[geo in mi]

I think Alice in TX/MO has the best advice. Meth, asbestos, lead paint is probably the reason nobody has touched it with a ten-foot pole before now. Also, you'll get only the lowest scrap copper price for wiring that isn't stripped of its insulation. And most wiring is buried inside the walls, making it very labor intensive to remove while the house is still standing. Probably there's a minimum wage employe of the demolition operator whose job it is to pull out the salvageable stuff as the house gets torn down. Keep in mind, too, there's usually a go-between the city and salvage company who "decides" who gets the house (for a sum, of course.... think gang boss, racketeer, or Mafia).. You would be better off pushing carts through the doors of WalMart, in my opinion.

geo

 

[doc-]

I just looked this up-- Average house has ~270 lb of copper wire, and scrap wire (with insulation) is $2.50 a lb at the scrap yard... 270 x $2.50 = $675....Figure in your time and the cost of the property. Then you'll be stuck with an abondoned property, abandoned, no doubt, for good reasons, ie- you're not gong to be able to sell it again or have to keep on payiing proeperty taxes each year, unless you abandon it too, and I bet .that won't do yur credit rating ay good.

Rehabing houses may be profitable to a compettent handyman, but loook for one in a desirable neighborhood, not a blight stricken one.

BTW- Crime does not pay...but the hours are good.

 

[Wolf mom]

Walmart just upped their pay to employees - from $12.00 to $14.00 an hour.....would you get that from selling copper?

 

[Fishindude]

In some instances when you buy these properties you also agree to either demolish them and clean up the lot, or rehab the property and make it livable.
Why not look for one with good bones and rehab it, pay as you go for a cheap first starter home.

 

[Pony]

Did i just word my post wrong? Im talking about buying abandoned houses from the state for 100's of dollars and selling their material

I don't know that it was worded wrong, just not entirely clear.

 

[Paumon]

Please re read im talking about buying cheap properties for hundreds of dollars and selling the parts, not stealing copper and fuseboxes those were just the two obvious ones in my head

(Not a theif, just not rich enough to renovate)

Thank you for the clarification about that.

.

 

[robin416]

@So sorry, I think the reason everyone thought you were just going to help yourself to what was in the derelict houses in their long experience on what it takes to rehab or build a home. No one could imagine that you would buy it and do it more or less legally.

You've received a ton of good learning about what it takes to do what you were thinking.

 

[Heartbroken]

My dad and brother used to work on rehabbing old houses in the inner city, in partnership with a real estate firm that was attempting to bring back old neighborhoods. It's heartbreaking, really, when you look at those wonderful old parts of the city with large trees, formerly gracious homes, old-growth woodwork and spacious windows and see what they've come to after decades of neglect and crime.
They quit after a while. Too many times they got back to the job site only to find that the electrical and plumbing they installed had been ripped out again overnight. Then there was the issue of lowlifes stealing the tools right out of the trucks.
Point is, those poor old houses are left to die that way for a lot of reasons, and any place you could pick up for $500 will have nothing of value left, and could put you in a world of hurt with lead paint, asbestos, and crackheads.

 

[Danaus29]

Some crackhead nearly eliminated himself while stealing copper gas lines from the house next door to my aunt. He and his thieving partner caused an explosion which injured the one pretty badly.

Before the explosion that house had had several owners. They would come in and fix the place up and overnight some crackheads would come in and steal anything worth stealing and damage what couldn't be sold for cash. The thieves knew the routine of the neighborhood and made sure they were never seen. Once someone waited until the siding and aluminum screen doors were installed before stripping it all in a few hours. I asked my cousins why they didn't watch for and report the vandalism. They said the house wasn't worth their lives.

 

[ofanevening]

Recently turned 18 and noticed a ton of really cheap houses near me that are unlivable due to like structure damage etc. Would i make any money just selling the copper and fusebox?
(Edit. Yeah that looks confusing but im talking about buying then first!)

I searched this same question on google and it led me to this site please just some advice from people who know a rhing or two because i do not 😅


(Thank you for your time)

I'm no expert but if you're young and strong, maybe you could sell whatever's valuable (I doubt you'll make a lot), do the demolition yourself, save anything that's good, and build a couple of tiny homes on the same property and then rent them? Two tiny homes and one big garage might be rentable. You could be a landlord at 20.

 

[Terri]

I live in a house that was "flipped" by a gent who worked in construction. I suspect that some of his materials were scavenged from some of his jobs. He and his family lived here, modernized it, and sold it and used the profit to buy a larger fixer-upper on 5 acres of land

Think about it.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

You might be flabbergasted at what construction folks take home from jobs.

I have built lots of things for my goats from job scraps on my own projects.

It’s a good thing.

 

[Michael W. Smith]

Just a couple of years ago, an older lady in our neighborhood, decided that she simply owed the bank too much for her house - and being widowed, figured she would never get it paid off. So, she took her belongings - well . . . what she could use . . . . moved into her kid's house and let her house return to the bank.

The bank of course, is interested in making money - not being a property and house owner with yearly property taxes. So December of 2021 - they had a sheriff's sale at the courthouse. No one wanted to purchase it for the $18,000.00 so it sat. Last summer, a flipper bought the house from the bank for $5000.00.

They (husband and wife) spent 2 or 3 weeks working on the house - cleaning it out - brought in a dumpster and got rid of the widow's things left. They mowed the yard, did some minor repairs - replaced broken windows with plexiglass, etc.

They then posted on Facebook that this house would be for sale or for rent soon. So many people were interested in seeing it, the one weekend they had an open house. They sold it that weekend for $45,000.00!

I figure they made a profit of $30,000.00 for a month's work.

The people that bought the house, bought it for their son and his family. They have spent countless hours ripping out plumbing and electric, putting in new, repainting the house, putting on a new roof, etc.

I still don't understand why that widow didn't decide to sell the house to a grandson for what was owed to the bank - and let them remodel it as they could with time and money.

 

[ofanevening]

I still don't understand why that widow didn't decide to sell the house to a grandson for what was owed to the bank - and let them remodel it as they could with time and money.

She may have asked and didn't have anyone interested. I've been hoping to find someone in a situation sort of similar - where they want to get out from under their property for a great price and I get a house and they get to move to Florida or whatever. But how do you connect those situations with buyers without going through the whole county, auction, flipper, flip, yuppie sale?

 

[67drake]

She may have asked and didn't have anyone interested. I've been hoping to find someone in a situation sort of similar - where they want to get out from under their property for a great price and I get a house and they get to move to Florida or whatever. But how do you connect those situations with buyers without going through the whole county, auction, flipper, flip, yuppie sale?

Network and patience.
Ive bought and sold more than a few in my life, and usually don’t even use a realtor. Get the word out and poke around and wait. Things come along eventually, but not necessary overnight.
If you have cash, you have a big advantage over someone who wants to buy with a mortgage. That might be hard for a beginner though.

 

[ofanevening]

Network and patience.
Ive bought and sold more than a few in my life, and usually don’t even use a realtor. Get the word out and poke around and wait. Things come along eventually, but not necessary overnight.
If you have cash, you have a big advantage over someone who wants to buy with a mortgage. That might be hard for a beginner though.

Sounds good but hasn't played out in my experience in the real world. I've got funds, but I've been looking pretty hard for the past few years, casually for a decade before that. Signs up, ads out, etc. Patience is a virtue but if I wait much longer it might be too late.