Courtesy Olivia Christensen
The author's living room after renovations.
- When my husband and I were shopping for our first home six years ago, we knew we wanted three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and "character."
- But our budget - about $125,000 - bought us an oversized split level straight out of the 1970s instead.
- It was in a great school district so we decided to take the plunge and buy the fixer-upper. While it hasn't been ideal, our renovations have raised the value of the home by 49%.
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Six years ago, my husband and I began shopping for our first home. Our wish list was relatively short: All we needed were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a generous yard, and, with a growing family, a highly rated school district.
But mostly, I wanted one thing: "character," a term I'd heard on HGTV to describe something beyond the indistinguishable tract homes common in the Kansas City, Missouri area where we were looking. Secretly, I had my heart set on a rambling Victorian.
While we were open to anywhere with great schools in the Kansas City metro, we determined that Blue Springs, Missouri had the best schools for the lowest prices, as well as solid shopping options and easy access to Kansas City. So, that's where we found our realtor and began our search.
We went into the house-hunting process with $20,000 and we had been pre-approved for a $105,000 loan, which put our spending power at about $125,000.
However, after dragging our realtor all over town, we were beginning to realize that while $125,000 seemed like a boatload of money to two 25 year olds, it wasn't going to get us our dream house.
The houses in our price range were small and plain, and we were beginning to realize that the rambling Victorians of my dreams - and in our budget - either had crumbling foundations or termite-infested frames.
How we settled on a 1970s-style fixer-upper
Then our realtor took us to see an oversized split level built in 1977. I hated it. There were stains on the carpet, a leaky hot tub in the backyard, a semi-finished basement, a kitchen with ancient appliances, and countertops covered in flaking plastic. The living room walls were painted a lurid shade of blue, and everything else had been doused in a color that I can only describe as nicotine-tinged ivory.
But the living room ceilings soared 15 feet above us, natural light came in from the large windows on the east and west sides, and there was a brick fireplace in the middle.
Courtesy Olivia Christensen
The author's living room before renovations.The house had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the schools were top-notch. And all for the price of $115,000. We would still have $10,000 left to spend on renovations.
Even as my husband and our realtor plotted our future as Chip and Joanna Gaines, I found myself walking out to the back deck to count the number of projects the house presented and calculating the cost.
But as I stepped onto the back porch, I noticed that while the house was firmly in the suburbs, the large backyard connected to a meadow and patch of woods. Finally, I was sold.
Buying our house
So, we made an offer. We were only able to get the sellers down to $113,500, cover closing costs, and buy ourselves a one-year home warranty.
The inspection confirmed that the house had "good bones" and there were only a couple of outstanding repairs, most of which we were able to renegotiate into our price. There were just a few things the sellers did not agree to pay for: a broken garage door opener and a jammed storm window that needed to be replaced.
The only real financial surprises that came with buying our first home were the costs that aren't often shown on HGTV house-hunting shows. There were property taxes at $2,200, and our private mortgage insurance, which we were able to pay in one upfront payment of just over $2,800.
Suddenly we didn't have the $10,000 for renovations we thought we were going to have. We only had $5,000, and we knew some of our grand plans were going to have to wait.
Getting started with our renovations
There were some repairs I insisted we make immediately. With two small children, I refused to set foot on the urine-stained carpets, so the day we got the keys we also purchased faux-wood laminate floors for the entire house for $3,500.
To save on costs, we chose to install the floors ourselves and maintained that DIY spirit for all of our renovations.
Other immediate updates we made included:
- Light fixtures: $500
- Paint for the entire house: $480
- Outlet covers and sundry hardware: $110
Then we ran out of cash and we had to put the rest of our renovations on hold, and that's precisely when the flip stopped being fun.
While changing the floors, the lights, and painting the walls made the house feel less disgusting and more like ours, so many of the projects I counted that day on the back deck remained projects with no start date.
Over the years we have tackled one project at a time, and our list is steadily getting smaller. We bought new counters and new appliances for the kitchen for $4,000, but the master bathroom remains entrenched in the 1970s, and we'll probably pay for new garage doors when the future buyers negotiate them into their deal.
However, while choosing a fixer-upper over a move-in ready home has meant a lot of delayed gratification, it has also allowed us to add so many personal touches that gave it the character I love in a home. And more importantly, by choosing the location and house that we did, and by flipping it on a shoestring budget, we turned our first home into an investment property.
The home we purchased for $113,500 is now appraised at $170,000 - that's a 49% increase in value.
Which means next time, I'll get my rambling Victorian.
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