Any Advice for us, Jared??

[missmanors]

Jared, would you happen to have some advice for us on this subject?

I'm wondering if you've made any mistakes when flipping a house that you would like to share with us.........maybe when renovating, or financing, whatever that could help us avoid some headaches.

[JaredfromIndiana]

Oh my goodness...

I'm not sure if either of us has the time... LMAO.

I'll check back in tomorrow after my finger exercises so I am ready to type all of my mistakes...

I have made all the mistakes, from contractors to renovation to financing to expectations...

[flip_it_fast]

LOL Jared, well you must have really lived and learned. You always have such great advice for us here at new house. We really appreciate you sharing your knoweledge with us. I am sorry that you had to go through so many twists and turns to figure it all out, but glad you did figure it all out!

[JaredfromIndiana]

I'm going to try to put a pic in here to show some of my mistakes, so bare with me...

[JaredfromIndiana]

Try another one...

[missmanors]

It looks like your pics are protected somehow, Jared. That's too bad, cause I'd really like to see them.

[JaredfromIndiana]

I think so, not sure. I've got some pics of before and after on our last two flips that I will share with whoever wants to see. Just pm me your email and I will send you an invite on snapfish.com.

Here's a list of some of my mistakes, I know I won't list them all!!! I'm going to break them down in to categories...

BUYING A HOUSE

1. Paid too much for a few deals.
2. Bought in less than desirable areas.
3. Bought a house just to have a deal.
4. Didn't negotiate as much as I could have.
5. Didn't understand how to estimate holding costs.
6. Bought too close a train crossing.
7. Bought a house with a VERY bad layout.

REHABBING A HOUSE (I decided not to number these...)

Taking contractors word for it.
Paying contractors money up front.
Being "friends" with contractors, that just don't work!!
Used numerous paint colors in a house, wasted time and money.
Used some BOLD colors in a house, nuetral is the way to go.
Had a mustard yellow house that I didn't paint!!!! I left that sucker mustard colored and then had the fence painted red! Maybe I thought Ronald McDonald would be my end buyer... LMAO.
Hired friends to do some work for me. They are no longer my friends...
Hired family to do work for me... they are still my family
Tried to help a substance abuser get on his feet by hiring him to paint a basement for me... he took the money I gave him and bought drugs with it.
Overshot my budget.
Overshot my timeframe.
Got attached to projects that I worked in.
Let my painter try to fix plumbing problems.
Let my plumber try to paint... LOL
Didn't clean out gutters when it was warm, waited until winter and was picking out huge chunks of ice!!
Waited too long in the year to paint the exterior and then it got too cold.
Bought houses too late in the year so that when the rehab was finally finished it was December and the houses sat all winter.
Underestimated holding costs.

SELLING A HOUSE

Not marketing it enough.
Using a realtor that was as motivated as a slug with a bag of Doritos.
Over pricing.
Not including enough quality pictures in the MLS listing.

That's all I got for tonight. I bet I could write a post every week and come up with 10 different things each time!! Maybe my next post will be successfull things I have done right!

[missmanors]

Wow, quite a list there, lol. I appreciate all the time you took to list some of the pitfalls of flipping a house. I'm sure that you aren't the only house flipper to make many of those mistakes that you listed.

One of the things that you mentioned a couple of times - trusting friends and relatives to help you......I'm sure we've all done that, whether on a house flip or otherwise, can often be a mistake. We all would like to think that our friends and relatives would be the best people to trust to help us out, but often that is not the case, and it's a shame that it happens. They should be the ones that we can trust......it just doesn't always work out that way.

Using neutral colors on flips has to be the best way to go, it's hard to look at some homes when they are painted some goofy color combinations, lol. I've seen some that look as though somebody bought all the paint they could find in the paint store's "discount bin", lol.

I'm going to make a list of your post for future reference. It's nice to have you here with us, with all of your experience. Your list will help us to look at houses with a different perspective, and also to ask some of the right questions.

Thanks again Jared. We do appreciate all the time that took you. We'll also be looking forward to reading your list of what you've done right!!

[flippinout]

Hi Jared. As you can see from your previous post, I tried to put your pic in but couldnt. I am working now on trying to find out why this isnt working and as soon as I do, I will let you know. Hang in, we will eventually work this out.

[flippinout]

Heres what our tech had to say about the pics.

he needs to use the attachment icon..the paper clip...and upload the picture first

Go ahead and try again so we can see if it will work for you, and if not, we will keep searching.