Over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult for Americans to buy property.
Mortgage rates and house prices have skyrocketed, making becoming a homeowner a pipe dream for many.
But Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein have a solution: cheap old houses.
That is the name of the couple’s Instagram page, which connects Americans with historic, characterful fixer-uppers – all on sale for under $100,000.
The account boomed during the pandemic, and now has a huge 2.7 million followers, stemming a book and a spin-off show on HGTV with a new series coming in spring.
They started the account in 2016, but Elizabeth and Ethan believe there is an ever greater need for a creative approach to homeownership in today’s unaffordable market.
Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein set up their Instagram page Cheap Old Houses in 2016
‘It’s just gotten exponentially harder every single year for people to buy a home, Elizabeth told DailyMail.com.
‘It’s undeniable that millennials and younger people, especially, feel priced out of the housing market and pursuing all of the “American Dream” hallmarks we’ve always been taught to aspire to. Cheap old houses offer another pathway.’
‘Even before the pandemic, Cheap Old Houses took off pretty quickly. Now it just feels like a feeling of desperation among so many people,’ Ethan added.
Housing inventory across the US is at a historic low and mortgage rates closed in on 8 percent last year, pushing up the cost of homes and pricing many Americans out of the market.
Cheap Old Houses, which has 2.7 million followers, connects Americans with historic, characterful fixer-uppers – all on sale for under $100,000
Elizabeth and Ethan, who live in Albany, New York, and have an old house of their own, believe a solution is looking to saving these houses, and with them, America’s built history.
‘One of the biggest hindrances to people buying old houses is the way that they’re often portrayed as money pits. They’re more than that,’ said Elizabeth.
‘New houses are money pits now if they’re built poorly, which many of them are, and in 10 years they will be leaking.’
Their aim is to demystify the process of buying an old house. And since they set up the account, they have had one or two people a month say they have purchased a property featured on their feed. Over the years this has added up to hundreds of people.
‘It made financial sense’: An $86,000 stately home
Jessica, Steven and their two children live in Danascara Place in upstate New York
Jessica Rhodes, 36, and her husband Steven, 37, bought the stately Danascara Place in Fonda, New York, in 2019.
The couple both grew up in the area and knew about the house – which is surrounded by farmland and a creek on one side.
The Federal-style mansion, which was built around 1795, had been abandoned for eight years, suffered foreclosures, and been damaged by fire.
But when it went on the market for just $86,000, it made financial sense to take on the project, Jessica said.
The Federal-style mansion, which was built around 1795, had been abandoned for eight years, suffered foreclosures, and been damaged by fire
The family are now working on restoring the Federal-style mansion room by room
The couple had bought and done small restoration work on old homes before – and recognized the foundations of the property were surprisingly solid.
‘We asked our contractor friend to look around and he said it would cost around the same amount to make the house livable as it would be to buy it,’ Jessica told DailyMail.com.
‘Financially it made sense. It would cost less than the mortgage we were paying on the other house we were living in.’
Jessica, Steven, and their two young sons moved into the house in November 2019 – once the bare bones of a heating system and working bathrooms had been installed.
Their children are now 7 and 9 years old, and the family are slowly working on restoring the house room by room.
Not only are they preserving the history of the place, but they are discovering features which Jessica tracks on her Instagram account.
‘I’d love for our kids to know that they can do anything if they commit to figure it out and working hard. I think that’s a good lesson to learn in life and I would love it if they could learn that through seeing what we do,’ she said.
A $25,000 muraled mansion
The Cook House had been abandoned for decades and was in ‘dire condition’ before Lucas bought and restored it
Lucas Neuffer, 30, had to do some digging to find the owner of the Cook House in Evansville, Indiana.
He had driven past the 10,000 square-foot mansion, which had sat vacant for decades on an acre of land, many times on his commute to the office where he worked as a realtor.
So when he found out that there were plans to tear the house down, he set about trying to find the owner.
‘No one knew where she was and I did every bit of research I could to find her,’ he said. ‘I ended up finding her through the guy who was moving the lawn outside the house. I stopped him one day.’
Lucas and his wife Kindel now live in the 10,000 square-foot house, which has 10 hand-painted murals which Lucas has learnt how to restore
Eventually he persuaded the owner, who had not been to the house in 15 years, to sell it to him for $25,000 – all the savings he had at the time.
It was 2017, and Lucas was 23 years old. In the seven years since, he has completely transformed the house from the ‘dire condition’ he bought it in.
‘Two significant sections of the house were actually missing. You could see right through the house from the yard,’ he said.
Now, he estimates that it could be worth somewhere around $1 million.
Significant parts of the house were missing, said Lucas, including a bay window at the back of the house which was restored
During the years of restoration Lucas has made sure to bring back the forgotten history of the mansion.
‘I reached out to local people as much as I could to learn how to restore parts of it that I didn’t previously know how to do. I’ve learned how to plaster walls, and it’s got 10 hand painted murals which I’ve started restoring.’
He even found an album of photographs of the house from when it was listed for sale in 1981, and has tried to match the interiors as much as he can – including light fixtures, furniture and even stained glass.
‘My wife Kindel always says it’s like walking through a museum,’ he said.
Inspired by the immense project of restoring his first old house, Lucas now owns six historically significant properties in the area.
‘I was struck by the amount of properties in Evansville that are not maintained and are falling down,’ he said. ‘I thought if I can fix up and save the Cook House then I can save anything.’
A modern take on a Midwest farmhouse
James and Jacob bought farmhouse Farrand Hall, in Colon, Michigan, in 2017
‘When we first got the keys and headed to the house, I posted a photo online and the caption was: “either this is the best or the worst decision we’ve ever made”,’ said James Gray.
Now, 7 years later, James jokes that ‘it depends on the day’ which of these decisions he thinks it was.
James and his partner Jacob Hagan bought an elegant 4,000 square-feet 1854 Greek Revival farmhouse, called Farrand Hall, in 2017.
Located in Colon, Michigan, it was nearby to where they were living in Chicago at the time.
They fell in love with the property and its grounds, despite the work that needed to be done to it.
They paid $214,000 for the house – more on the expensive side for a cheap old house – but now estimate it is worth around $1 million today.
‘We spent the first couple of years doing a lot of interior renovations ourselves. We would drive out on Friday and stay up late fixing plaster walls and sanding. Then we’d wake up on Saturday and Sunday and work all day before driving back to Chicago,’ James told DailyMail.com.
Although the project is still ‘ongoing’, James says, it got to a point a few years ago when they felt they could stop worrying about renovations and just enjoy the property.
James and Jacob took a hands on approach to restoring much of the interiors of the home – and now host events at the property
James warns others to carefully consider their financial position before buying an old house which needs a lot of work
For the couple, it is important to maintain the historical integrity of the house – but also make it feel modern and livable. Much of their furniture and interiors are from thrift stores and online auctions.
‘We’re not trying to take it back to 1854,’ said James. ‘This is a modern era and the way that we use the house with guests and now doing events on the property, it needed to be more functional. So we really wanted to balance that old and new.’
Farrand Hall has now become a business, complete with a new dining building, and hosts dining experiences with chefs from all around the US.
Are there any tips they would give to anyone looking to buy an old house? James warns that with a project of this size, people should assess their financial position before entering into it.
‘Getting a mortgage can be very difficult depending on the condition of the house, and often it is just cash offers,’ he said. ‘We were lucky we were in a position where it worked out for us, but make sure you think carefully and research.’
Looking local and asking around for can be really beneficial, said James. ‘We found somebody local who gave us a really great deal and we paid about $3,000 in total to turn one room into a bathroom,’ he said.
The couple recommend asking local contractors and workers for deals. They build this bathroom from scratch for just $3,000
Ethan and Elizabeth are keen to stress, however, that not all cheap old houses are hundred-year old crumbling mansions.
‘What we are interested in fixing up is the everyday average American bungalow. It will have the kitchen which every American had in the 1940s. But those are the ones which are most vulnerable to being destroyed or ripped apart,’ said Ethan.
‘The focus has been micro houses and new buildings, and we are over here advocating for these small towns and small houses that just need a little bit of restoration and some elbow grease and someone to care for them again.’
It may also be more difficult to get a mortgage on more extreme homes that need a lot of work or are shells inside, Elizabeth added.
Namely, the mortgage company just wants to know that there’s heating, and a working kitchen and bathroom, she said.
As a result, some people use non-traditional financing, like a special program in their city, a renovation loan or buying in cash.
‘But there are cheap old houses that you can get a mortgage for, or buy, and move in right away,’ she said.
‘There are the giant mansions and then there are the people who buy a small move-in ready bungalow that might not have the latest kitchen and bathrooms, but it is livable as it is.’
