Budget Breakdown: For $404K, a First-Time Renovator Revives a Joshua Tree Midcentury

When the pandemic brought his design agency work to a halt, Brian Ware decided to try his hand at home flipping in Yucca Valley’s booming housing market.

Joshua Tree has long been a bargain market for anyone priced out of buying a home in the greater Los Angeles area. When the pandemic hit, it supercharged a buying spree in and around the town by outsiders: Some were first-time homeowners wanting a full-time residence, while others wanted vacation homes they could list as short-term rentals. With the sudden surge in popularity, another set started scooping up homes there to renovate and resell outright.

That was Los Angeleno Brian Ware, a designer at creative agency One Trick Pony. When he suddenly couldn’t travel abroad anymore for work during Covid, he decided to apply his aesthetic sensibilities elsewhere and pivoted to the home renovation business, starting with a fixer-upper in Yucca Valley. "I was going to Seoul once a month, but with the pandemic, it all kind of came crashing down," he recalls. "I bought some properties in the desert, thinking that I could employ myself and give myself something to do. I knew I couldn’t afford Los Angeles, but I could afford something out in the desert."

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: For $404K, a First-Time Renovator Revives a Joshua Tree Midcentury
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