Way back when I had more energy, I tried my hand at flipping a house. An auctioneer I was working with was always cleaning out houses prior to them going on the market. He’d be carrying out the big furniture, hiring guys, renting trucks and dumpsters so they could make a few hundred dollars on some old crappy couches, tables and other heavy objects that would rip a tendon out of your arm.

I told him he was missing out on a nice paycheck. I told him to ask the home owner what they wanted for the house, junk and all, and we’d team-up and buy it outright, fix it up a bit and flip it. He told me that he didn’t have that kind of money. I told him I did.

So, one day, I get a call from him. He’s in Boston emptying out a triple-decker that housed a drug gang. They were terrifying the neighborhood. The city told the owner to get rid of that eyesore or they’d seize it.

My friend asked “How much?” $125,000 was the answer. I told him we could pay cash and close in a week. Deal, he said. Mind you, this was 20 something years ago. We needed to clean it out to allow the fire department in to ok the place. It was trashed. There wasn’t any plumbing in the whole building.

I went through it in a few minutes quickly inspecting the building. The doors all closed and the windows went up and down easily. That told me it wasn’t sinking into the ground. The roof didn’t leak. We were good to go.

We closed on it a few days later on a Friday. We painted over the inside graffiti and made it as pretty as could be in two days. Sunday, we had the open house. We got two offers. One for $190,000 cash and one for $200,000 with a mortgage and an inspection.

I told him we were taking the cash offer. He wasn’t happy thinking we were leaving 10 grand on the table. I told him we were leaving a headache, trust me. We closed a few weeks later.

He found it and I came up with the money. We split the profits 50/50 and went on to buy a few more that way. Eventually, things went sour between he and I. Oh well.

Bob Adams has been in Somerville 27 years but was a frequent visitor prior to moving here. He worked as a jeweler in a few shops in his younger years, owned his own shop for a bit, sold real estate for 10 years and is always hunting for his next treasure. He has been an antique and collectibles dealer for 30 years. He can be reached at 27winter@gmail.com. Visit his website at www.Somerville.com.