Flipping shows VS. Reality

[homealone]

Watching shows on how to flip a house are great, but they tend to leave out details such as the holding costs, insurance and other fees which will eat away at your profits. By doing your homework you can avoid alot of future problems when attempting to flip a house.
House flipping shows make it look so easy to make repairs to the home yourself. This isnt always the case. If you are not much of a do it yourself kind of person, you should proably hire a contractor. This will give you the piece of mind that the work will be done properly and quickly. For those who attempt to do it themselves usally end up dragging out the repair projects well beyond what was planned, and this means more money out of your pocket.
Locating the right property of course is key to making money on a house flip. If the property you purchase to flip was the wrong price and the wrong property, you wont make your money in return. You should spend most of your time finding the right property with the right price, that will allow you to make money on your flip.
One common problem is cash. It is truely amazing how many people end up running out of money before their house flip is complete. When you decide to flip a house you must make sure that you have enough cash on hand to handle all expenses along with holding costs. The last thing you want is to get half way through a flip and realize that you cant get it completed right away due to the lack of funds.
Come up with at least 2 ideas of exit strategies when purchasing a property. The most common ideas are to lease it or set it for rent. This is in case you are finding it difficult to sell the home fast. This will at least keep it from sitting there empty and costing you more.
The ability to flip a house can allow you to make great money in short time, but the process is not easy. There is a whole lot to be considered. Over a long period of time is when flipping properties pays larger dividends. Make sure you keep pace with real estate and invest in the long haul.
Always make attempts to purchase homes at a cheaper cost, this will allow you some room to make some mistakes with out costing you alot in the end.

Plain and simple do your homework, research as much as possible, seek answers and cover all your bases before attempting to flip a house. Knowledge is power. Make sure that you are as powerful as possible.

[flippinout]

What bothers me about these shows is the amount of money that it supposedly takes to redo a room. Some of these prices are totally ridiculous and out of most peoples reach.

Unless you have a house thats worth a lot of money, in a prime area, with a great market, putting $20,000 in a room to me is simply something that is going to be hard for a lot of people to do.

How do they reach these numbers. Jared, whats your take on the amount spent on each room? Is it necessary to spend that much? For what some of those shows say it takes to do a bathroom, I would expect gold spigots, and marble everything. I just want to know why it takes so much to do a room.

[JaredfromIndiana]

I think they reach those crazy numbers because of two things I can think of.

1. They are in high end markets.
2. They are on tv!

#2 probably stands more true than #1. I can see spending $20,000 for a kitchen in a $3.5 million dollar home, but for a nice $200,000 home you can probably get in for $10-15,000 and that's a COMPLETE gut job. I gutted a kitchen last year for less than $3,000 I believe. Nice white cabinets and shiny black speckled countertops. Pretty cool!

[flippinout]

Your ideas, Jared, are about the same as mine. There is no way, in an everyday affordable home that a redo job should cost as much as they say it does.

We went with oak cabinets and white counter tops to the tune of about $3000. We have a 17 foot by 14 foot kitchen with plenty of cabinet space and lots of counter tops, but our savings came when we bought an item in cabinetry that they wouldnt be handling any longer.

They need to come up with a show that shows us everyday people what you can do on a limited amount of money. They need to get into some reality progamming of this type. lol

[JaredfromIndiana]

Originally Posted by flippinout

Your ideas, Jared, are about the same as mine. There is no way, in an everyday affordable home that a redo job should cost as much as they say it does.

We went with oak cabinets and white counter tops to the tune of about $3000. We have a 17 foot by 14 foot kitchen with plenty of cabinet space and lots of counter tops, but our savings came when we bought an item in cabinetry that they wouldnt be handling any longer.

They need to come up with a show that shows us everyday people what you can do on a limited amount of money. They need to get into some reality progamming of this type. lol

Well hell, I have to video cameras at my expense, let's do it!!

[flippinout]

You should do it, make a show that shows how normal everyday people can do house flipping without spending a fortune.

Plus, they need a show that deals with the "how tos" from beginning to end, or sale of the property.

I would like to see a show that explains everything that pertains to house flipping, then one that deals with great looking outcomes without that expense, and I am sure there would be a lot of people interested in that sort of show.

[homealone]

ummmm, errrrr, do I get a cut of the profits??? Had to ask ROFL.