Contracting on Rental Properties

[Ray Hutchinson]

Hi everyone I am new to the BP community and REI. When it comes to home renovations for fix and flip or fix and rent would you recommend hiring contractors or doing as much of the renovations yourself if you have the capability? I have the "handyman gene" as they call it that was passed down from my father. If I acquire a fixer upper would it be better to do as much of the renovation myself? I know that in terms of cost it would be a lot cheaper for most of the renovations. A little background info about me, I recently acquired my first home purchase in the DC Area which was a 1 bedroom condo just outside of DC in Arlington thanks to the VA Home Loan. Since my first property is turnkey I am looking to rent it out soon since Amazon will be building their new HQ here and it is literally across the street from the Pentagon so it would be ideal for military and government workers to rent as well.I am also thinking about investing in my next property and beginning to research the next place to invest, I am leaning towards the Midwest market. I would appreciate your input on this.

[Dani Beit-Or]

I'd first create a task list of what needs to be done that will serve you whichever way you decide to go.

Then divide the list to: things you MUST sub out (that may require license, knowledge, experience you don't have) and to things you can do yourself.

Then further divide the list of things, you can do to worthwhile. ex painting can be easy but maybe getting a crew to do it will save lots of time and be done better? Or make this decision based on cost. Maybe there are task that are cheaper to sub out than DIY.  

Now that you have divide and conquer your task list it is much easier to tackle the workload . . . I hope.

Good luck