Best Value Adding Improvements for Flips - 70k to 110k

[Christopher Boggs]

What kinds of improvements add the best value? We currently have two flips in process, and I want to make sure we don't waste capital on improvements that won't return value. I will give you the general specs for this neighborhood.

Sqft - 1200 to 1600

Beds - 3 to 4

Baths 1.5 to 2

Garage - 1 to 2 car

Basements - Almost all of them have basements, usually the basements are half (poorly) finished, and need to be torn out and re-finished

Sale Price of a flipped house - 70k to 110k

House age - 1940's to 1950's

Lot Size - .11 acres

I have already heard time and time again kitchen and bathrooms sell houses. I would be interested to know what specific kitchen and bathroom improvements add the best value.

Some of the improvement ideas I have now on these two properties are:

- Paying about 1k more to redo the driveway in concreate instead of asphalt. This has to be done one way or another

- Siding the two car garage. The current exterior is painted cinder block (decent shape), and the house is sided. The garage is similar to this picture except it has a flat roof, and just painted white cider block - http://www.clopaydoor.com/blog/post/2012/03/22/blog/image.axd?picture=2012%2F3%2FSymons+garage.jpg

- I have to redo the roof on the above mentioned garage. It is currently a flat roof, for ascetics I thought about replacing it with a pitched roof?

- Finishing the utility side of the basements floor with something like this - http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=15

- Stamped concrete vs regular concrete sidewalk to house

- Landscaping?

- Converting a 1/2 bath in the basement to a full bath. This bathroom needs to be rehabbed anyways and currently house only has 1 1/2 baths total

- Removing window awnings - picture - http://i.imgur.com/bLIHO16.jpg

- Most of the copper is missing. I was thinking instead of replacing whats missing go ahead and just replace all of it with Pex

- Putting up a drywall wall on the stairs to make the basement seem like more a finished extension of the house. Currently you walk down the stairs into the utility area, and then turn into the finished basement. In the picture below the wall would be on the inside of the stairs, and then there would be a door into the utility side of the basement. I am standing on the utility side while taking this picture. - http://i.imgur.com/8JnXvDt.jpg

Thoughts? Insight?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Manuel Acuna:

Will Barnard and J Scott

Where do you get your materials below retail? Right now I haven't really ventured beyond Lowe's. Well, I did find a granite guy who seems pretty cheap, but I have nothing to really compare to.

I'm guessing small local businesses?

For things like doors and lumber, go to a local builder's supply shop. They will come in lower than a big box store for stock building supplies.

For finishes, use the contractor/Pro Desk at Lowe's or Home Depot. You can generally get 10-20% off retail. Or you can use the 10% off coupons and get 10% off retail.

For appliances, find a bulk appliance dealer who can sell below retail. You can generally get retail pricing, but without having to pay tax or delivery.

For cabinets, find a cabinet company that gets semi-stock boxes from China -- they look like custom cabinets at about a third the cost.

For roofing materials, buy the material direct from the supplier and have it delivered to the job -- that way you don't pay markup for the materials through the installer.

For granite, find out who the other investors are using. The expensive part of granite is the fabrication, and the cheaper guys are the ones who are getting access to the fabricator off-hours (side jobs).

Now, all that said, I tend to buy everything I can at Home Depot (10-20% off retail) and let my contractors supply the rest. The bulk of your savings isn't going to come from material savings, but from labor savings.