Real Estate Investing: Flipping properties for a Profit – PART 2
STEP 4: PAINT AND TRIM
Now that you have replaced the appliances and any structural problems within the home, your next step is to repaint the entire home. No matter how the current paint job looks, the entire place needs to be repainted. Be sure to pick a color scheme that matches the other colors throughout the house and that they make sense throughout the property. When painting the exterior, paint the trims a different color to highlight the added touches and make the home seem bigger from the outside.
Landscaping is also a part of the painting and trim step of the flip. You only get once chance that lasts a fraction of a second to make a first impression on a potential buyer. If the inside us the house is an absolute dream home for any given buyer, you will not even get them out of their car if the landscape does not look attractive. Plush green full lawns, colorful plants along the edges, perhaps a watermark, and a freshly paved driveway are all excellent deal openers for your home.
STEP 5: SELL FOR A PROFIT
After a few months of hard work you are ready to finally make money for your efforts! This is the part of the project that you need to be focused on from the beginning of your investment. From the start of the project with making sure that there is enough room in the purchase price to make a profit.
You should have also been making sure that you planned a reasonable budget for repairs, upgrades, labor, and other fees. At this point, you also need to consider commission fees that the Realtor’s charge when the home sells.
When you are trying to come up with the best selling price for your home, you should consider enlisting the advice of a experienced Realtor that can do a intense walk-thru of your home and research comparable properties in the area.
If you list the house too low, you scare away some investors who would wonder why a good looking house is too cheap. If the price of the house is way above the comparable homes then you could turn away buyers because you are trying to make too much profit on the flip.
If the price is wrong, you could end up with a listing that would sit for many months without an offer, in the meanwhile, you are still paying carrying costs such as mortgage payments, utility bills, property taxes, etc. Trusting the experience of an experienced Realtor will make you the best profit possible for your home as quickly as possible.
OTHER TIPS FOR FLIPPERS
- For best values, buy homes that are in pre-foreclosure, sellers in desperate times would rather take a small loss then ruin their credit over losing their home.
- Make sure to have the home inspected to make sure you are aware of potential code violations you would need to address when rebuilding.
- Only put upgrades into a house that barely make it the best on the block, do not over do it!