Flip or Flop Fort Worth: River Oaks Ranch Goes From Foreclosure to Flawless

In the next-to-last first-run episode of Flip or Flop Fort Worth, we get a peek at the bustling community of River Oaks, where Andy and Ashley Williams find a foreclosure with great bones and plenty of room.

But first, as usual, we have some reader mail to answer.

Maureen asks us about the Benbrook flip a couple of weeks ago. “The peacock blue water, bottom photo? Anyone know the exact color? Very tranquil, and I want to use it in my first home!”

While I’m not sure exactly which color it is, I was able to narrow it down to a few shades, all Kelly Moore paints (you can click on this link for a larger copy of the swatch on the right).

Next question is from Duan, who has a fashion query from last week’s Arlington Heights episode.

“Hi, I’m really enjoying Flip or Flop Fort Worth!! But this is a fashion related question. Where can I find the brownish color blouse that Ashley wore on the Flip or Flop Fort Worth, Texas-Style Cape Cod Cottage project?” Duan asks. “It was the one she wore near the end when they were discussing potential profits? Thank so much!”

Duan, I’m still doing some looking, but I did find another photo — a promo photo — where Ashley is wearing the same blouse (reality TV stars re-wear clothes — they’re just like us!). That better look might help us narrow down the exact blouse.

Our final missive comes from Derek, who checked to let us know a bit more about the house featured in the Hurst episode. Turns out, that’s Derek’s family home, but he didn’t take offense to me calling it a murder house.

“This was my childhood home, I promise it’s not a murder house, lol!” he wrote. “After high school, I moved out as did my mother. My aunt and cousin moved in it with my grandmother and they all destroyed the place.”

“My grandmother passed away in August 2016 and since I don’t have much contact with family I wasn’t sure what happened with the house after she passed. It’s so crazy to see this transformation! It looks so different and I’m happy it’s being taken care of and new better memories can be made in this great family home.”

It’s great to hear from readers — keep the mail coming!

And now for the show. For a change, Ashley and Andy are sitting by a fountain, talking about the home they’re going to check out in River Oaks.

“This is a neighborhood that I’ve had my eye on for a while,” Andy said, adding that it’s close to the military community. “It’s 15 minutes from downtown (Fort Worth).”

Andy says the comps are about $225,000 and is a foreclosure.

As they roll up to the home, you can see there is a circle drive and a yard that has seen better days. It’s completely overgrown.

“It’s not that bad,” Ashley said, even though the overgrown and needs new fencing.

They open the door to walk in, and they both react to some kind of odor, and I become glad smell-o-vision isn’t a thing.

“Oh, what’s that smell,” Ashley when they come inside.

They immediately discover that there is an AC unit in a closet right as you walk into the front door. The home also boasts shag carpeting throughout. Dirty shag carpeting (that’s probably the smell).

“There are spots where different crimes were committed all over the carpet,” Ashley says. She is probably right.

The living room is huge and is clearly partially an addition because an exterior brick wall is now inside the home – complete with the planter boxes.

THERE ARE PLANTER BOXES INSIDE THE HOUSE.

Off the huge living room — seriously, it’s like half the house’s square footage, easily — is a small kitchen. Ashley proposes moving the kitchen into the huge great room that she plans on reconfiguring to make better use of all that space.

They then enter a huge bedroom, and then an ugly but big hall bath. But the big bedroom, turns out, isn’t the master. The master is actually a much smaller room with an en-suite.

“But it’s the smallest room,” Ashley said, puzzling over the floor plan.

#fliporflopfortworth the smallest bedroom is the master? @AshleyandAndyFW pic.twitter.com/xrmh8lMu6j

— Rachael Peart (@RachaelJPeart) January 5, 2018

Outside, a covered patio is lackluster and structurally unsound, but it overlooks a giant backyard.

“You could put another house back there,” Ashley said.

Andy proposes offering $75,000, and since it’s in foreclosure, he drafts a contract to send to the lender, who countered at $80,000.

And that means, of course, it’s demo day. Andy explains that the current kitchen will become the master bath and a laundry room, and almost everything else is being taken down to the studs.

Blake the contractor is here, and so far he hasn’t found anything bad. He and Andy roll back the carpets and discover that the original house has hardwoods that can be refinished, but the addition has plywood. A quick conference with Ashley later, and they’ve decided to spend about $2,000 to do hardwoods throughout, feathering in and patching where hardwoods aren’t currently.

They’ll also spend another $1,800 to $2,000 to reroute the HVAC through the attic, the two decided.

By Day 11 the framing is “90 percent done,” Andy says. This means, of course, that it’s time for Ashley to show him the finishes she’s chosen – lots of wood tones in this one to bring in a more ranch feel, she says. They also got a fourth bedroom or study out of Ashley’s revised floor plan.

“It’s a study, but I put closets in it so it could be a bedroom,” she said.

Ashley also proposes beautifying the decrepit looking front porch by adding tile to it and the steps. “It’s a cheap fix,” Andy says.

“It’s not cheap – it’s economical,” Ashley corrected. “We’re being frugal.”

They have, however, run into a problem with the back of the house. After moving the kitchen and repurposing the space for a master bath, they also closed in a door that led to the patio. But now they have an unsightly gap between in the brick where the door used to be, and they can’t find matching brick because the house is so old.

“Ashley being the smart one of the group, came up with a solution,” Andy says. The solution, she says, is to put siding up along the back wall facing the patio, eliminating the need to match the brick altogether. A quick call to Blake revealed it would take another $1,500 to $1,800 to do that, but they agree it’s money well spent.

But between re-routing the HVAC, feathering in the hardwoods and the aesthetics for the back exterior wall, there have been a few more expenses than they originally bargained for.

“The River Oaks flip is a lot more than we originally thought,” Ashley said.

But then you see it almost complete, and holy cow, it already looks so much better.

The oak floors look amazing. Ashley proposes making the weird planter boxes into benches since they’ll flank the fireplace.

I love the brick wall and benches😍 #fliporflopfortworth @AshleyandAndyFW

— I_Got_Sole (@SMSHOETIQUE) January 5, 2018

They meet up with Andrew to talk about landscaping. He makes no bones about how bad the yard is right now, but agrees it’s doable.

“I know this looks like a disaster right now, but I know we’re gonna make this work,” he says.

And before you know it (seriously, a common refrain on Twitter is how short this show seems), it’s staging day.

“We love staging,” Ashley said. WE DO, TOO. SO MUCH. WE LOVE STAGING SO MUCH.

“I never thought in a million years that this River Oaks flip would come out as good as it has,” Ashley says about the finished project. She and Andy get ready for the walkthrough and number crunching, and the first thing you notice is how pretty the house is with the landscaping done — even just trimming up the trees made a huge difference.

The giant room has been apportioned into a living room, dining room, and kitchen.

“This kitchen is a showstopper,” Andy said. It really is.

And the new master is massive. By taking part of the kitchen and the old guest bath, they got a huge closet and master bath, too.

And with that extra study/bedroom, a potential buyer has the opportunity to have either a four bedroom, two bath house or a three/two.

#fliporflopfortworth Wowsers!!! What a showstopper this turned out to be!!!

— Cindy Sedlock (@CLAWS1965) January 5, 2018

They bought the home for $80,000 and spent $75,000 on renovating it. After the work was done, Andy says comps had actually gone up, so the listed the house for $255,000.

At the open house, it looks like there’s lots of traffic, and you can totally tell that one couple is really in love with this house. The woman tells Ashley they’re looking for something closer to work. By the end of the show, the couple tells Andy and Ashley they want to put an offer in right then, meaning that they sold the house at the first open house.

“Do you realize we just got a full price offer?” Andy said, a bit incredulously.

So what did you think of this episode? Are you familiar with River Oaks? Sound off!
Bethany Erickson is the education, consumer affairs, and public policy columnist for CandysDirt.com. She also has opinions about TV shows, lima beans, orders that are appropriate for the drive-through, driving to Kansas, rats, Grey Gardens, apartments, dust ruffles, bleach, and wine. Contact her at [email protected].

That ranch was a wow! No wonder it sold on the spot! @AshleyandAndyFW #FlipOrFlopFortWorth

— Maryann (@mafwrites) January 5, 2018

ohhhhhhhh my goodness SOLD at the Open House! #FliporFlopFortWorth @AshleyandAndyFW #LiveTweetCrew

— The DiDi ღ♬♪♫ツ (@IamTHEDiDi) January 5, 2018

Offer during open house… @AshleyandAndyFW created something someone couldn’t live without. #fliporflopfortworth @hgtv

— I_AM_SHELIA (@smspann) January 5, 2018