Fliperati

I don’t think I’ve discussed this in detail before, but the plan for my first flip is to do the majority of the labor myself.  There were multiple reasons behind this decision:

• I have time to work on the property now that I have quit my regular job
• I want to learn as much as possible about the labor required to renovate a house so I have a better understanding of the true amount of work that goes into flipping property
• I want to improve my sense of the labor required for certain jobs (demolition, laying tile, painting, etc) so I can better estimate costs if I choose to hire them out in the future
• I want to maximize my profit on this first flip by minimizing my renovation expenses

Although I think it’s very important to learn about the labor required to flip a house, the profit portion of the equation is really what’s driving my DIY attitude.  My experience so far has shown that finding and purchasing a desirable investment property is the most difficult/uncertain part of the process, so I figure I ought to maximize the return on my current project rather than rushing out to start the process over.  Of course, there are certain tasks that I consider beyond the scope of my novice capabilities (drywalling the entire house, replacing the roof and building a new garage from scratch, for example), but I am trying to do as many of the simpler tasks as I can.

I believe this strategy conflicts with popular flipping doctrine, which seems to encourage leaving all the renovations to the professionals while you focus on getting more deals in the pipeline.  However, I figure I’ll have a fair amount of time to seek out my next property while my first flip is under contract, so I’d prefer to take the DIY approach and increase my profit margin on this particular project.  I’m feeling good about this strategy so far, given that I’ve come a long way in the renovation process without spending much money (barely $3,000 to date).  Also, the only projects that are behind schedule are the ones that I’ve had to hire out (the drywalling and the garage), so the DIY approach has been good for my timeline as well.  This has required a lot of back-breaking labor, so there’s definitely a chance this strategy will change in the future when the excitement of the first project wears off.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying learning new skills and tackling repairs I had never dreamed of doing in the past.