An American named Betsy Sweeney bought a 130-year-old house that was in disrepair for $18,000 in Wheeling, West Virginia, and then remodeled it into a beautiful abode. The house was built on an area of 3025 square meters. And when the woman bought it in 2020, the property had structural damage and poor water filtration.
130-year-old house bought and renovated by Betsy Sweeney (YouTube/@Wheeling Heritage Media)
“From the time I was a little girl, I always wanted to live in a big old house,” Sweeney told CNBC Make It.
While renovating the old house, she preserved some of its historic features such as Victorian fireplaces and vintage bathtubs. For the renovation, she took out a $100,000 construction loan.
“In addition to being beautiful and profitable … I think historic properties are so important — not only to the communities they’re in — but because they help people gain access to real estate,” Sweeney told CNBC.
How Sweeney used her investment ideas to great effect
When Sweeney bought the house during the Covid-19 pandemic, she was still living in rented accommodation that she had to pay about $900 a month.
Due to the poor condition of the house, she could not get a classic mortgage loan. So she first took out a $25,000 loan from a local organization and used it as a down payment for a $100,000 construction loan. With $125,000, she made repairs, turned it into a livable apartment and moved into the house. After that, she reassessed the house to a higher market value, and replaced the construction loan with a mortgage loan with a lower interest rate. Thus, her monthly interest payments were reduced to $700, which is less than the amount she was previously spending on rent. At the time of the mortgage, the appraised value of her home was $202,000.
Sweeney took out another small loan of $35,000 to build a kitchen in the house. So, in total, she spent 160,000 dollars on the complete renovation of the house.
According to a report by Business Insider, Sweeney says that after all the renovations and construction, if she were to sell the house now, it would fetch at least $240,000.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn