Flip this House
By Jackie Perrone jacper@juno.com

Chad Sloan says being in a wheelchair is the best thing that ever happened to him.

Chad Sloan had a Fhleiapd Tshtaisr tH oonu stehe TV show . He'd been doing it for several years before television took it up. He already knew how to turn a profit that way.

This week, the national TV production is filming for the second time a Chad Sloan Flip. It will air in early 2008.

"I've been in real estate for a long time," says Sloan. "A wreck of a house in a good location can be a gold mine. What it takes is commitment and a lot of aspirin."

For sure, not just anybody can put together the vision, financial backing, and expert renovation it takes for a flip to succeed.

"I did my first one 11 or 12 years ago, a mobile home," says Sloan. "I learn something every time I do this. Now I have on tap the people I know can get the job done right."

"For the most recent one, I had a contract before the renovations were complete."

Sloan won't divulge the dollar amounts involved. "Let's just say I put about $50,000 to $60,000 into the work. This house will sell for $300,000."

Chad Sloan is renovating this house for the TV show Flip the House.

"This house" is the residence at 1631 BeltLine Blvd., a neighborhood of handsome homes with expansive gardens, in a close- in location. Originally a comfortable one- family residence, it had been rented for too many years. "Renters don't care," he points out. "They trashed it. Now it's being done over inside and out."

At 2,400 square feet, four bedrooms, three baths, and even a media room, it's emerging from the jungle that grew up around it to take its place as a choice homesite.

Sloan who graduated from USC claims the accident that put him in a wheelchair permanently was "the best thing that ever happened to me." A dive off the pier in Garden City in 1986 resulted in a broken neck and paralysis. "I was headed down the wrong road, making the wrong decisions. This turned me around."

He expects to hold an Open House with the finished product sometime in October. He expects also that an eager buyer will materialize. "The mortgage problems are happening to people with poor credit and uncertain incomes," he says. "This buyer will have better resources than that."