10 Dos and Don'ts for Maximizing Your Profit Potential

I ran across this article today that I thought was pretty interesting. It deals with flipping houses and maximizing profit. Check it out.

Moving right along

So, here we are on our fifth week of the flip. The house is coming along great but still has a long way to go. We have been working on landscaping for the past three days. This was only supposed to take one, maybe two days. Now, by landscaping I'm referring to the mulch, planting new plants, cleaning/painting the shutters, and painting both the front and back decks. We have opted not to have the roof replaced since it's in good condition, just dirty. We have hired a cleaning crew to come out and clean it up. They guarantee that they can get it looking new again. That's what we want.

We picked out the new carpet last night. We're going to go with a Berber due to the popularity and the ease of stain resistance as well as cleaning. Our market is targeted towards families with children who tend to spill things on the carpet. I paid for the new carpet this morning and it's going to be installed next Wednesday.

An electrician is coming out later this week to install our pendant lighting over the breakfast bar and the vanity lighting in the bathrooms. I got a great deal on the vanity lighting. Shopping online pays off!!

I am tired and stressed. I have been at this house every night for hours upon hours. Keep in mind that I work on the house after working a full day at my job. Our goal was August 1 but if we can have the house complete by the first weekend in August, I’ll be very happy with that.

Interesting Flipping Website

I found this website tonight that I thought was pretty interesting. It is about the flipping process from start to finish. I am constantly reading up on this since I intend to make this my full-time business. You can never learn too much.

Over improving

Ah, the situation that every flipper faces sometime or another. Installing that sauna or whirlpool tub is sure to make the sale right? Wrong. Investing in personal preference items like these limits the buyers who will be interested in your house. Perhaps your buyers have small children; well there goes the pool in the backyard. It’s very important to improve your house to the level of the others in the neighborhood. Here’s a good article explaining more.

If your home is not located in a granite countertop neighborhood, this investment is likely to pay out what you put in. If you over improve, you’re sure to spend more than you have to or lose out. A great way to view other homes in your neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods is by attending open houses. Try to attend as many of these as possible. Listen to what the buyers are commenting on and pay attention to the features of the house. If there aren’t any open houses nearby, try viewing a model home and take notes of what improvements and features this home has over yours. Make adjustments to your house accordingly.

The appliances are coming

We have decided to purchase Stainless Steel appliances for this house. The market right now is flooded and our competition is stiff. By throwing in “extra” perks, we are hoping to sell our home faster and for top dollar. My fiancé is going to H.H. Gregg today to pick them up! I’m excited because the house is finally starting to come together. These appliances are going to really set it off.

The main floor of the house is nearly complete. I still need to paint a second coat on the trim and paint the foyer. The formal living room is completely done and the dining room is 95% of the way done. We still need to build the “picture boxes” for the walls. It looks awesome so far.

There is wood laminate flooring in the kitchen and we were going to continue that look through to the dining room but we can’t seem to find the exact color that the home owners used. We thought about choosing a different color but figured it would look like we pieced together the floor and tried to match it up. There was carpet in before so I guess we’re going to go with carpet again.

OH! We’ve started removing the carpet. Yippee!! We’re going to have the entire house re-carpeted. Wow, it’s really going to look great. Pictures coming soon!!

Watch out for the bushes!

Last Saturday I was weed eating the yard when I noticed that we had poison ivy growing alongside the bushes. Thinking to myself, “Eh, I’ve had poison ivy before and it’s not that bad,” I kept on weed eating. Well, me being the big dummy I am decided not to change into pants and remained in my shorts and flip flops. BIG mistake! My legs are now covered in this horribly itchy rash that looks like leprosy. I’m embarrassed to wear shorts now. So, the moral of the story is…ALWAYS wear pants when weed eating or mowing. Sheesh…now I’m going to get some calamine lotion and get back to painting the house.

Let the color begin!!

Finally, we have reached a point that we can begin painting. All of the wallpaper has been removed throughout the house except the border in one room (a BIG pain, comes off in little pieces) and the basement bathroom. We puddied the main floor this weekend and prepped the dining room. Tonight we installed two new light fixtures which look gorgeous, brushed nickel rocks! We've begun painting in the dining room. The ceiling is done and the wood trim is white with primer. Tomorrow we'll start coloring the walls.

I'm so glad to finally be moving on from this wallpaper. It is so frustrating removing it, mostly due to the amount of time it takes. We are going to start completing one room at a time. Our next room is the kitchen and our stainless steel appliances arrive next weekend!! Whoop!

I'm excited about this house. I wish we were a little further along than we are but we underestimated the time it would take to de-paper the walls.

Lessen number one. ALWAYS overestimate the time it takes to do something. If you get it done earlier than you thought, move on to the next project. If it takes you longer, you estimated for that and you've got it covered. I wanted to have the paper off in one week and it took two. Our goal is to have this house on the market by August 1 which is also the date of our first mortgage payment. Yikes!

We didn't get to the outside of the house this weekend. Sheesh...I was bummed. We ended up stopping Saturday around 5 to go to my soon to be brother in laws for a bbq. We plan on starting on the outside next weekend, provided that the weather holds out. Today was beautiful.

I will post some before and after pictures soon. Our roof should be started on this coming week. It’s going to look awesome.