieces to keep, the best way for beginners to get started with little money, and the decades that built the BEST houses! In This Episode We Cover How to get on the path to financial freedom by buying cheap old houses  Buying houses for just $27,000 and where to find these types of homes  How old is old enough, and the decades when building quality starts to decline Using the “live in flip” strategy to buy your first fixer-upper or primary residence  DIY vs. hiring it out and the tasks that Elizabeth and Ethan enjoy the most  And So Much More! (00:00) Intro (01:24) Why Cheap Old Houses? (05:16) $150K Houses!? (07:17) Rehabbing New vs. Old Houses  (19:03) Who Should Do These Rehabs? (20:11) Best Ways to Get Started  (23:38) DIY vs. Hiring it Out (27:47) Connect with Ethan and Elizabeth! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-954 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email advertise@biggerpockets.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

It does feel like everything in 2024 is incredibly expensive.

0:05.0

The median home price is over $400,000 right now in the country.

0:10.0

But what have I told you there were still options to buy cheap old houses for under a hundred thousand dollars?

0:19.0

That is absolutely possible and is a really interesting strategy for all real estate investors to consider.

0:25.6

Hey everyone, welcome to the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast. I'm your host

0:34.4

Dave Meyer and today we're going to be talking to Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein.

0:39.5

You may know them from their very popular Instagram account. It's called Cheap Old Houses or their

0:45.8

HG TV show by the same name. But we are going to be talking with them about why investors shouldn't

0:52.2

necessarily overlook old houses and how you as an

0:56.0

investor might be able to find really great gems and some really unrecognized value

1:02.2

if you're willing to put in the work that comes with buying

1:04.7

some of these older cheaper houses. We'll talk about why old home renovations are

1:09.9

actually not as difficult as you think and why restoring old homes has more

1:15.4

value than just the dollars and cents that goes into it. So with that let's bring

1:20.2

on Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein from Cheap Old Houses.

1:24.0

Elizabeth, Ethan, welcome to the podcast.

1:27.6

Thanks for being here.

1:28.6

Thank you, David, for having us on.

1:30.8

It's quite surreal, David, for us to be on bigger pockets

1:33.7

podcast because we started an Instagram feed called Shepold Houses and we never

1:38.5

really thought that you know we would be on the bigger pockets side of things with talking about real estate and

1:44.8

how cheap old houses is transforming people's lives into real estate owners.

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