OLD SAYBROOK--One local business is taking the concept of custom-building homes to a new level.
Mike Riccio, the owner of Rebuilt Homes, has been flipping homes for about 10 years now, but in the past he was used to doing it his way. Now, he's opening his creative process up to suggestions.
Anyone can join in on helping design a new home being built in Old Saybrook, which Riccio purchased for $174,000 and plans to sell for somewhere in the mid- to high-300,000s when all is said and done. To become a part of the process, all you have to do is log onto Facebook.com/TheHouseThatSocialMediaBuilt and vote!
He has a very definite formula to his flips, which, until now, has not included giving the Facebook audience the opportunity to choose the homes changes. So he had to come up with a process that worked. "I feel like three mixes it up a little bit more and we got a little bit more interaction," Riccio said of his fans' support.
Each option is given 48 hours on Facebook for fans to vote, and the winning option is revealed a few days later.
So how did the idea for Facebook voting come to be?
"A lot of our buyers were coming from online. So, I knew that I needed to utilize that outlet to promote his product," said Nicole White, a real estate agent for William Raveis.
The home he's building in Old Saybrook--which is up for sale--is expected to be completed by May, but Riccio said the Facebook flips will continue with some of his future projects.
Here is the before images of the house, and follow the Facebook page to see the after results!