First Indianapolis Flip

I like to flip houses. The only problem is that I am terrible at all handy work, want to flip houses in an area different than I live and make a lot of money doing it. How do I do this?

First, NOTHING MATTERS IF YOU BUY THE HOUSE TOO HIGH!!! I apologize for the cap locks but if new investors want to know what it takes to make some money in this industry, there is only one real must-do... buy the house right.

So, I was up late one night and found a great property. It was a little overpriced, at 55 but I could see the potential. The walls were an off-orange which was great because it matched the incredibly beautiful shag carpet on the floors. The laminate countertops were dated, as were the cabinets.

I immediately emailed my realtor and asked him an obnoxious amount of questions about that area, the property and the success or failure of flippers in that particular neighborhood. We got a couple of bids from contractors and they came in around 15 - 20. Comps for updated houses were around 90 to 100.

Once I felt comfortable, I authorized an offer of 30,000 dollars. They came back at 47. I told me realtor to give them an offer of 35, best and final. They have to know that I will walk if they come back at 36,000. When I say best and final, I mean it.

They accepted. We closed on a Friday and after a minor delay of the former owners needing to clear out some left over items, the workers started on Saturday afternoon. It could not have gone better. We immediately started off with a bunch of good luck and found that underneath the shag carpeting was original hardwood floors. That was a great call to receive.

The first thing to do in any flip is to hire the granite person. This will take the most time to get done and is likely the largest expense in the kitchen. So, we got granite for around 2000 dollars. It was pretty nice. While the granite was being cut the contractor was updating cabinets. They stained the old cabinets, updated the hardware and at the end of the process, they looked wonderful.

We also sanded the floors, painted the walls and did some minor repairs on the roof.

At the end of this adventure, the house looks incredible. All the floors look wonderful.

The property is not, and should not be listed. A neighbor saw how nice the house looked and offered 90% of our asking price. I accepted and the buyer is going through the steps now to get the loan completed.

All in, my first flip made 38% profit. It will likely be a little less as I plan on giving my crew a bonus for doing such an incredible job. My next post will be about how to build a successful crew based on the best modern management principles.

I am now looking for several more flips in Indianapolis. If you got a good candidate, send them over.