Hardwood floor refinish: hire professional or DIY

[Brandon Vicinus]

I am getting my first property that has original pine hardwood floors throughout half the house, about 800 sqft. I am debating spending thousands of dollars to have a professional do it or do it myself. I have never done it before, but after watching a few hours of youtube videos, I feel like I could do it, and all the rental equipment would probably be 500-1000 for the whole project. But it will take me like 2 weeks. 

Any thoughts or suggestions. 

[Will Barnard]

Many flippers attempt to do things themselves to save money. There are two schools of thought on this. One is that you save money but eat up your own time to do the job and often times, the workmanship is subpar because the investor is NOT an experienced laborer for some of these tasks which require a skill set and experience to ensure it is done right. Therefore, it is often done subpar and then has to be redone costing you more. Even if you do it right, the time it takes you is likely twice as long or more which eats into your holding costs. Those who prefer to do it this way are typically part timers and one off's (meaning they only flip one property in a year or two) which is more like a hobby than a career/business.
The second school of thought on this (which is my preference) is to hire out these labor tasks to those with experience. It gets done faster and likely better quality. I and others will place a value on our time. If I can hire a pro to sand my floors and refinish for say $30-$35 per hour, I will do it every time as my time is worth way more than $35p hour. My time is better spent finding deals, managing the deal, raising capital, building systems, and building my network. 
So ask yourself this, do you want to be a business owner or a laborer?