5 Reasons I Love Ugly Houses (Really!)

When they're put on the market for sale, ugly houses that look like they need a lot of renovations and rehab stay there for a long time, even for short sales. Sometimes they don't even sell at foreclosure auctions because they look like they just need too much work.

When they go to auction, there's not only very little interest in these houses, but their starting bids are really low. Even if we have a little bit of competition in the auction, they'll usually bow out before we reach our maximum bid. Getting a flip for a really low price means that we can put a little bit more money into rehabbing it, and then we'll make an even greater profit when we're done and ready to sell it.

When we find a really run-down house that hasn't been put on the market yet or that has recently been listed, we can almost always assume that it doesn't have any other bids on it. Other flippers look for quick fixes that they can turn around without much effort, but Tarek and I really live for the projects we can sink our teeth into and make a dramatic change to.

When we buy an ugly property, I love taking a look at it from the curb and thinking about what we can do right away to increase its curb appeal. Sometimes all it takes to make it look presentable is some lawn care, a new coat of paint, and some work on the roof.

Of course, with projects like these, there's almost always a lot more work that needs to be done inside. When we start on the outside, though, we can make the house look gorgeous and start building up market interest in it while we continue doing work on the inside.

Finally, I just really love the big transformation you can see with these really ugly properties. When we start with a house that looks like it should be torn down and we can turn it into a beautiful, livable space, it just makes my whole year.

The houses you see us rehab and sell on Flip or Flop have been some of my favorite projects of all time even though sometimes my initial gut reaction is OMG, what have we got ourselves into! If you're interested in learning more about real estate investing — do it. Get to a workshop. Then you'll stop saying, "Tarek and Christina are nuts!" and you'll start seeing how buying an ugly house and flipping it can be one of the most rewarding things you ever do!