The 2026 Value-Add Real Estate Playbook (30% - 50% ROIs)

You're not gonna find cash flowing houses sitting on the MLS like it's 2018. You need to create your own asset. You need to build your own equity. And as an investor, that's your job. And that's the part of real estate investing that honestly scares a lot of people away in the current housing market, but fortunately, it doesn't have to. Value add can be as easy as a new coat of paint or a bathroom makeover so you can raise your rents and add an extra few $100 to your bank account every month. Or it can mean larger renovations that supersize your equity and put you on the fast track to financial freedom. There's actually four categories of value add investing ranging from cosmetic updates to light renovations, heavy renovations, all the way up to new development. And today, three experienced value add investors will help you determine which exact strategy you should use to add value on your next investment. Plus, we'll even reveal how you may be able to add hidden value with extra square footage or even another bathroom in properties you already own. What's up, everyone? I'm Dave Meyer, chief investment officer at BiggerPockets, and I'm joined today by truly the dream team of value add investing, my co host Henry Washington and our friend from on the market, James Daynard. And in today's episode, we're gonna go through the different levels of value add investing, everything from cosmetic to gut down rehabs. And we're gonna give you a really good overview that you could use in your investing. But, also, if you want more hands on instruction for how to be a great value add investor, we have a really super fun and exciting announcement. Henry James and I are gonna be hosting a one day value add conference in Seattle this March 28. It's the first time we're ever doing something like this. Only a 120 tickets are gonna be sold. It's gonna be a somewhat intimate conference here with hands on instruction from some of the best value add investors in the entire country. So if you wanna check that out, you can go to biggerpockets.com/seattle and get your tickets. Not a lot of tickets. So if you're interested, go get those today. So let's jump into our episode today. Henry, maybe you could just tell us what are, like, sort of the big buckets or different styles of value add investing that there are? Yeah. Well, first and foremost, value add investing means just that. Right? Like, you are going to do something that should add value to the property. Could mean adding actual dollars to the property, but there's also value add in terms of, like, adding perceived value, which may increase buyers desire to want your property because of what you've done to it. So that's how I think about value add. And the categories I lump this into on the low end of the spectrum are …