When the housing market crashed in 2007 almost everyone felt the effects, but  senior James Brennan and family decided to use it to their benefit.   James has been flipping houses with his family for seven years now.

“My brothers and I, with the help of our father started a business to fix up foreclosed homes. One thing led to another and we ended up buying multiple homes,” said James.

The Brennan family first started flipping houses when they remodeled their old house. They planned on using the old home as a vacation rental. They have now been doing this for about six years.   They haven’t sold any of the houses they have flipped, but instead decided to rent them out until it is a good time to sell.

“The goal is to find a home with a lot of potential value and a good location, but preparing a house for rental can take from a few months to a year,” said James.

They try to find homes in the Metro area, but mostly buy in the River Valley area.   They also try to snatch up any home along the river.

James said, “The houses are much easier to maintain when they are closer, which is why we don’t buy homes in Florida.”

The biggest project they worked on took them a year and a half to complete.

“The worst part of flipping a home is the construction, it is much more enjoyable to demolish the home. My family and I do end up hiring a lot of the construction work,” said James.

The Brennan family all agrees, if they were to go back and do it all again, they totally would.

Adam Brennan, James’s brother said, “The worst part for me was definitely the cost of getting to the actual remodel. But in the end it is worth the time and money. It’s a great way to build equity when you’re younger and you have the opportunity to start paying it off or selling it for a quick profit.”

Even though James does not personally pick the houses or do all the construction work, he enjoys it, and he plans on flipping houses after high school.

“James has always been involved in the process. My father got our entire family into it when we were younger. It was basically the whole family pitching in to help clean and remodel houses,” said Adam.

After doing this for six years, the Brennan family has some horror stories.

“One time we decided to redo a old home. It was around 120 years old. As we walked down to the basement it was almost like stepping onto the moon. There were five to six inches of dust on the floor and the ceilings were blocked out from all the cobwebs. Nothing eight to ten garbage bags can’t handle,” said Adam.

The Brennan family all agrees that when home is finished, no matter how hard or tiring it was, it was worth it and they would do it over and over again.