Latest Flip and Lessons Learned

[Craig J.]

Well I bought this flip property in early April during days of early pandemic. It needed major renovations to make it marketable. Started with a 3/2 brick no garage. I knew under carpet was red oak hardwoods. Started with removing two interior walls and replacing them with above ceiling beams to create one main common living area that encompassed the kitchen, dining and living rooms. Gutted kitchen and both baths. Was able to reuse some old kitchen cabinets to create a butlers pantry in the former location of a dining room closet. Removed all carpet, along with some engineered wood floors in dining room area. Found unfinished red oak boards to carry hardwoods into dining room and Kitchen. Ordered all new cabinetry for kitchen, 2 full baths and laundry area ($11K) and installed granite on all new cabinetry. Utility room was off the kitchen and previously housed the laundry only. I repurposed the room to include a mud area and added wall, shelving and barn door to create a walk in pantry. In middle bath, I installed double sinks and new designer tile on floor with new white tile laid in subway fashion above a refinished tub. Added framed mirrors to this area. in the master bed/bath we smoothed the ceilings and removed a partial wall separating bath. Added new marble like porcelain tile and double glass doors replaced louver doors in adjoining closet. Ripped out stand in shower insert and created custom tiled walk in shower, including a tiled ceiling. New designer lighting was added to both baths, dining room, kitchen, hallway, Brs, and new ceiling fan to den. Added new carpet to den with new molding and smoothed ceiling. Tiled large utility room. Replaced all flat panel doors with new 6 panel. Added designer back splash to kitchen and butler's pantry. Replaced all baseboard, quarter round, and door moldings along with replacing all door handles with flipper style. I added 3 dead bolts and 2 new storm doors. Floors were all sanded and stained with dark finish with 3 coats of poly added. New standing lantern added to replace damaged one on front and replaced front entry light with matching style light. Home did require new 3 ton HVAC unit which I had in a generic budget with new roof if needed....figured i would need one or other. Initially, I bought home for 55K, and budgeted 35K for renovations. Carpenter ants had done some damage to one side of home so had to replace some fascia. House also required much more paint than I had planned to cover vestiges of prior smoker. My labor costs were $14.5K over the last 5 months. Needless to say I was a bit nervous because I over spent my budget considerably and put $56K into reno. My saving grace was that I picked up the property for such a low price. The home is right at 1800 sq ft and realestate brokers varied on potential sales price. On the low end they felt 155-165K with the reno that I had made while others came in a 165-175. I put sign in yard with For sale By Owner and bought sunbursts that said Coming Soon and affixed these to both sides to stimulate interest while we were finishing. Upon finishing I removed the sunbursts and got immediate interest and multiple offers. Signed contract this week though for 175K and am paying 2.5% real estate commission.........Worked out to be good deal. Lessons: 1) Buy low as possible to start flip....allows for unbudgeted items that appear. (2) Zillow is powerful force to use to market home....secret is to include lots of pics and update regularly (3) This home was about 85 miles from my home and I would highly recommend in this case to hire a contractor that will give you legit costs of labor....I bought most supplies (4) After spending 11k for cabinetry and waiting 3 months for their arrival, I got the name and number of a local Mennonite carpenter that focuses on cabinetry and would have done my job for 5-6K....I will use him next time.