photo credit: TheTruthAbout…
I am asking whether you have flipped a house because I am already in the middle of doing so. I will chronicle this adventure in future posts, but here is the lowdown to date: my son and I (with my wife on board of course) were recently the successful bidders on an estate sale house. This house is in a nice quiet neighborhood, is structurally sound, but needs some cosmetic help along with pretty major kitchen and bathroom work. We are confident that we will do well with this purchase, but, as this is my first venture into house flipping, time will tell.
I will be making another, more detailed post, on Monday. In the meantime, I would like to hear from you. Have you ever flipped a house? How did it go? What did you do right? What would you do differently? How did you figure your purchase price? Did you hire a Realtor to sell it for you? Thanks for sharing.
Read Joe elsewhere on the net:
Make sure to check out my post “How do You Respond to Impossible Challenges?” at Christian PF
Other Recommended reading:
How to Guarantee a Call From a Debt Collector at Frugal Dad
Does Money Buy Happiness? at Fiscal Geek
The Ethics of Buying Foreclosures at Christian PF
How to Tap Your IRA With No Penalty at Good Financial Cents
Who Should Take the Lead in Helping the Poor? at Redeeming Riches
Should I Have Bought an Extended Warranty? at Bible Money Matters
5 Crazy Ideas That Resulted in Million Dollar Paydays at Len Penzo dot com
8 Tips to Help You Make a Major Financial Decision at Cash Money Life
Preaching Christ Crucified at Provident Planning
Car Repairs -Scrap it, Park it, or Fix it at Debt Free Adventure
I have participated in the following Carnivals this week:
Best of Money Carnival hosted by Eliminate the Muda Top Pick!
Festival of Frugality hosted by Prairie Eco-Thrifter … Editor’s Choice!
Carnival of Money Stories at Money Relationship
Carnival of Financial Planning hosted by Cash Money Life
Christian Finance Carnival hosted by Personal Finance Journey
Money Hacks Carnival hosted by Money Beagle
Baby Boomers Blog Carnival hosted by Baby Boomers US
Carnival of Financial Planning hosted by The Skilled Investor
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Joe, thanks for including me in the round up!! I’ve never flipped a house, but my father-in-law and brother-in-law have done it and continue to do it. Unfortunately I am not handy at all, but I would love to get in on opportunities. I’ll have to learn a few tricks so I can get in on it. Hope it goes well for you and can’t wait to learn from ya!
Joe, I haven’t flipped a house, but have thought about working on such an investment at some point. I look forward to you sharing your experience.
@Jason and Jason,
This is going to be a learning experience for me. Maybe you guys can learn from my mistakes (and hopefully my victories) as I go through this process. One good thing for you: it is on my dime!
Thanks for including my link in your roundup, Joe!
I’ve never flipped a house, but it will be interesting to hear about your experience.
Hi Joe,
As part of a property management business I was involved with we did purchase a house to flip. I was the coordinator and it was one of the most fun projects I have ever been involved with. And, of course my book talks about the one hundred year old house I lived in that the move in condition was classified as “uninhabitable”.
You have probably thought of this but whoever you would want to sell it to will have to get financing so you want to make sure that the dollars you spend will go toward items that will help you pass the inspection with flying colors.
After that there are many inexpensive cosmetic changes that can be made. My favorite part was buying a computer program where you could take pictures of the house and then “paint” the exterior with any color you wanted. I was surprised that what I thought would look good didn’t and the colors we ended up picking was something I would have never thought of and they looked great.
When it was all said and done the housing market started falling and we ended up renting it for a couple of years. The happy ending was we eventually sold the house to the people who were renting. Moral to story is while you are doing the flipping get information about being a property manager if you need to go with that option to make it work.
Great idea for some posts. The real estate market will pick up and doing this project will get your readers on the ground floor. Look forward to seeing pictures on the house on your blog. Thanks for getting my brain clicking with ideas this morning.
Carl,
I love the phrase, “it was one of the most fun projects I have ever been involved with”. I hope I will eventually be able to say the same thing.
Thanks for the great tips. That computer program would be great for me, but I doubt if my wife (an integral part of the endeavor) needs it – she is very visually creative, meaning she can “see” what a remodeling project will look like in her mind before we ever start on it.
This house could probably pass inspection right now, so while we need to be cognizant of the issue, I don’t think it is going to be a huge one.
About needing a property manager…that could be an issue. I just hope not, but we will see.
You have definitely given me some things to think about and that is what I was fishing for. I will write more in Monday’s post. Stay tuned.
I’ve never flipped a house, but I think there is opportunity there if you know what you are doing. I’ve enjoyed reading this thread and look forward to your post this coming week!
I’ve never flipped a house. I use to think that it would be easy, but after watching so many TV shows regarding the subject, I realize that there can be a lot involved. I hope this will be a fun learning experience for you. I will be reading about your experience.
@Ryan,
Thanks for reading. I will try to write the progress posts interestingly enough to make it worth your time.
@Roshawn,
My opinion of some of the “Flip this House” or similar shows is that they are not realistic. I have never seen one where the buyers actually lost money and I wonder how many people jumped into a house purchase thinking that the flip would be as easy as they make it look on those shows.
I am watching a few more of those TV shows now that I am involved in a flip.
I too hope that this will be a fun learning experience. I will try to keep the updates interesting enough to make the reading worth your while.
Good luck on the flip! Was this project undertaken with a gut feel that this could be profitable or did you do some analysis with projected costs vs market value to give you some confidence that it would work out ok? Just curious…
2million,
Thanks for wishing us luck. My answer to your question is that we did some analysis with projected costs vs market value, but a better answer is to check tomorrow’s post for more details.
Again, thanks for asking.