Turn a Stinky House into a Stunning Home

By Lorena Tankersley
June 14, 2012

The other day, I was inspecting a property I’m thinking of buying from another investor and I was
startled by how differently we viewed the property. I thought it was almost a walk-in-and-do-nothing house, and she felt it had almost $10K worth of repairs to make it tolerable or attractive to any woman.
Then my potential partner went to look at it, and he too thought it had very little work to do. I guess women really see things differently. I saw ugly four-by-four inch white porcelain titles on the kitchen counter with moldy grout lines and funky dents all over the master bath vanity. Any woman I know would despise it. And who buys houses? We do!

Your advantage in the “Stinky House” business is that you can see clearly what other women will see. You understand automatically and instinctively what home buyers (read “women”) want. I call them the Stinky Houses because most houses that have been left in disrepair usually smell bad, either from smoking tenants, pets, water damage, or even just from “hard living.”

At one of my property tours, I asked one of the investors if she was considering the Stinky House we had just seen as a possible investment for herself. She said, ” No, it’s just not my style.” I though that was odd, because the house was an incredible opportunity and a very, very good investment from a Bargain Finder point of view, so I asked her what it was about it that didn’t seem to be “her style”. She said, “Well, it’s very cluttered, and it really stinks.”
We had a long conversation about not investing on emotion and according to what you’d like to live in. An expert investor sees the clutter and thinks , “Oh, goodie, no one else will see beyond the mess, and I’ll be able to scoop this deal.”

You’ll get used to looking with a very discriminating eye when you view a property. Once you’ve made your initial observation, if you guesstimate that even with repairs the deal is good, now bring in your handyman to give you the real data on what it will cost.
Tips:

• Look up! Look to see if there are any stains on the ceiling, it may be signs of water damage.
• Look thru the clutter, imagine the room as thought it were empty.
• Look beyond the cosmetic deficiencies and let your creativity shine.
• Think on repairing and not replacing.
• Always use neutral colors.

Stinky House = Stunning Home = ka-ching!

“Every house started out as a lovely home where people imagined they’d live happily ever after. Restoring charm to a broken property is the equivalent of restoring a dream to a broken heart. I love the transformation”– Karen Nelson Bell

Lorena Arnold
Speaker, Motivator, Investor
Cell:  303-981-6539
Lorena@WomenInvestmentGroup.com

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