Buying and rehabbing a vacant property in Minneapolis (Cleveland, Lowry: bank owned, real estate)

[UffdaMN]

I am wondering if anyone has direct experience in buying and rehabbing a registered vacant home in Minneapolis. I have been looking for homes primarily in North Minneapolis; Willard Hay, Camden, & Victory. So far I have made three offers and been beat out by cash offers from 'flippers' each time. I did see a vacant property I am interested in this morning, I also see that Minneapolis has a lot of rules and regulations for buying and rehabbing these types of homes. Has anyone tried it, and how was it to work with the city?

[MPLSCleveland]

I bought a vacant/foreclosure in January. Finished work at the and of February and moved in. Just realize that it is a lot of work to rehab a house.
Ok, now for the nitty gritty with the city. There will be a Truth in Housing report on the house. The city requires that all violations on the report be repaired and reinspected in 90 days after closing. If the house is boarded up (2 or 3 windows boarded up is enough), the house is considered condemned by the city. If that is the case, all the above is true and there is a $6000 condemnation fee (I am not sure what the official name of the fee is, but I skipped numerous houses when the bank/seller would not pay it).
Some tips for you when looking at houses:
1) A good number of these homes were vacant all winter. Try to find out if the piping was winterized. Busted pipes a never fun to deal with.
2) Check to see if there are any fines/liens/assessments by the city or county on the house. Everything from the city mowing the lawn to clearing the sidewalk of ice/snow can show up on you property taxes (learned that one the hard wya myself - got hit $900 for snow removal that the city had to do before I bought the house).
3) Since the city will be reinspecting the house (the inspector who originally did the truth in housing report must do the reinspection whenever possible), make sure to pull any permits that will be necessary for the repairs. The city will flag the property if you don't. If you ever decide to sell or make the house a rental, there will be a ton of headaches without the permits ever being issued.
That is all I can think of/remember right now. I'll probably post more as it comes back to me. In all honesty, buying this house was the best decision I made. It was a ton of work, but in the end I have an outstanding house that I would have never been able to afford otherwise. The effort is more than worth it.

[Camden Northsider]

I'm not sure our house ever made it to the "vacant" status- was a case of the owner going to nursing home and it was a while before it was put on the market. I know our house didn't have the "certificate of approval" from the City of Mpls and there were some required repairs- but they didn't have any deadlines and they were pretty minor things. Make sure you are checking out this website (City of Minneapolis Search By Address) to look up the truth in housing report on any property you are looking at. They usually give the inspector's phone # and they might be able to provide more information to you on the report itself or required repairs/ timelines needing to happen.

I'm sorry to hear you've been getting beat out by flippers/ bidding wars which seems to be fairly common up here- with all of the programs out there to spur homeownership, it's too bad there's not a way to give preference to persons that, although not having all the cash upfront, intend to own/ occupy homes. I have been noticing a lot of flipping activity here in the Victory neighborhood as of late- there has been some pretty quality jobs, but then there are other instances where persons are just buying foreclosures and immediately putting them back on the market (and selling them) for $75-100K more than what they paid after putting a very minimal amount of work in it. Good luck with your search, if I can be of any help in answering any questions about the local area (good choice by the way), feel free to DM me. (Also- if you like the areas you mentioned in your post, i think you would probably like the Cleveland neighborhood as well).

[Slig]

I think being a house flipper would be a fascinating profession/hobby. Unfortunately I don't have the time or know-how to take it on, but would love to hear some follow-up as you go through the process. I bought a house that had been flipped so I can relate to what the result side of it is. Honestly I don't know how the seller made out in my case, he may have ended up losing money on the house. Sadly, he bought it as the market was crashing and I ended up buying it for nearly 50k below the original listing price. This was also after it had sat on the market for several months. I think is alot more attractive for house-flipping foreclosed/bank owned properties now that real estate is so cheap and interest rates so low.

[Camden Northsider]

Uffda- just want to make sure you are aware of the Minneapolis Advantage Program as it sounds like you'd be the perfect applicant (assuming your income isn't too high).

[MPLSCleveland]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

I'm not sure our house ever made it to the "vacant" status- was a case of the owner going to nursing home and it was a while before it was put on the market. I know our house didn't have the "certificate of approval" from the City of Mpls and there were some required repairs- but they didn't have any deadlines and they were pretty minor things.

I should have been more clear on that. Major code violations require a reinspection within 90 days of closing. With mine, it was the furnace (ha ot be replaced) and water heater (was not properly vented).
Uffda, I would recommend checking out the Cleveland neighborhood since you are already checking out Willard and Victory. The Cleveland neighborhood is just south of Victory with its borders being Penn Ave on the east, Victory Memorial on the West, Dowling to the North and Lowry to the south. The neighborhood is pretty quiet (except for Penn Ave, but hey it is at least active which I love about it).

[shizzy]

one thing to keep in mind in some of the depressed areas is the fact that the house no matter how nice will still be worth slightly less then one in a nicer neighborhood.

[uptown_urbanist]

Remember to check individual neighborhoods for money available, too; in addition to the city financial incentives, some of the individual neighborhood organizations have loans and outright grants available for rehabbing homes. Sounds like you may well be aware of those already, as you've put in a few offers, but figured I'm mention it for the benefit of those who may be in the very early research stages of considering buying.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by Slig

I think being a house flipper would be a fascinating profession/hobby. Unfortunately I don't have the time or know-how to take it on, but would love to hear some follow-up as you go through the process. I bought a house that had been flipped so I can relate to what the result side of it is. Honestly I don't know how the seller made out in my case, he may have ended up losing money on the house. Sadly, he bought it as the market was crashing and I ended up buying it for nearly 50k below the original listing price. This was also after it had sat on the market for several months. I think is alot more attractive for house-flipping foreclosed/bank owned properties now that real estate is so cheap and interest rates so low.

Article about flipping trends in Victory here: http://victoryneighborhood.wordpress...-neighborhood/