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
