DIY vs. Professional Help: What Beginner Real Estate Investors Can/Can't Do

[Noah Bacon]

Recently I've seen a massive increase of homeowners rolling up their sleeves and taking on DIY projects either on their primary homes or on their rental properties. Maybe money is tight, maybe it is the summer and people are feeling more inspired to make the recurring Home Depot runs, or maybe people are taking more initiative to round their skills on Youtube University. 

I am certainly guilty of biting off more than I can chew when it comes to taking on projects that I was not skilled enough to properly move forward, and have used professionals on a few of the projects to get me to the finish line. There are things I know I will never look at doing myself: plumbing, electrical, roofing, installing hardwood flooring, bathroom remodel, and I'm sure many more! At times, I wish I hadn't even touched certain things as it cost me more to hire out a contractor to fix my mistakes, and other times I have saved myself a few hundred dollars on maintenance costs. My biggest mistake was thinking that I could lay down new LVP on the main floor of my last house hack, 1 month out of shoulder surgery and I quickly pivoted to a local professional. My inability to understand the time it would take doing it myself at the pace I was moving the project forward set me back a few weeks at best; slowing down the turnover and listing it later than I expected. 

What are some projects you have been able to move forward that you did not expect you could do?

AND

What are some projects you have turned over to professional help after you realized you couldn't do it? 

[Matthew Morrow]

Quote from @Noah Bacon:

Recently I've seen a massive increase of homeowners rolling up their sleeves and taking on DIY projects either on their primary homes or on their rental properties. Maybe money is tight, maybe it is the summer and people are feeling more inspired to make the recurring Home Depot runs, or maybe people are taking more initiative to round their skills on Youtube University. 

I am certainly guilty of biting off more than I can chew when it comes to taking on projects that I was not skilled enough to properly move forward, and have used professionals on a few of the projects to get me to the finish line. There are things I know I will never look at doing myself: plumbing, electrical, roofing, installing hardwood flooring, bathroom remodel, and I'm sure many more! At times, I wish I hadn't even touched certain things as it cost me more to hire out a contractor to fix my mistakes, and other times I have saved myself a few hundred dollars on maintenance costs. My biggest mistake was thinking that I could lay down new LVP on the main floor of my last house hack, 1 month out of shoulder surgery and I quickly pivoted to a local professional. My inability to understand the time it would take doing it myself at the pace I was moving the project forward set me back a few weeks at best; slowing down the turnover and listing it later than I expected. 

What are some projects you have been able to move forward that you did not expect you could do?

AND

What are some projects you have turned over to professional help after you realized you couldn't do it? 

It definitely is evident that people are trying to save money where possible. But there’s just some parts that you don’t want to skimp on. 

From my perspective, when I started house hacking, I really enjoyed learning about all of the trades, but as you said-  it becomes harder to do all those things while building. 

 
the ones I particularly enjoyed, were electrical, and flooring. I don’t know why, I just felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards 😂