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Defining a pop-top or teardown deal

Understand the differences between pop-top and teardown deals.

Natalie Bernacchi avatar
Written by Natalie Bernacchi
Updated over a week ago

Pop-top

A pop-top is a property that is usually a ranch style or one-story home; when renovated, they add another story/level too. So it would go from a 1 to a two-story. They "pop" the top of the house and a second level. If you look for Investor Activity and choose Pop-top then Privy will look for two transactions where the stories from the first listing/sale have increased on the second listing/sale.
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If you look for Active pop tops it will look for houses that match your deal criteria and instead of matching up the number of stories on the comps, we'll use a two-story as comp of a one story. This tells you that it's possible to add another story to the subject property and make a property a deal by doing more than a standard renovation. This house was one story and they just added on to the house including another level. But the "Year Built" did not change because they left most of the original structure in place. The main trigger here is that the number of stories changed.

Teardown

A teardown is when an Investor takes a house that has older construction, say built in 1951, "Tears" it down, and builds a new one in its place. This is also called a "Scrap" in some markets. This is mostly for experienced fix and flippers or builders who have deep pockets, experience, and the time to spend on a lengthy project.

This house was built in 1951. The builder knocked it down and built a brand-new home in its place. One of the main triggers here is the year built changed from 1951 to 2022.

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