If you asked the average person on the street for their thoughts on flipping houses, they’d probably talk about shrewd investments and making fast cash. A few might touch on the design aspects of renovation and transforming a shabby shell into a welcoming home … but none would say that flippers can be valuable community-builders. This is understandable, since most people’s exposure to fixing and flipping is through fast-paced reality TV shows, but as someone who’s been doing this work for more than thirty-two years I’ve got a very different perspective!
Back in 2017, I had fixed and flipped more than 300 units, owned 127 rentals while running a small business that I grew into a small $2M as a single parent in Rochester, New York, and was ready for retirement … when I unexpectedly became smitten with a small city that was about forty-five minutes outside of my home town. Geneva, New York, was in bad shape; once-beautiful homes had fallen into disrepair and many units were standing empty. When I told friends and colleagues that I wanted to invest in this area, they said I was out of my mind since it had been depressed for years and seemed to have no chance of recovering. But my intuition was telling me differently, so I took a chance.
And I’m so glad I did.
I wasn’t planning on getting back into this business, but flipping is in my blood! And I recognized that this small city didn’t have any properties for first-time homebuyers that didn’t need a lot of work—and the area was losing these families to neighboring towns. So I put together a small crew, started buying houses and smaller multi-units, and got to work renovating. I bought houses for as little as $35-$55,000, and once my properties were fixed up, many of them sold within hours of being listed … snatched up by those first-time homebuyers the area so desperately needed to attract. So far, I’ve fixed and flipped 130 units in this area, and it’s made a tremendous difference for the people, neighborhoods, and overall economy.
Watching this positive change unfold as I fixed and flipped these properties inspired me. I wanted to help even more people dedicate themselves to reviving and resuscitating blighted and neglected neighborhoods. So I have created a movement called “Small Town Dynasty,” a mentorship program for ambitious retirees to learn, grow, and join me in reviving these small towns. Over the past few months I have been visiting and meeting with officials of many small cities, villages, and towns to see which ones might be good fits for my students. To say I’m excited about this movement would be a massive understatement. I am passionately committed to getting more retirees involved so we can bring back these overlooked areas that deserve a second chance at success. My motto is let’s change the world one community at a time!
Interested in helping a struggling community near you?
Here are my tips for leveraging your skills as a fixer-flipper to help revive an overlooked area:
LEARN TO IDENTIFY NEIGHBORHOOD POTENTIAL:
Some areas need more help than a single fixer-flipper can give, and others are already well on their way to recovery. The trick is to find towns that have multiple neighborhoods packed with houses that have great bones. They can be neglected and beat-up, but you can tell that with some cosmetic TLC and a handful of upgrades, they’ll be gorgeous. The neighborhoods themselves should be relatively close to schools, churches, or shopping districts, and relatively safe for residents.
FOCUS ON A SMALL AREA:
Don’t try to spread your altruism too thin! Once you’ve found a small town that has deep potential, focus your fixing and flipping energies on just one or two neighborhoods. This gives you the opportunity to dig deep with residents, build a reputation as someone with great skills and good intentions, and help a single community quickly and effectively
CONNECT WITH LOCAL OFFICIALS:
As you begin to buy and renovate properties, make sure to introduce yourself to officials at the city, town, or village. Since you’ll be investing plenty of time and money in the area, you want to cultivate some allyships in local government in case you need help with permits, zoning issues, or other legal concerns. Plus it never hurts to connect with the people in power and let them know you plan to support their residents; you never know how they might help you out in the future!
MEET THE NEIGHBORS:
Reviving a community means doing far more than just repairing homes and attracting new families. It means building relationships with the people who already live there. You need to earn their trust and demonstrate the value you’re bringing to their neighborhood so they will contribute to the effort. This may just mean welcoming new tenants or homeowners when they arrive, but it may also manifest as encouraging people from their networks to buy or rent from you, recommending suppliers or experts for your renovations, even connecting you to owners from nearby neighborhoods hoping to sell their homes.
HIRE & BUY LOCAL:
On a related note, do everything you can to hire local workmen and purchase materials from local stores. Again, if you want to do the absolute most good in a small town, your support can spread far beyond the properties you’re renovating. Putting your money back into local businesses shows that you are dedicated to helping the economy on multiple fronts, and also helps you build a reputation for trustworthiness.
Once your renovations are complete, you can decide if you want to sell your property or rent it to a family. While selling creates the opportunity to pass along a gorgeous home to a new owner, fixing to rent means creating stable and beautiful housing for responsible renters. Rental properties are fabulous investments, and allow their owners to offer beautiful and safe homes to families who otherwise could not afford them. This is especially critical in economically depressed areas where residents might not be able to afford a mortgage payment, but can swing a reasonable monthly rent!
Saving tiny, unloved towns from economic oblivion is no mean feat, and even seasoned fixer-flippers may encounter challenges. If you’d like to explore this work yourself but need some guidance on getting started, check out my Small Town Dynasty mentorship. The program is by application only and only accepts a few investors each year, but it’s a phenomenal opportunity to learn how to completely transform houses through creative flipping and support struggling communities. And if the mentorship isn’t a good fit for you, check out my website which is packed with resources for aspiring fixer-flippers who want to become the beloved hero of a local community.