Millennial Couple Bought Fixer-Upper Sight Unseen for $150K, Worth It

• Evy Rivera and Jacob Evans purchased a Victorian home in Earlville, New York in July 2023.
• The house cost $150,000, but it needs a lot of renovations.
• The couple live in the house which is currently being renovated, which they say could take years.

Evy Rivera and Jacob Evans were looking to put down roots when they found their dream home.

After living in Denver for eight years, Rivera, 34, and Evans, 35, decided to spend a few years on the road in an RV, taking advantage of their remote jobs. Rivera sells vintage clothing online, while Evans works remotely as a sales manager for an automaker.

But in 2023, they decided to buy property, so they moved to Rivera’s parents’ house in Florida while they searched for the perfect home. They knew their search might take some time, as Rivera had a specific vision for their home.

“I’ve been a little obsessed with ‘cheap old houses’ for a while,” she said, an Instagram account turned HGTV series focused on – you guessed it – acquiring and renovating. cheap old houses.

After watching the series, Rivera and Evans fell in love with the idea of ​​renovating an outdated property while preserving its integrity. Many millennials are chasing this dream because homes for renovation are often less expensive in a U.S. real estate market where prices are still hovering around record highs. However, they require more patience and elbow grease.

Indeed, a 2023 study from the home improvement show Today’s Homeowner surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that 55% of them had renovated some part of their home in the previous year. The majority of people who reported remodeling were Gen X or millennial homeowners.

Former homeowners often turn their renovations into passion projects, and many chronicle their journey on Instagram or TikTok.

With their dream of an inexpensive home in mind, Rivera and Jacobs decided to look for an affordable Victorian home in New York and Pennsylvania.

Rivera and Evans found the perfect home in Central New York

Months after beginning their search, they came across the Dwight Reynolds House in Earlville, New York, which they said was completed in 1875. The 3,000 square foot house has five bathrooms. baths and two bedrooms, and it was listed for $150,000.

“We had already seen quite a few Victorian houses in other areas of New York,” Rivera said.

“It’s probably one of the most unique ones we’ve seen in looking through the hundreds of listings across the Northeast and the United States,” Evans agreed.

The couple told BI they were immediately drawn to the tower that sits atop the property, as well as the original millwork details that could be found throughout the home.

“We loved the facade and the fact that all those original details were still in place,” Rivera said. Although they loved these details, the house wasn’t in great shape, but that didn’t deter Rivera and Evans.

“We thought the house was really beautiful even though it was falling into disrepair, like a lot of houses in central New York and upstate,” Rivera said. “We always thought there was so much potential.”

They took a virtual tour of the property with a real estate agent and decided to make an offer on the house in the summer of 2023. They were worried about buying the house sight unseen, but they knew they would be able to view the property before its official closure.

Luckily, they loved the house when they were finally able to set foot in it while under contract. They closed on the property in July 2023.

The renovation process began as soon as the house closed

When Rivera and Evans moved into their home, they focused on fixing up the first floor, where they plan to live, while they renovated the second and third floors.

Upon closing, their first task was to clean out the house, which was filled with old furniture and trash from the previous owners.

“The house was so dirty,” Rivera said. “It took us about a few weeks to clean everything up.”

They also had to quickly repair the siding on the front of the house, as there was a hole in the front wall from rotten wood.

Today, the first floor is in good condition. They’ve made the front windows shine, their lobby has been renovated, and the dining room is comfortable.

But Rivera and Evans say they still have a lot of work to do outside the house before they can start making progress on the second and third floors, like repairing holes in their porch where squirrels and pigeons make their nests .

“It’s not a glamorous life at all,” Rivera said of restoring their home. “If you buy a historic house that has been neglected for a long time, you won’t think about the pretty wall colors and curtains you’re going to hang in that beautiful room.”

“Yeah,” Evans added, “you’re going to start with a really dirty, disgusting, boring project, like removing the family of pigeons from the hole on your porch.”

They hope to soon be able to get their second-floor bedroom and bathroom back into working order, but they need to prioritize structural issues first.

Renovations will take years

The couple told BI they have spent about $9,000 so far on the renovation purchasing tools — mostly at estate sales — and materials, focusing on the structural soundness of the home.

However, they plan to spend between $125,000 and $150,000 on projects while continuing to work. They also expect that renovating their home will take years, because they both work full time and because they want to preserve as much of the building’s historic integrity as possible.

For example, the house has custom moldings and several sections are missing. To ensure they replace the missing pieces with similar-looking wood, the couple will need to have new pieces made, which takes more time than simply removing the molding and replacing it with something basic.

Likewise, they don’t want to replace their historic windows from the 1800s, so they’re looking for solutions that will keep them intact while making them more energy efficient.

“We have to have realistic expectations and know that this is going to take a few years,” Rivera said.

They also document their renovations on social media, initially posting to keep friends and family up to date with their renovations, but they also want to show other hopeful homeowners that they can also bring a dilapidated home back to life .

“I think a lot of people think it’s not an option for them to buy a house that’s not in great shape and then just live there and slowly invest some money into it” , Rivera said.

“They think they have to buy a house that is 100 percent, you know, fully updated and remodeled, but that’s really not an option for people,” Evans said. “But I don’t think a lot of people realize that you can just buy a house that’s not in great shape and make it your own.”