What is taking everyone so freaking long???

[Eddie Egelston]

Hi All,

Why is it that all these house flippers out there take 3-6-9 months or more to rehab their house?

I mean no disrespect, I just want to start a discussion and let everyone play devil's advocate.

I'm talking about a cosmetic rehab. (Picture a 2,000 sqft house from the 1970's that is all original on the inside.) The way I see it, on a cosmetic rehab, it should be about 30 days in and out. Maybe 45 days if you are using HML and need to wait on rehab draws.

So what am I missing? The way I see it, there are only so many tasks that need to be done on a flip. And most of them can be done simultaneously. The landscapers can be working when the interior is being worked on. The tile guy can work in the bathrooms while the other 95% of the house is being painted. Guys can be hanging cabs in the kitchen- on top of a tile floor while the flooring guys are installing laminated hardwoods. Then final plumbing and final electrical can get done same day right? Joe the plumber starts upstairs in the master bath and John the electrician starts downstairs. And God forbid the investor appreciates that "time is money" enough to get some guys to moonlight on weekends so that work is getting done 7 days a week.

I am only witnessing this from a far... my only guess is that if the investor bought the house with cash, he can carry it for awhile before it's too costly. As long as the contractor gets it done close to budget, and the investor makes his $40k profit, the investor doesn't really care how long it takes. Is that what's happening?

Please enlighten me as to some of the pitfalls, timelines and complications that I do not appreciate.  :)

[Christopher B.]

If you have your own crew or can afford to hire the rockstars it still wouldn't be as easy as you think. Here's how delays happen.

Your plumber is scheduled to be at your house Thursday and Friday  to do the few minor things needed so you can start sheetrock on Monday but his other job gets delayed and can't get your house done until Monday. Your sheetrocker says no big deal, it will only take 4 days to do your job anyways and picks up a small 1 day job for Monday so he's still making money, whew that worked out. Well that job turns into 2.5 days so now he's not starting until Wednesday afternoon and a rain storm comes through on Thursday slowing down your dry time between coats.  So now your sheetrock was supposed to be done by Friday but it will be Wednesday morning when he completes his final sand. Now your schedule has been moved twice and it makes your painter weary about your timelines on this job and he has a backlog of business already so he moves the big project he had scheduled after you up because it's going to pay well and when your job is ready he sends the skeleton crew out with some new guy that creates more problems than he is fixing. These delays and the unknown finish date of your sheetrock has prevented you from locking down the trim crew and they just got a big trim job over in the lakefront community that pays double your job so it will now be 2 weeks before they cab get back around to you. You can be frustrated but not mad because your schedule changed and these guys will continue to take other work, can't blame them. 

Material deliveries can be wrong. Inspectors can ask for changes. Jobs your crew thinks will take 2 days end up taking 4. It's also difficult to load a house full of people. Subs are used to working on a busy site but some trades don't mix well and while it may be efficient for you it's not efficient for them. You don't want to do finish painting while you still have people walking through the house with ladders, hammers, and dirty hands. You don't want muddy shoes on your fresh carpet. Hardwood floors are expensive to finish and need a few days to properly cure so it's good to do those very last but you will still have punchlist items after to be done. Speaking of punchlist items, the last 10% of your project is where the cream rises to the top and it can be frustrating as heck. You need to stain and poly the transition to match the laminate. The bags of screw hole fillers taped to my 2 french doors has disappeared and nobody knows what happened to them. Touch-up paint, touch-up caulk. Seal grout. Dumpster is in the way but we need a dumpster. Registers, door stops, oops we forgot the 1" L bracket so we can screw the butcher block counters to the cabinets. WTF, the carpenter damaged my cabinets because he used a dull blade when drilling for the hardware and now I have to get the right sized washer to cover the damage. What, the included hardware for the bathroom vanity I just bought has the wrong screw size! 

On and on and on.