All Forum Posts by: Valerie Hiscoe

The profit margin you'e relying on is very slim for the amount of work you want to oversee and I worry that your renovation budget could get blind sided. A building inspector will throw big red flags to a potential buyer about plumbing and electrical are you might end up doing a lot more than the cosmetic changes you'e talking about.  If it were me I'd need both a bigger budget and profit margin. Seeing as you can' rely on the sales price going higher, I'd think about adjusting your purchase price and get ready to walk away.

But that' just me

Make sure that you're both clear on expectations. For example, do you want to just find out if the floors, kitchen and bathroom need to be done or do you want a detailed scope of work, for example, remove and replace 2nd floor toilet, replace 2nd floor vanity, re-plumb sink for double sink vanity, etc, and then you need to decide whether or not you want a ballpark repair cost like $50-65k plus materials' - or do you want more of a breakdown of work to be done and with or without cost of materials. The time involved varies a lot.

Good luck

I'd change the title of your posting to 'Need an architect/designer in Tualatin, Oregon' (or the closest big city).

As you have a PRO account, you might have access to a directory here on BP too. I'm not sure if there is one or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. 

Your contractor may have enough experience in your market to make this kind of generalization, but when you get to the point of drawing up a CONTRACT I'd be very clear to specify the materials being used. You'll need to familiarize yourself with prices in order to do that. Just no escaping it.

You might find it helpful to look at 'The book on estimating' from BP, looking things up on Homewyse.com, and just wandering around Home Depot to get a range of prices. It might be helpful to decide on the type of property - A, B, or C that you're planning to buy beforehand as well. You don't have the freedom to decide on the grade of materials you use - the neighborhood you buy in and property class will dictate that. Estimating costs is just one of the reasons to decide the type of property you're interested in early on.

It sounds like your contractor may have been doing this for a while so you're lucky, but it's probably in your best interest to start learning this for yourself, too, today.

Best of luck.

A buyer will probably do their own estimates and inspections even if you've already done them, so I wouldn't waste the money. As well, a flipper confident enough to take on a $100k+ project is definitely not going to place any value on painting you've done. For one, they'll need to have an overall vision for the project and won't want to try to be matching the paint colour you chose once they've torn out all the kitchen cabinets.

In some circumstances, putting on a fresh coat of paint and upgrading the floors garners a maximum return on investment. This is not one of those times.

I personally wouldn't put myself in that position. You can plan open houses but not viewings and it would be a hassle for all concerned (2 days notice to enter?). It's difficult enough to work around tenants so I'd spare myself the trouble. Especially since your staging could easily be unappreciated with guests leaving things around.

I'd just focus on selling it ASAP. 

I know what that's like but, more importantly,  I know what that may mean. When you find yourself with a limitless amount of choices, it's possible that you need to break down your budget some more. Try to decide on something that will set the tone for the whole house, like the counter top or the flooring and then you will have far fewer colours and patterns to choose from to stay within budget. Whatever you do, try try try to keep in mind that this is not your personal residence and not a TV design show. Stay as neutral as you possibly can while appealing to the broadest possible market. Grey paint and white subway tiles are decisions that are practically already made for you. Lol. Make sure you know what that particular street in that particular neighborhood expects as far as quality and materials, and meet those standards. You can exceed them by a tiny degree but not by much.  Add your dazzle with staging. It is much harder to stay within budget when you use creativity to make your decisions. The success or failure of your flip will have very little to do with your design decisions. So boring, I know, but wait until you have done a few, then get creative. I wish I'd spent a lot more time on discipline and less on design.  People just want what everyone else has.

I agree with Zach above about roots in the pipes. If there's any chance that you'll be keeping it, have them checked BEFORE they're broken or plugged.

Lots of great ideas above. Best of luck!

Although you mentioned that it's a $800k house, I think it makes a big difference what kind of house that is for the area. If it's a high-end house, then it might not be a valuable selling point. If it's the kind of house that would attract a market who would appreciate a mortgage-helper, then it's a great idea.  On the other hand, I think the future will place a great deal of value on a ground floor, wheelchair accessible suite as the proportion of seniors continues to grow. And a lot of twenty somethings end up moving back in with their parents in markets that are too expensive to break into.  For those and a few other reasons, I'd lean towards adding the suite but a local realtor would be your best source of info.

Sounds like an investment, not a flip so you're just asking the wrong question in the wrong forum. Assuming that you're financing the deal though, it would be a good cash on cash return. I would be very surprised though if you were able to play an active role in the process or if you actually learned anything about flipping.