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Stories of our flipping

Letting you in behind the scenes

511 Road 154 Carpenter WY

This is the property that we cut our teeth on for flipping. We really jumped ALL IN!! We bought this house on the MLS for $70,000 using money we took out of a HELOC on our personal residence. It was a 1208 sq foot homestead built in 1920 on 9 acres in the middle of farmland. Our first thought was "it's such a cheap house with acreage that we'll definitely be able to make a profit on this!"

We closed on this in August of 2020.

We already had a General Contractor to run the project and we spent a couple weeks getting the scope of work dialed in.

It was a complete gut job. We didn't know how extensive we'd have to reno this project at the start. Fortunately, we had underwritten the deal with enough room for the unexpected. And the unexpected it was!!

It turns out the roof had about 8 layers of shingles on it. And even still, the boards underneath it all were somewhat rotted. The roofing contractor couldn't believe that the wood even held the weight of all the layers of shingles!

It turns out that there was no septic system. That's right. The toilet water and all the rest of the plumbing ran through a plumbing pipe that went out the side of the house and just ended in the yard about 8 feet from the house. Ew!!! So we had to install a new septic system.

It turns out that the basement walls were caving in. You don't have to know much about construction to understand that isn't a good thing! We hired a basement engineering company that put in a stabilization system to prevent further bowing in of the walls and to stabilize and support the existing house. The company has a lifetime gaurantee on their system. So we got that installed and drywalls the basement over the support system.

It turns out that the previous homeowners (the family that built the home originally had kept the home in the family and the most recent owner was the grandson, who had completely let the house go with regards to maintenance and cleanliness) had also decided the best way to deal with trash over the past century was to bury it out back behind an outbuilding. So we discovered mounds of trash, to include tires, furniture, and an old camper trailer. We held a huge bonfire to burn down most of the garbage and I hired a friend to bulldoze it and get it properly covered by dirt.

Then towards the end of the renovations, it turns out the well dried up! How does that even happen?? The water was working at the start of the project, but somehow it dried up. So after problem solving to ensure it just wasn't a faulty well head, we had a drilling company drill a new well so we could be back in business.

If this all sounds like a lot of craziness, it was. And in the midst of all of this, our General Contractor went MIA and stopped working on this project for a couple months at a time. He always had excuses and tried to rationalize the delays in the project. But at the end of the day, he was just completely in over his head, very disorganized, and didn't have a realiable crew. So towards the end of this renovation, we fired him. We picked up the tasks of finalizing the sub-contractors to complete their work and we hired another contractor to finish up some of the final touches with drywall and flooring.

This was our first flip. In the real estate world, there's an important saying, "You make your money on the buy". This is a great example of why that is true. Even with all the unexpected added expenses, we made money on this flip still because we bought it so cheaply.

This flip will forever have my gratitude. Not only did it allow us to get started, but we had so many LEARNING opportunities that we now use in our business as we evaluate properties for purchase.

Purchase Price $70,000 August 2020.

Sale Price $320,000 June 2023.

AFTER pictures

705 E 9th Street Cheyenne WY

This as the second property we jumped into. The owner of this vacant lot (with a 1 car garage) was a lead we got through our direct-to-seller marketing efforts. He was ready to sell the lot, and we identified this could be an opportunity to buy a manufactured home to place on the lot with a foundation. This was a particularly interesting idea because the property already had a city sewer tap and electricity running to the property. At some point, it must have already had a house on it. So after doing our due diligence on the utilities for the property, we purchased this "in fill" lot for $36,000. In-fill simply means its an empty lot imbedded in a pre-existing neighborhood.

We closed on this in March of 2021. We had identified and purchased a new manufactured home from our local Manufactured Home Company in town for about $110,000. While we waited for it to get to town, we worked with a contractor to pour a permanent foundation for the home. This allows the home to be sold as real estate, not as a mobile home that is a depreciating asset and requires a different type of loan to purchase.

On this project, it was mostly work on prepping the lot, getting the home placed on the foundation, and then completing the final items to get the water, electrical and heating working.

When the manufactured home got delivered, we had a pleasant surprise. All of the staging furniture was still inside! So that allowed us to get better pictures when we listed it, and allowed us to profit a little bit more from selling off the extra furniture.

It took us a year from purchase to sale, as we sold it in March of 2011. We were pleased with how the process went and realized if we were to do the Carpenter Flip all over again, scraping that property and placing a new manufactured home on it would have been a faster and more profitable strategy. Now we know this strategy for the next time an empty lot comes available at the right price!

Purchase Price $36,000 August 2020.

Sale Price $275,000 March 2022.

After pictures

901 Coolidge Street Cheyenne WY

Coolidge is a home we got to renovate because the owner needed to move into an assisted living home. The house and attic were so full of boxes from over 60 years of collecting, that mice and bugs had found refuge where no one could see them. We held an "open house estate sale" for a day and about half of the items were sold. Sometimes we keep a few treasures we find, and from this house we kept a couple boxes of Silver serving items.

We partnered with Private Money Partner for the purchase of this property, and the returns to him would be a percentage of the profit after sale.

One of the most exciting finds that we get in these mid-century homes is finding beautiful hardwood floors under the throttled carpets. And this house did not disappoint! We created an extra couple bedrooms and completed updated the basement.

On this renovation, we used a General Contractor that we knew from our kids' school but we hadn't used him before. It turned out that he subbed out all of the projects and he didn't keep very good tabs on how much the sub-contractors were charging for their projects. We are used to getting a bid and that is what the price will be, short of any crazy catastrophes. But this GC just passed on whatever charges where given to him, and we weren't aware of the rising expenses.

The basement and the kitchen were two of the items that came in way over budget. While the end result looked good, we realized this GC wasn't a fit. He wasn't organized, detailed, and didn't take any personal responsibility for the project. Again, these are important lessons to learn as we partner with contractors for repeated work.

It took us six months from purchase to sale. Our biggest disappointment was that when we received the bill from the GC and it was 50% over budget. Needless to say, we don't work with that GC anymore. Our Private Money Partner received about $6k on this project.

Purchase Price $242,500 April 2022.

Sale Price $325,500 October 2022.

After Pictures

1153 W Jefferson Street Cheyenne WY

Jefferson was a great project because it was the first renovation we did in collaboration with a new General Contractor, and it was also started while we were out of the Country for a month with our kids in Kenya. JP had worked with this contractor for the past few years, as he was working with a Hedgefund Company that buys homes on Auction in Cheyenne to flip. JP had seen his work on many homes over the years, so we were able to come into this relationship with more experience around our expectations. Additionally, we were training our full time Real Estate Property Manager to also start to Project Manage, so we were in a great position to step away for a bit.

This home was a pretty straightforward flip. We removed the external eye sores and made this property pop. It's the kind we like to do. Ranch home built in the mid-century. Three bedrooms and bathroom on main floor with an attached garage. It's fairly simple to update the rooms, create an extra bedroom or two in the basement and add another bathroom.

We partnered with a Private Money Partner for the purchase of this property. The funds were secured by a lien on the property and returns would be a guaranteed percentage over the span of the renovation. Our Private Money Partner on this property made over $6k.

It took us 9 months from purchase to sale. We were super pleased with how this flip came out, even though we had to wait a bit longer for a buyer. It went under contract right away, but then fell out of contract after a few weeks because the buyer couldn't qualify for the loan.

Purchase Price $158,000 January 2023.

Sale Price $315,000 September 2023.

After pictures

3209 Bevans Street Cheyenne WY

Bevans was a very gratifying project overall. But it had it's challenging, like many projects do!

The first odd thing we couldn't figure out in this home was how it was heated. We found multiple thermostats around the home but there was no furnace, no vents, and no electric baseboard heaters or hot water pipes. Ultimately, there was no visible way of heating the home. Fortunately, we were able to consult with the previous homeowner and we found that the whole home was wired with electric radiant heat in the ceilings. This was a first for us, but sure solved the mystery!

Other than the heat source, this was a pretty straightforward renovation.

Until the summers came and storms rolled through. One of the windiest storms that rolled through late summer blew down half of the fence in the backyard. We were able to work with the neighbor and split the cost of installing a new fence.

This home was only a few blocks from the school that 2 of my girls were going to, so we often drove by after I picked them up from sports practice and we'll get to see the progress.

One other challenge we had on this property is that while we got it under contract fairly quickly after we listed it, the buyer ended up backing out of the contract with no explanation. The second person we got this property under contract with wasn't able to close because they ended up not qualifying anymore for the loan. And so the third contract finally closed.

The end product was beautiful and the main floor was so open and bright. The owner was elderly and had moved to Texas to be with his family. One of his adult children came back to town to collect the final possessions that were still in a storage unit. He came through the open house, and we got to video his response (with his permission of course). I LOVE getting to see hear the stories after the houses get "loved" again through renovations.