Most buyers I work with want move-in ready. I get it. But in the Bay Area, move-in ready comes with a big price tag, and sometimes the better deal is the house everyone else walks out of.
That's the story of 1739 Chase Street.
The house
My clients D&E bought 1739 Chase in July 2019 for $635,000. It's an 1885 Victorian in West Oakland's Prescott neighborhood: about 1,400 square feet, two beds, two baths, no parking. It had been on the market for more than two months. It was an as-is, distressed sale, close to a short sale, and the house needed a lot of work.
Plenty of people toured it and passed. D&E saw an old Victorian with good bones on a street full of them, priced low enough to leave room to grow.
How they did it
They didn't hire a general contractor and gut the place. They moved in and got to work.
Over the next four years they redid the floors, painted, remodeled the kitchen, updated the bathrooms, and redid the yard. They lived through all of it, including a stretch of cooking in a half-finished kitchen. In total they put about $110,000 into the house.
What impressed me was how disciplined they were with that money. Kitchen, baths, floors, paint, yard. Those are the things buyers notice the second they walk in, and they're what buyers pay for. They did as much of the labor as they could themselves and didn't spend on upgrades that wouldn't show up in the sale price.
The sale
In November 2023, we sold 1739 Chase Street off market for $920,000.
The rough math:
- Purchase: $635,000
- Renovations: about $110,000
- All-in: about $745,000
- Sale: $920,000
That's roughly $175,000 over what they put in, before selling costs. And they had a place to live the whole time, so they weren't paying rent on top of a renovation budget.
Some of that gain came from the market. A lot of it came from the work. They made the house worth more by improving it, not by waiting around. Investors call that forced appreciation.
If you're thinking about a fixer
This approach can work really well here. The premium for turnkey is steep, and project houses get a lot less competition. But it's not easy, and it isn't for everyone. A few things I tell buyers:
- Inspect everything. On a house this old that means general, pest, sewer lateral, and usually roof and foundation.
- Do the cosmetic work yourself. Leave electrical, plumbing, and structural to licensed pros.
- Pull permits when the work needs them. Unpermitted work has a way of coming up when you sell.
- Budget more than you think. Old houses always have one more surprise.
- Be honest about whether you can live in a construction zone.
If you want to walk a few project houses and run the numbers, give me a call. I have inspectors and contractors I trust, and I'll tell you straight which houses I'd pass on.
I'm a real estate agent, not a CPA, tax attorney, or financial advisor. Nothing here is tax, legal, or financial advice. Please check with a licensed professional before making decisions based on it.
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