House Flipping Secrets Revealed! (video series)
I’m a professional “house flipper” and real estate developer in San Antonio, TX. Here’s my experience rehabbing one of the scariest homes I had ever seen!
I started in real estate by getting my real estate license to learn more about the “mechanics of real estate” and hopefully crack the code on how you can make millions buying, selling, or flipping real estate.
After a few projects I moved almost exclusively to doing downtown infill flips and new construction.
Here’s the house flipping series of one of those projects! This house was on the city demolition list and probably one of the nastiest structures I’ve ever been inside!
Yes, it smelled SUPER BAD! (I think the smell was the worst part)
In this episode we all walk through this house for the first time! HGTV makes everything look pretty but this is the nitty gritty on how to analyze house flip deals.
Some of the things you must consider before purchasing a flip deal are:
- Location and whether the home will sell fast once you get the rehab completed. Time is money and you will be paying taxes, insurance, and lender fees (unless you purchase the home cash) but then you’re not benefitting from properly used leverage. For this home, I knew it was in a rougher neighborhood but we were VERY close to the middle of downtown.
- Cost of the Necessary Repairs. You must have a plan and a way to quickly estimate how much a project will cost. Thankfully this home I knew would need everything so I didn’t have to make any crazy calculations. All I would save is a few walls, some siding, and the roof structure. We replaced everything.
- How Long the Project Will Take. As I mentioned before, time is very much money when investing in real estate. Can you complete the project fast enough to get it sold and make a profit?
On the next episode we are in the middle of the rehab, and man its come a long way!
Make sure you have a plan for managing and working with your contractors! On a complicated rehab like this you must:
- Have A Detailed Scope of Work Put Together. I always hire an architect to design a new layout for my projects. I don’t want anything left up to chance or the contractors decisions; they will mess things up.
- Have Finish Out Selections Made. Right along with having your layout put on paper decide on finish out selections before you start the project. The time to NOT be buying light fixtures is a day before they are going to be installed on the property.
- A Plan to Stay Organized. You must have construction management software in place! (excel can work but I would consider something like BuilderTrend or Co-Construct)
Ready for the grand finale??!?!?! It’s finished and oh so beautiful!
It ended up taking longer to sell this home than I initially thought. We also sold it for less because people were worried about the area. Yes, we still made about $60,000 on this home at the end of the day.
Remember to build in margins for the unknown when flipping houses. It’s a complicated and sometimes very scary business.
If you want to learn more about real estate investing and get The Top 5 Things I Wish I Had Known About Real Estate Before I Started Investing pop over to my website and sign up for this free guide!
If you’re ready to start investing I’d love to share the journey with you!
You can find me on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. Feel free to check out my website (www.chrisfgill.com) for pictures of current projects and all around real estate investing advice.
