Living

On the Flip Side

Two local couples flip homes in Grove City

Left to right: Brent and Janelle Goldbach, Jara and David Palmer

Watch enough HGTV and you’re bound to convince yourself you’re ready to flip a home. For most of us, that urge goes away when we turn off the TV. For others, flipping homes is just what they do.

Flipping homes just fell into Jara Palmer’s lap when she and husband David Palmer decided to team up with friends and lifelong Grove City residents Janelle and Brent Goldbach seven years ago.

“(None) of us had any experience with it before,” Palmer says. “We just had a dream for our families. … We saw the value in owning our own business and working for ourselves.”

Everyone on the GoldTree Ventures team has their own unique role. Palmer, a licensed real estate agent, works primarily on the buying and selling aspect of the properties. Janelle runs the social media channels, and David and Brent provide the muscle, doing most of the hands-on work involved in flipping a home alongside contractors from time to time. Even the kids get involved, if only to provide some comic relief and excitement.

The kids, 7- and 5-year-old Coen and Kaia Palmer and 3- and 1-year-old Macie and Mya Goldbach, tag along to look at houses when their parents are on the prowl for a new property.

“They think that every house that we go into is going to be theirs,” says Palmer, laughing. “They always pick out their own bedrooms in the houses and fight over who gets what.”

When the group got started, they primarily flipped houses to resell, then moved into renovating apartments for longterm leases.

“We have had a real estate investment business for about seven years now,” Palmer says. “We wanted to diversify into Airbnbs to differentiate between different aspects of our business office, and Airbnb was kind of popular a few years ago. So, we decided to go for it.”

The team is mainly interested in single-family homes with at least three bedrooms.

“We typically want homes that offer more space for families, a larger group of friends, just any sort of larger group to be able to stay together,” Palmer says, “as opposed to in a hotel room where everybody’s separate, there’s really no living space, there’s no kitchen, there’s no back yard to hang out in.”

The team flips homes all over Columbus, but Palmer says they prefer to look at homes in Grove City. At first, she says, they weren’t sure if anyone would want to stay in Grove City, but the booming success of their Airbnb, which opened in fall 2018, said otherwise.

“It just seems that it’s a really good location,” she says. “We get a lot of people coming to do something in Columbus. Berliner (Sports Park)’s a big draw, especially in the summer with all the softball and baseball games they have over there, and a lot of people just coming to visit family in the area.”

While the team and their house-flipping ventures have been hugely successful, many houses start out in tough shape and need a lot of work to get ready for guests.

“Most of our homes that we buy are not in the best condition,” Palmer says. “We actually got one at a sheriff sale auction and so it was really run down and not well kept. When

Palmer says one thing that people may not know about turning a home into an Airbnb is the need for durable furniture and furnishings. Between guests coming in and out and the constant cleaning, Airbnbs get a lot of wear and tear!

you buy a house like that, … it’s dirty. So it’s a pretty big undertaking, but that’s how you can get good houses.”

Palmer says the fun thing about transforming homes into Airbnbs as opposed to flipping and selling is when it comes to time to decorate.

“As far as renovations go, we try to keep things pretty neutral,” Palmer says. “That tends to appeal to the most people. All of our renovations include fresh paint, new flooring throughout and then we typically do an upgraded countertop. Those are the big things.”

Big Dreams, Tiny Home

Next on the horizon for GoldTree Ventures is the team’s first ever tiny home.

“We just saw an opportunity where a little piece of property came up for sale and we grabbed it,” Palmer says. “We have some really cool ideas with how we are going to turn 500-some square feet. So pretty small now, it’s all open. It’s more like a loft feel. There’s going to be a loft bed, everything’s just scaled down, a really small kitchen.”

Unlike the typical home the team would turn into an Airbnb, this tiny home will not have three bedrooms.

“It might just have one or two but we’re hoping that the appeal of something different and people wanting to try what it’s like to stay in a tiny house for a little bit will draw people in,” Palmer says.

While the group only just acquired the home to start working on, they’re all excited about the big ideas they have for the eensy abode.

“We’d like to provide some outdoor space since the inside is not that big, especially for the spring through fall here,” Palmer says. “So probably a fire pit, maybe a nice patio where you can go outside and not feel like you’re in a tiny space the whole time.”

And the best part about the tiny home? It’s right here in Grove City. Just like the GoldTree Ventures team and so many more projects-to-be.

Sarah Robinson is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at srobinson@ cityscenemediagroup.com.