Home flipper’s world ‘scary,’ yet ‘satisfying’

Sept. 15--The small ranch in Ramsey had a periwinkle-blue exterior, an outdated kitchen and a pitted concrete front patio. But it also had a relatively new roof, air conditioning and good location, on a leafy street close to Route 17 and Ramsey High School.

To home flipper Maureen Wiener of Franklin Lakes, the home's pluses and minuses added up to a potentially profitable investment.

Wiener's been buying, renovating and selling homes for more than a decade, running into some unpleasant surprises along the way, but always managing to make a profit. She's currently working on her sixth project, planning to raze a run-down ranch house in Glen Rock and replace it with a 2,500-square-foot home.

That's a departure from Wiener's usual formula, which is to buy homes for less than $400,000, do an extensive renovation, usually including a new kitchen and bathrooms, and then sell or rent them out. She picks the locations with care.

"I love what I call triple-A towns _ with trains and good school systems," she said. "Towns where a lot of people want to live." Including Glen Rock, Fair Lawn and Ramsey.

Overall, home-flipping activity has declined since last year, both nationally and statewide, according to RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks the real estate market.

In the second quarter of this year, 4.4 percent of home sales in the Garden State were flips _ defined as properties bought and resold within 12 months _ down from about 8 percent in the second quarter of 2013. RealtyTrac said the flipping market is cooling off in response to a slower rise in home prices this year compared with last year. Slower price increases mean a flipper can't depend on the market to help boost profits.

Anyone who watches HGTV's renovation shows will recognize some of the challenges faced by home flippers like Wiener _ including the expensive problems that only announce themselves after the sledgehammers start swinging. For example, Wiener thought she could salvage the wood floor in one of her remodeling projects, but it had to be replaced because of pet stains. Another home, in Fair Lawn, required thousands of dollars in pest control after termites were found.

As a young woman, Wiener worked as a model and voice-over actress, before marrying and having children. When her children (now in their 20s) were young, she helped manage small shopping centers and multifamily properties owned by her husband's family. Her husband, Jeff Wiener, was also in real estate, rising to become president of the commercial brokerage Kislak.

When the couple split up about 11 years ago, she sold the large family home in Franklin Lakes, buying a smaller house and using the difference to buy her first flip, a property in Fair Lawn.

She wasn't nervous about the venture because she had renovated her own homes before. Her bet on Fair Lawn paid off, she says, partly because she had researched the neighborhood.

"You have to look at the whole picture," she says. "You've got to look at the town, the neighborhood. What have people done in the neighborhood? Are there a lot of renovations? How close is the grammar school, the high school? You research an area to death. You go on a lot of open houses, you talk to a lot of Realtors."

Wiener aims for a 15 percent return on her projects and does not depend on flipping for all her income. She has returned to modeling and voice-over work, and owns and rents out two of the houses she renovated. To finance her projects, she has gotten some funding from private investors.

"It's very, very hard for someone like me to borrow from a bank," she says.

Wiener looks for properties that are selling at a reduced price, which usually means they need a lot of work. She noticed that the Ramsey ranch had been on and off the market for months, and pounced when its price fell.

She paid $385,000 for the three-bedroom home, and then spent $70,000 on a new kitchen, new main-floor bath, refinishing the hardwood floors, repairing the front porch with slate and having the exte

rior and interior repainted. She listed it for sale at $550,000.

Wiener says HGTV's remodeling shows "give a false sense of what things cost," making renovations seem more affordable than they really are.

"I get all kinds of estimates, but no matter what, building is expensive," she says.

Afraid of nothing

To save the cost of a general contractor, Wiener serves as her own project manager and hires the subcontractors. She also does some work herself, including demolition and, sometimes, tile work.

"There's nothing I'm afraid of when it comes to home renovation," says Wiener, a competitive paddle tennis player. "I really feel like you break it down into little components."

Still, she works with a long list of people on every project: attorneys, real estate agents, an insurance agent, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, kitchen installers, counter installers, Sheetrock guys and a "carpenter who knows how to do everything."

Like most people who have done a home renovation, she has run into bad contractors, including a painter who couldn't be bothered to spackle problem spots and the contractor who charged $450 a day _ and in that time, did nothing but put up one door.

When she buys, Wiener always assumes that the homes will need a new kitchen and baths. "You go in there knowing that's what you're doing, unless the kitchen is less than 10 years old. But I haven't run into that yet," she says.

Mary Premtaj, a real estate agent who has worked with Wiener, says Wiener's tenacity and "deep understanding of the real estate world" has helped her dig up properties that can be profitable. And she knows how to renovate the homes to appeal to buyers, Premtaj says.

"She has a good understanding of what somebody would like," says Premtaj, who is with Prominent Properties Sotheby'sInternational Realty in Franklin Lakes. "Maureen has a very good sense of design; that's the piece most people don't have."

As in most projects, the Ramsey house revealed unwelcome, and costly, surprises. The house had been so full of stuff that Wiener couldn't get a good look at the baseboards and doors. Turns out she had to replace many of the interior doors and much of the woodwork; she also had to replace some of the radiators with baseboard heating.

Because of these unexpected expenses, she had to drop plans to expand the back deck and possibly add a pergola to the yard.

Wiener expects the Ramsey ranch to appeal to a young couple looking to move out of New York City or Hoboken, seeking more space and good schools _ and no fix-up chores.

"They want a train town, they want a family-oriented downtown," she said. "This house, I'm gearing toward a young couple who just want to put their toothbrush in the toothbrush holder. Young couples are overwhelmed by the idea of renovation."

The Ramsey house's exterior is now painted gray _ the most popular neutral these days. The living room and dining room are painted a similar soft gray. The new upper kitchen cabinets are white; the lower are gray. The hardwood floors have been refinished throughout the main level; young buyers generally prefer wood to carpet. Downstairs, a basement room now has a rubber floor and could be used as a gym. The old patio outside has been paved with slate.

Her next project, in Glen Rock, will be even more ambitious. She bought a small, run-down, century-old ranch for $355,000 on a property that backs up to Green Acres land; she plans to knock it down and build a whole new home _ a first for her.

This property also came with surprises. Parts of the house were missing a foundation, and the property had an underground oil tank, which the sellers took care of.

Despite these nerve-wracking moments, she likes the process.

"Every night at 3 in the morning my eyes fly open _ 'What am I doing, am I out of my mind?' Then in the morning, I sit with my coffee and start to think, 'I can do this,'Ÿ" Wiener says.

"It's scary being in your own business, but it's satisfying. What I love is seeing something completed and knowing I've done it."

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