Fixer-Uppers
for Fun & Profit
by Walter Jowers
Buying, renovating, and reselling old
houses can be a good business for
small- or medium-sized builders,
particularly those of us who may be
long on hands-on skill but short on
up-front capital. There's no other
niche that offers the possibility of
fairly quick profits to builders whose
biggest asset is the quality of their
work. And all it takes to get started
is enough money to buy-and
enough skill to renovate-one
"distressed" old house. But it's got to
be the right distressed old house, and
it's got to be renovated the right way.
Over the last several years, I've
owned and restored four old houses:
a 1950s cottage in South Carolina, a
1920s