Fixer Upper Houses
Bird Dogging Guide to
Locating Ugly Houses

This fixer upper houses Birddogging Guide tells you the types and characteristics of where, how, and what to look for when searching for ugly houses. However, If you are a do it yourself type of person that likes fixer upper houses or ugly houses, then click here to learn how to save money and have your questions answered about old house remodeling.

What is an Ugly House?
An ugly house is a distressed property, or a house that is badly in need of repair. Houses badly in need of repairs are called fixer upper houses.

Types of Ugly Houses to Look For
The types of ugly distressed properties you want to start looking for are boarded up houses, unsecured homes, or houses with absentee landlords.

The boarded up house has usually been closed up for a long period of time. The unsecured homes have owners that do not care much for the distressed property. Absentee landlord are usually not keeping up with the maintenance, so the property is view as an unclaimed property.

Characteristics of Ugly Houses
The home values of Ugly houses are very low because they usually have high grass, broken windows, or poor overall upkeep of the distressed property. The ugly house is usually the worst looking house on the block. Hence, the name fixer upper.

Although we are only focusing on the ugly houses with the characteristics mentioned above, there are other owners with distressed property that we will talk about at another time.

How do you find Ugly houses?
Ugly houses can be found every where by walking, driving, or riding the bus thru different neighborhoods. Calling the we buy houses signs, reading newspaper ads, surfing the Internet for websites, or finding a real estate investment club meeting in your area.

The Ideal Ugly Home
A 2 story, 3 bedroom, 1000 square foot, end of group, 2 car garage, in the front of a particular subdivision is the ideal ugly home. Of course all distressed homes will not fit this description, or contain all of the above mentioned amenities.

Remember this ideal ugly home will have the highest potential for closing. On the other hand, if the houses are selling on a particular block with certain types of amenities, then it doesn't matter what the amenities of a particular ugly house has.

Mode of Operation
During the week write down all the addresses of the ugly houses you located. Write the addresses of each ugly house on separate sheets of paper, index cards, or folders on a computer.

What's Next?
The next step is to find the owners. Just having an ugly house address will not earn you any money. You need to find and talk to the owner of the distressed property to determine if they are motivated to sell their ugly fixer upper house.
So, subscribe to the bird dog newsletter for more advance tips & techniques, and for the next step click on the locating hard to find homeowners article below

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