A woman from North Dakota has revealed how she is transforming a house she purchased for just $1 to prevent it from being burned to the ground.
Tia Weston, 29, had already displayed her knack for renovation after selling two properties for a profit.
This house, however, was in a state of such disrepair it was set to be used for fire training.
Even so, Weston was shocked to discover the seller would accept a $1 offer and is now documenting the extensive renovation for her 100,000 YouTube subscribers.
With many young Americans struggling to find their way onto the property ladder amid soaring prices and high interest rates, Weston could not resist the bargain and was charmed by the backstory.
‘It was his childhood home, so I think he had some good memories of it. It was actually going to go to a fire training course, where they would set it on fire because it was in that bad shape, and he didn’t want to see that happen,’ Weston told The Times.
Weston had bought her first house in her Louisville hometown, but found that during the Covid-19 Pandemic her health insurance worker salary wasn’t cutting it.
‘I was living paycheck to paycheck, and the mortgage is so high, and I sold that house, and that’s how I moved to North Dakota,’ she said.
Weston moved to North Dakota three years ago where she bought a house for $60,000 and, after making renovations, was able to sell it for a $30,000 profit.
When looking for her next home, the first purchase fell through when she discovered the house had poor foundations.
The seller, however, mentioned another home currently being used for storage that he hadn’t had the heart to sell after growing up there.
‘So he’s, like, “I would basically give this house away if someone was willing to fix it”,’ Weston said.
The property had no running water, heating or basic electrical wirings, which was a daunting task for someone with no formal training in home improvement.
‘I was like, “I might take on that challenge,” and then I went through with it. We drew up the sale paperwork for $1,’ she said.
Weston explained that she is lucky she has friends and family who have been able to help her. She also credited YouTube for being able to show her how to tackle some of the trickier elements of her new passion project.
‘I got a contractor for the electrical and for the furnace. The rest, I’m more of a DIY lookup and ask questions to figure it out. For the roof and the plumbing, I’m going to try and do it myself. This morning, I looked up a YouTube video about how to remove a tub for the bathroom remodel,’ she said.
‘I will try to do it all myself, but I’ll have help from asking questions. Hopefully, family and friends can also step in a few times and show me some things.’
She believes her biggest challenges ahead will be the bathroom and kitchen.
She told People the kitchen has zero appliances, besides a 1950s Filco fridge, and that ‘it’s just a room that I’ve turned into a kitchen’.
After beginning the work at the end of August and documenting the task, she now has a large enough social media following to generate income, allowing her to devote full focus to the project.
Weston described the huge amount of support she has received from followers as insane, adding that she enjoys making videos and finds them motivating.
One subscriber said: ‘I just turned 74 last week. You are doing what I have dreamed of doing my whole adult life. This is my fantasy. So get after it, hon; and take me along!’
Her online viewers have also offered help when she has been confronted with an obstacle, she said.
‘I have learned a lot from them because there are a lot of people who fix up houses for a living. So they’ll leave comments saying, “I ran into this too, here’s how you do it.” A lot of people shared information on what you might run into with an old house… it’s been a pretty positive experience so far,’ she explained.
Even though renovations are costing a hefty sum and taking up a lot of man hours, the financial savings are worth it for Weston.
‘I knew that it would be a lot of work, but my mindset was that houses are expensive right now. Even if I was to spend like $30,000 on it, which is my goal for it, then I would still be in a significantly better place than if I was to buy just a normal house,’ she said.
She added that she is also delighted to have saved the 100-year-old home with such ‘character’ and beauty from destruction.
‘The more I work on it, the more I realize that would have been such a loss, because the house has so much character and it’s just a beautiful home,’ she said.
‘I feel like with this house, I can just take the time to make everything my own. I’m looking forward to it. It’s all been a blessing so far.’
Weston hopes to be able to move into the home on November 25 but acknowledges it will still be a worksite at that point.
She added that she cannot wait for the day she can settle in and paint it to create the ‘cozy space’ she imagines.