Everyone knows kitchens and baths are often the deciding factor that sells a property, but without traffic your chances of selling go way down. Kitchens and baths will generate sales, but the “curb appeal” is what generates traffic and interest
When buying a property to flip you are looking for the lowest price, but at the same time you need calculate the cost of all the repairs. Very rarely will you find a bargain that does not need extensive repairs externally. Just get used to stripping roofs, painting and landscaping.
There are two goals when you are preparing the exterior of your property. First is you need to make sure it has a better curb appeal than anything else currently for sale in the area in the same basic price range and second you want your property to look better than any neighboring property even if they are not for sale.
Landscaping will be your last step, so get a dumpster delivered if you need to replace the roof. You can save a pile of money if you take the old roof off yourself. This is much easier than it sounds and the learning curve is about 5 minutes. Take a flat nose shove and start at the bottom and work your way up to the peak. The roofing nails have large heads and the leverage of the shovel will pop them out better than a hammer. If the previous roof was installed with staples, you may need to do a walk over with a hammer to make sure they are all removed. Check the plywood for signs of water damage or dry rot and replace as needed.
I normally hire someone to put the roof on for me. It is not a really complicated job but it is labor intensive. A professional crew of experienced roofers can put a roof on a 1,500 square foot home in a few hours if all they need to do is put on the tar paper and shingles. Be prepared for them to be completed in half a day at the most.
The exterior paint and any repairs to the siding or porches and decks is very important to the buyer and it also affects the selling value of the property. This may sound obvious, but do all the repairs before you paint or hire a painter. In very sunny climates the color of the paint will have a very distinctive fade within a few days, and it will be almost impossible to color match any repairs.
This is an optional repair or upgrade, but if you are working on an older home that does not have a copper water main line (not the sewer main, the water main that leads from the meter to the home) the value of the upgrade is worth much more than the cost. This is also a fairly simple repair, but it will take a few hours.
First have the city come out and mark all the utility lines (this should be done the day you purchase any property to flip, even if you do not plan on digging) then just run to the home center to get some 3/4 “ soft copper pipe and the fittings you need. Dig down by hand at the water meter end and the house end until you have the room to do the work. Now tie a chalk line to the water line at the house and walk it over to the meter and snap a line on the ground. Rent a trencher and dig a trench beside your line and role the new pipe in. don’t worry about removing the old pipe unless it is copper. If you choose to hire a plumber to do the digging before hand so all they need to do is the installation. You don’t want to pay a plumber to dig a hole.
The best way to increase the overall profitability of your project is to do everything yourself, or at least as much as you can yourself. The second option is to hire a part-time unskilled laborer. You don’t want to be paying $50 an hour to a roofer to strip a roof even before he can start work. The primary tasks I personally do myself is to gut the interior (all flooring, cabinets, and appliances), strip the roof if needed and the trenching of the water main.
I will often paint, but I don’t like masking anything and I do not “cut in” trim and professional painters don’t like it either. My interior (and exterior) painting goes like this; mask the windows, spray the bathtubs with a cooking oil spray (paint will not stick), protective clothing and respirator, plug in the compressor, point and shoot. If it moves, paint it; if it doesn’t move, paint it twice. It takes longer to clean the tools than it does to put 2 coats on a 1,500 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath house.
The result is an incredibly professional finished product that even looks better after everything (flooring, cabinets and appliances) is installed. No gaps and no marks where the masking was done wrong around an outlet or the stove.
When it comes to landscaping, be smart. A role in lawn is a time saver, but it is a waste of money. Spend some time to put down fertilizer and water. That, and a few cuttings is all a lawn needs or wants (use an iron based product because you want the greenest lawn in the subdivision). Only buy and install plants that are indigenous to your climate if you even choose to go that far.
New roof, paint and a beautiful lawn is what you need to get those buyers to stop and look in the windows at all hours of the day. Because of this, take the time to be sure that ALL the windows on the property are crystal clear clean in and out. For every person you know has viewed the property, 4 others have done an exterior “walk around” and looked in all the windows, even that little one around the back. And of those most of them run home to get their spouse and bring them to see this stunning home.
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