expectations and tastes of mod- ern millennial buyers. The homes may have a missing bathroom, low ceilings, or a funky layout. “We do like distressed assets because we love to do the work correctly and update the units … We are amenable to doing the work,” he said. “You have the housing stock sitting on the market, and it’s kind of obsolete in terms of being useful to the next generation. … The work has to be done. We’re just doing the work.”
“They’re saying I don’t want to live in the one-bedroom, one-bath apartment that’s 600 square feet with a one-year-old,” he said.
his partner embarked on a more challenging phase of the process: the actual construction work, made more painful by supply chain disrup- tions and inflation. “It was a lot of hard work,” Wenzel said, noting that some items ordered almost on Day One after the purchase weren’t delivered until days before the property was listed for sale 10 months later in August 2021. “We spent a month working with suppliers trying to track down garage doors.” The substantial renovation added 1,500 square feet to the home and allowed it to be listed with a year built of 2021, even though the pre-renovated property was built in 1965. “It’s modern, it’s exceptional, it’s got all the features that people want,” Wenzel said. “We’re really proud of our work. We do seek a profit, yes, but we don’t do that at the expense of doing shoddy work.” The home sold to an owner‑occupant buyer, and Wenzel suspects the buyer is one of the many millennials looking to move out of New York City.
RENOVATING ENMASSE Wenzel is not alone when it comes to renovating and redesigning dis- tressed properties and selling those properties to millennials and others who want to become homeowners. An estimated 140,000 renovated properties purchased at foreclosure auction or bank-owned auction were resold to owner-occupant buyers between January 2020 and Decem- ber 2021, according to an analysis of foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) auction sales data from Auction.com along with public record data from ATTOM Data Solutions. The Auction.com data was extrap- olated using the public record data to arrive at the total market estimate of 140,000 resales to owner-occupants. That total market estimate is likely conservative given that some resales occurring in the second half of 2021
RENOVATINGARELIC Case in point was a Weston,
Connecticut, property that Wenzel and his partner purchased via an online bank-owned (REO) auction on Auction.com in October 2020. “After we won the property was when we first saw it (inside). We just really noticed that this was a relic of the past. This was created for a bygone area,” said Wenzel, noting that while the home had good bones and sat on a nice-sized lot, it lacked the open concept layout that most modern buyers want. Instead of a work-from-home office, it had a ban - quet hall. “We thought this was going to be a great canvas to build on. There was a lot of work to keep us busy.” Wenzel and his partner hired an architect to draw up plans and worked with the town to get those plans approved. “That part was really fun. What should we do with the driveway? Where should the master bedroom go?” Wenzel said. “What I find most rewarding about this process is cre- ating the future. With these homes and this process, you’re able to take what this current generation will want and give it to them.”
Steady Supply of Affordably Priced Homes for Owner-Occupants
Renovated Foreclosure Resales to Owner-Occupants
Avg Renovated Foreclosure Price
Avg Retail Market Price
$450,000
160,000
140,755
$400,000
140,000
$381,850
$350,000
120,000
$300,000
100,000
88,989
$250,000
83,354
$261,543
77,438
80,000
$200,000
60,000
$150,000
37,833
40,000
$100,000
20,000
$50,000
$0
0
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020 & 2021 COMBINED
With the design plans drawn up and approved, Wenzel and
Sources: Auction.com, ATTOM Data Solutions *2021 resale data not complete due to lag in public record sale data
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