Fliperati

Even though I started this project with a full renovation plan, there is no handbook on which improvements to make and which to skip when flipping houses (contrary to what many property flipping book writers would have you believe).  The plain and simple truth is that there is no real estate guru waiting for you at your property with a list of improvements to make for maximum return on your investment.  You are on your own when it comes to deciding what to change and how to change it.

This leaves a whole universe of possibilities open.  Do you invest the time, money, and effort to change the layout of the house if the existing floor plan is awkward, or do you just spruce everything up as best you can without worrying about the layout?  If the flip property is in a borderline neighborhood, do you spend the money on nice surfaces and fixtures and hope you attract greater value to the area or do you simply use the least expensive materials you can find to make it feel new?  Do you knock a kitchen wall out to create a more open feeling or would the new owners prefer the more traditional, segmented layout?

These questions are all the more difficult when the probable answers conflict with your personal preferences.  For example, local buyers may expect carpeting in all the bedrooms of the property I am currently flipping, but I think the house would be much nicer with hardwood throughout.  Also, most of the houses on my block have enclosed porches, but I think an open porch would be infinitely more appealing.  In both these cases, my preferences match how the house was originally constructed, so I’m banking on finding a buyer who will appreciate a restorative approach.  Using the original construction as guidance for my renovations also resolves the debate about opening up the kitchen and altering the floor plan because hopefully the new buyer will prefer the classic layout.

I may not be making the right bet with a lot of these choices, but time is money (very literally in this case!) and I desperately need to start moving forward with the actual renovations (which I had been reluctant to start before making a final call on big questions like layout, flooring, porch, etc).  The big issue now is getting good contractors to start working on the jobs I’m planning to hire out.  More to come on that subject in another post.