Most of you know that I am a real estate investor and that the income from my properties is a large part of my retirement budget.
All of my properties are buy-and-hold rentals, but I’ve always wanted to try my hand at flipping homes.
Well today we have a guest post from a friend of mine who did just that and shares all her ups and downs along the way.
Amanda is co-founder of Why We Money – a site where she and her husband share ideas, experiences, and tactics for finding the balance between enjoying life today, while still planning for a great tomorrow.
And to note, this was sent to me in late February, before tax season was over.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did…
They say we learn best from experience. And I think this is true. At the same time, we should never overlook the valuable lessons we can learn from the experiences of others.
Though I don’t consider our experience flipping a house a failure, we learned many valuable lessons. So many lessons.
The following is our story and what we learned. I share this story with the hope that these lessons can help anyone thinking about flipping their first home (or renovating a rental property).
“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.” – Otto von Bismarck
Our Story
Alan (my husband) and I considered investing in real estate for years before we took the leap. We thought about it, talked about it, analyzed deals, and talked about it some more. All of that got us nowhere.
We knew the best way to learn was to take action. And that’s what we did. In fact, we dove head first into the deep end of the pool. Thankfully, we eventually learned to swim. Or at least doggie paddle. 🙂
Our Plan (going into it)
The plan was to buy and hold rental real estate, specifically a single-family home.
The problem was our local real estate market was on fire! Any decent, moderately priced home would often sell within hours of listing, sometimes for over list price. Not only that, but it was impossible to find turnkey, single-family properties that even came close to the 1% rule. (The 1% rule is a back of the envelope calculation used to determine if the investment property’s monthly rent will meet or exceed 1% of the final cost (after fees and any repairs)).
To cash flow out of the gate, we realized we would have to buy a “fixer-upper”. No problem, we thought. We completely updated our last house on our own. We’ve been avid DIYers for years, and love the challenge of taking something ugly and making it beautiful. Why not, right!?
So, even though we did plan to hire contractors for plumbing and electrical, we figured we could handle the demo, clean up and finishing ourselves. (And we did, for the most part.)
How It Played Out (not as planned)
After being outbid on two other homes, we got lucky and had an offer accepted on a 1400 square foot ranch on ½ acre in a desirable neighborhood. The house had been rented to the same person for over 30 years and was overflowing with “stuff”. It was obviously in need of updating and repairs. But here’s the kicker – the price had just dropped $30k, plus the owner agreed to put on a new roof.
Within a week of closing, we realized the scope of work was more extensive than initially planned. All the piles of stuff and furniture that filled the house had hidden several issues. (And we had to clear out all the piles of stuff left behind!). From the beginning, we knew this was a possibility and had accounted for it, financially speaking.
Hiring contractors proved to be more time consuming and difficult than anticipated. And new problems popped up every day. It seemed one week we had a solid plan and the next, it expanded, and the list grew. We spent more money and more time.
The process drug on, consuming our nights and weekends for months. My husband works 9-5, so he worked on the house every day after work. I became so overwhelmed by the house, I let go of my personal finance blog (some of you may remember – I have some regrets there, friends). We didn’t get much quality family time in during these few months either (talk about regrets!).
In the midst of it all, we began attending a local real estate meetup (one of the smartest, best things we did!). From this, not only did we get help with some major construction projects, we received invaluable advice from pros who have been through the trenches.
One piece of advice we got was to sell the house. In a seller’s market, with the scope of work and money we were investing, it seemed like the logical thing to do to recoup our money (at least more quickly). The numbers were starting to push the 1% rule. And, honestly, after all the blood, sweat and tears, the option to sell was more appealing than ever.
Ultimately, we finished after 4½ long months and were pleased with the results. We didn’t even have to list it on the MLS but sold it by word of mouth to the first person that looked at it. In the end, we love the fact that we helped improve a neighborhood and provide a nice house for the new homeowner.
Lessons Learned
What we did right:
- Joined a local meetup. This is the #1 best thing we did. My only regret is that we didn’t join the group BEFORE we bought the house. We found a great contractor who stepped in, offered advice and helped relieve several issues that were stressing us out.
- Overestimated costs. We added about ⅓ to our estimated costs to cover the unexpected. This was helpful even though we still went over the top number a little bit. The reason for most of the overage was that we changed our entire strategy halfway through.
- Hired contractors for the more challenging tasks. Removing the entire front wall of the house and rebuilding it wasn’t something we wanted to tackle. We also hired electricians, plumbers, and others to do work we weren’t qualified to do.
- Went the extra mile. Those extra little touches helped sell the house more quickly. For example, I insulated the entire attic and my son insulated the crawl space. We bought appliances for the kitchen. We installed a new sump pump in the basement (even though we never had any water the entire time we owned it).
What We Did Wrong:
- Underestimated the scope of work. We did go over our estimated costs by a little bit, but the big one here is not appropriately estimating the amount of TIME the project would take. We didn’t consider how it would, eventually, take all of our nights and weekends for four straight months. It wasn’t just the actual work that took the time either. From the beginning, we didn’t budget the countless hours spent calling and meeting contractors plus what seemed like 1000 trips to the home improvement store. (I don’t know why I didn’t see this from the beginning. Honestly, I think I was so hyper-focused on getting a property, I missed the forest for the trees.)
- Changed our strategy (midway through). This was a big one! When we decided to sell the house, we realized we needed to do some additional work to add value. Since it wasn’t going to be a rental, we put more into curb appeal and added some upgrades in the kitchen. This added cost and time to the project.
- Did too much of the work ourselves. If we ever do another project like this, we will estimate costs based on hiring all of the work done by contractors. Since we went into it assuming we would save on labor doing much of the work ourselves, we needed to follow through with the original plan. This was the source of much of our stress. (We should have had someone clean it out and demo too. This was time-consuming and nasty work. After the fact, we learned that we could have hired this done at a very reasonable cost. It would have been worth every penny.)
- Paid too much. This is related to all of the above. If we had paid less for the house from the beginning, we would have been more comfortable hiring additional contractors, and we wouldn’t have been as stressed out.
- Stressed over the small stuff. Some of the small stuff seemed so big when we were in the midst of it. Sometimes it takes walking away from something and asking for advice and help from those who are in the know. There’s always a solution.
What We Would Do Next Time
Will there ever even be a next time?
I can’t say, for sure. But if there is, it will be after my husband leaves the 9-5. Flipping is a job!
To be honest, we would prefer to invest in buy and hold properties (that don’t need to be renovated) where the income is more passive than job-like (though I realize this takes time as well).
Above all, we would go through the list of all of the things we did wrong and make them right. Even more, we would double down on the everything we did right.
Was It Worth It?
If you’ve read this far, you must be wondering, “But did they make any money?”
Yes, we did. We haven’t finished our taxes yet, but I guesstimate our ROI hovers right around 40%. So, we did okay on the money end of the deal.
Was it worth the time invested? That’s up for debate.
But the lessons learned, skills honed, and relationships developed through the experience were well worth it.
That doesn’t mean I’m signing up for a similar experience anytime soon.
Dads Dollars Debts says
I was at the casino last night and met a guy buying mobile homes. He bought 2 lately for 30K on their own lots. Put 30k of investment into fixing it and now is renting them for $950 a pop. 1.6% return on investment a month pre-depreciation. Got me wondering if mobile homes were the way to go.
Thanks. We have not flipped a home but are currently building to sell (so kind of like flipping). It makes our decisions on interior different than if we were building to hold for sure.
ESI says
I actually have someone working on a guest post about mobile home investing. 🙂
cynthia says
I subscribe to your blog, so thanks, as always! (I would love to know the name of your guest’s blog.) The fix and flip TV shows make it look so easy. It’s good to read a more realistic account. And while an ROI of 40% is terrific, it’s the expenditure of TIME that many people don’t take into account. When you’re working a fulltime job, “homework” is almost always a drag. Just picking out paint colors, plantings or a new washing machine can be a chore.
ESI says
She sold her blog and is currently blogless. 🙁
Amanda says
Hey Cynthia – I am the guest writer for this post (maybe there is another blog in my future…we’ll see!).
I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. The TV shows make it look fun and easy. You’re right – just going to the home improvement store (at least 3x/week) was a drag, especially after the first few weeks. It felt like no matter how much we prepared for shopping and tried to get it all at once, things popped up!
cynthia cummins says
Hi Amanda: I wonder if you’d like to guest on my blog, which I think you can access by clicking on my name here. You’ll see how to contact me, too. It’s about real estate, yet more importantly about HOME. The psychological, spiritual and humorous side of real estate. I’m just beginning to invite guests (current post is from a guest)…thanks and happy week, cynthia
Amanda says
Thanks Cynthia! I’ll be in touch. 🙂
Akhil says
Thanks for great article. Very well said about learning from other’s experience. I am a newbie in rental property business. Can someone comment more how to find “Local Real Estate Meeting”?
ESI says
I would 1) do a google search or 2) ask those in the RE market in your area (other investors, agents, etc.) where you might be able to find these.
Amanda says
I will add that the one I attend is listed on meetup.com. That said, I found out about it through another investor.
George says
This was great thanks… made me realize that the only way we can invest in real estate is to avoid this level of time / money investment (we are definitely not DIYers /have extra time). But if / when we do, I’ll definitely look for local real estate group – does seem invaluable.
Lily | The Frugal Gene says
Haha this is exactly how we feel about our rental!!! It went pending a few days ago and with the time consumed I was happy to see it go. We put in some repairs too but not too much but even then the contractors….I mean….are they all THIS bad at communication?!? Why! We settled with a great company but that it self took 3 weeks to find them.
Sorry to hear you gave up your PF blog :(!
Amanda says
Thanks, Lily. I totally understand!
Sometimes I’m sorry I gave up the blog too, but that’s water under the bridge. There’s always the opportunity to make a fresh start some day. 🙂
rcz58z says
What?? You mean it’s not as easy as it appears on TV?? Who would have thought? LOL
Great article and provides lots of insights as to why it’s not as easy as it appears.. I’ve thought about diving into this, but instead I invest in a fund that invests in Trust Deeds and get a monthly check that amounts to 8% per year.. I figure that’s a lot easier than dealing with tenants.. 😉
Rosie says
Hi, that’s sound like a great idea. If you don’t Mind can you tell me how to get into that that fund.
rcz58z says
http://www.ramacapital.com
Min investment begins at $250k
Mr Crazy Kicks says
Great post Amanda! It’s nice to see you writing again. I think you should get back to blogging too. Maybe in time to share your garden harvests again 🙂
Sounds like this flip was a bear, but ultimately successful! You learned a lot about yourselves and about renovations. Sometimes just the education alone is worth it, but you still made a hefty profit on top of that!
I keep thinking about getting into flipping, but really like having my free time. My brother did start flipping a couple years ago, and I give him a hand now and then. I think the most important factor is his success has been getting the places cheap. Usually he can turn around and sell for a profit without any work. Finding those deals takes some work in itself though!
Well done with the flip, and I hope we see you around more 🙂
Amanda says
Aww, thanks so much, Mr. Crazy Kicks! I appreciate the kind words! 🙂 I would love to share my garden harvests again…
You’re right. In the end, it was a success. And we learned valuable lessons in the process. You definitely make the money on the buying end with real estate, and if your brother can flip without doing the actual labor – that’s great. The deals take time to find, no doubt, but once you do some networking it becomes much, much easier.
Michelle | Operation Husband Rescue says
The house looks so beautiful! I think they make flipping houses look a lot easier on TV than it actually is. They usually run into one major issue and everything else goes off without a hitch, of course.
I had a question, if you don’t mind: Were you able to sell the “stuff” that was leftover in the house for any profit that you could then put back into the house?
I know there’s some companies that will come in and clear everything out, sell it for you, and then take a percentage and give you the rest of the profits. But if it’s mostly just junk then that wouldn’t apply.
Amanda says
Thanks so much, Michelle! 🙂 We sold one thing from the house. So we made about $75. We spent around $500 getting rid of everything else. Everything was in pretty bad condition and anything of value was removed prior to us taking possession.
We learned about a month later that there are some local folks who do this (for free) if they can keep anything of value. I’m sure they scope out the potential profits before taking on a project, but this is the route I would go if I were to do it again.
Michelle | Operation Husband Rescue says
Aw, man. So you had to PAY to remove stuff–that stinks. Lessons learned I guess. Glad it still worked out okay.
Troy Bombardia @ Bull Markets says
Wow the house looks beautiful. You can always keep it for yourself 🙂
Maybe you’ll get into the flipping houses business one day and turn that into a company. You never know.
Tom says
Pro tip: Always hire contractors.
I am always temped to do a bunch of work by myself but it isn’t worth it. They are pros for a reason. They can do the work faster, better, and quicker than you. If you can afford to have contractors do all the work then you either need to get the house cheaper or move on.
Tom says
*Can’t afford
Amanda says
Agreed, Tom! This was one of the biggest lessons we learned.
JoeHx says
Great job on the house.
This post reminds me when I was getting my house ready to sell last year. I spent maybe six months working on it – so much time it felt like a second job. Heck, since I did end up getting money for it, it was a second job. The only things I didn’t do myself were detailed cleaning and what ever the realtor does. I was considering putting on a new roof and new windows, and that I would’ve hired someone. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that!
Carlos says
I enjoyed your post and i’m taking away key points to keep in mind if I ever do a flip.
I have pondered the idea but have never ventured into it due to one reason or another.
md_houseflipper says
I totally connected with this. I am in the midst of the same as you but I took on 3 rehab projects! 1 is finished and under contract, the second should be finished in a few months (everything went smoothly with this one) and the last one I had major problems with. I started out the 3rd with a cheap contractor and I’ve learned that cheap is not always the best (he made a couple of mistakes here and there which cost me money to fix etc.) and one morning I arrived at the property after a heavy rainfall the previous day only to find a flooded basement! I really can’t wait to get done with these 3 projects. The mental and physical stress have been so much.