A developer who bought Donald Trump's childhood home in Queens for $835,000 has flipped it for $1.93 million after an eight-month, $500,000-plus renovation, nearly doubling his investment on a property that had fallen into disrepair.
Listing agent Joe Zhu of RE/MAX Edge confirmed the sale price exclusively to the New York Post, closing out a saga that took the Tudor-style home at 85-15 Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates from feral-cat colony to luxury listing. The buyer's identity has not been disclosed.
Fred Trump, the former president's father and a prominent New York real estate developer, built the brick-and-stucco residence in 1940. Donald Trump lived there until roughly age four, when the family moved to a larger home nearby in the same Jamaica Estates neighborhood. The property changed hands over the decades, but it drew national attention after Trump entered the White House.
The home last sold in 2017 for $2.14 million, shortly after Trump began his first term. After that sale, the property was offered to tourists as an Airbnb rental, a novelty stay in the boyhood home of a sitting president.
But the novelty wore off. The house eventually sat vacant for years. A burst pipe caused water damage. Mold spread. A colony of feral cats moved in. By the time developer Tommy Lin purchased the roughly 3,100-square-foot property in 2025 for $835,000, it was a shell of what it had been, and a fraction of its 2017 price.
Lin poured more than $500,000 into a gut renovation over eight months. The overhaul added a chef's kitchen, herringbone floors, and spa-style bathrooms across the five-bedroom, four-bathroom home while preserving the Tudor exterior that dates to the original 1940 construction.
Trump's personal history has remained a subject of intense public interest throughout his political career, from legal fights over his financial records to the security of his family and properties.
Lin initially relisted the renovated property at $2.3 million. It did not sell. He pulled it off the market, then relisted at a lower price before finally settling on an ask of $1.99 million, just under the $2 million mark.
The Post first reported in July that the home had gone into contract, though the agreed-upon price was not revealed at the time. Zhu said then that the offer was "very close" to asking. The final sale price of $1.93 million came within $70,000 of that $1.99 million ask.
On paper, Lin's return looks substantial. He paid $835,000, spent north of $500,000 on the renovation, and sold for $1.93 million, a gap of nearly $1.1 million between his purchase price and the sale price, though his net profit would be reduced by renovation costs, carrying costs, and transaction fees not detailed in the listing records.
The Trump name has continued to create headlines well beyond real estate, from security threats targeting the former president's family to ongoing political battles in Washington.
Zhu told the Post that the property's connection to the former president was central to the market interest it attracted. He said "there were quite a lot of people" drawn to the listing because of its history as Trump's childhood home, and that some prospective buyers saw "additional historical value" in owning the property.
That tracks with the home's broader sales history. The 2017 sale at $2.14 million, well above what a comparable Jamaica Estates home might ordinarily command, coincided with the early months of Trump's first presidency, when curiosity about his origins was at a peak. Even at its reduced 2025 purchase price of $835,000, the property carried a story that no renovation could have manufactured.
Trump's public profile has only grown since then. His supporters and critics alike have kept his name in constant circulation, whether the subject is his family's real estate legacy or the political fights that surround his every move.
Still, several questions remain unanswered. The buyer's identity has not been made public, and neither has the buyer's stated reason for purchasing. Whether the new owner intends to live in the home, hold it as an investment, or put it to some other use is unknown.
The property's journey, from a home built by one of New York's most prolific mid-century developers, to a president's birthplace, to an Airbnb curiosity, to a mold-ridden wreck overrun by stray cats, and finally back to a $1.93 million sale, says something about the staying power of the Trump brand in American life. Love him or not, the name still moves markets.
