Denver Condo Flip

[Matt M.]

This flip happened almost a year ago:

Picked this deal up through my sphere. The owner had passed away, so we went through probate. It took 6 weeks for the rehab as I was doing a lot of the work myself, & I went hunting in the middle of it. It was on the market for a few days before going UC & closing a few months later (loan delay…).

There was tremendous smoke damage from years of smoking in the unit. I scrubbed the walls with TSP, & ran my Ozone generator on a timer at night until the demo was done. I also used BIN primer on the walls instead of Kilz. I wanted to be 100% sure that no smoke smell would leak out.

My only hiccup came up with the kitchen cabinets. I didn’t pay attention to the sink drain line. In the original cabinets, it came through the corner cabinet. I got a lazy susan corner, and instead of cutting it up, I moved the drain. A last minute plumber when you have granite coming is NOT a cheap thing.

I also changed the cabinet setup from my original plan. The fridge was supposed to be where you see the makeshift table on the right side of the kitchen. I changed it after the cabinets arrived and got lucky.

I decided to get better cabinets rather than the really cheap Chinese stuff. Other than that, everything was pretty basic. Materials were sourced from Lowes, HD, Buy&Build, & Sloans Carpet.

There were 2 other opportunities that popped up while I was working in the building, however they wanted more than I was willing to pay. Looking back, I should have grabbed them because ARVs increased by quite a bit.

Lessons learned:

Sub more stuff out because time=money

Get a bigger dumpster than you think you need

Shop a little more on prices for major items

Final note: This is why using your sphere is SO important. This same exact unit could have been about $25k more on the open market. It definitely pays to work your sphere and find your own deals.

[Matt M.]

For some reason I thought I put the numbers in the OP.

Purchase $90,000

Closing Costs $3,269.85 (I paid ALL closing expenses & the HOA was quite expensive)

Total Purchase $93,269,85

My Original ARV was $165,000

Rehab: $30,890.39

HM Costs: $4,091.38

Sales Price: $178,000

Commission: $5,984

Closing Fees: $1,200

HM Payoff: $90,000 (All interest was POC)

Profit: $42,524.38

Market timing helped me quite a bit with this one. When I went live, I was about the only condo on the market in this sought after community.