Do you use interior designers when flipping a home?

[Eyal Goren]

Just to clarify - we're looking to flip our first house in Indianapolis. Our budget with rehab is around 150.

We do understand the value of professionals and I guess a great interior designer can actually pay itself (by increasing the ARV).

Just wanted to get the community's take.

[Doug Smith]

I used to live in Castleton before Bank One moved me to Tampa in 1996. It was truly my favorite city that I lived in (and I was moved around a lot before here). We're odd in that our project manager actually has a formal degree in Interior Design. Make sure if you do you're not hiring someone that isn't qualified. So many people these days call themselves designers but have absolutely no formal training or background. She also has a design practice where builders build in about 20 hours of her time for their clients. She has "trade accounts" that get her discounts as all kinds of places for materials like flooring, fixtures, cabinetry, etc, so it nearly pays for itself. Alas, we're in the Tampa Bay area and not Indy, but I'm happy to discuss it some time if you want to PM me. 

[Jacob Sherman]

Quote from @Eyal Goren:

Just to clarify - we're looking to flip our first house in Indianapolis. Our budget with rehab is around 150.

We do understand the value of professionals and I guess a great interior designer can actually pay itself (by increasing the ARV).

Just wanted to get the community's take.

 The design is very important to stand out from the competing listings . Something as little as an accent wall or color of handles on kitchen cabinets can really make a difference 

[Shawn Parsh]

Eyal,

I guess I'm the odd one in the group, but I have never paid for an interior designer on my flips. From my perspective, if you know your market well you should know what buyers like and are looking for. As far as colors go we always try to stay fairly neutral. In my experience if you have three people picking a color you will have at least two different opinions. The chance of me picking a color that every potential buyer would like is slim at best. 

Having said all of that I have no idea what an interior designer cost so maybe by hiring one it would increase the bottom line, but someone would have to show me the numbers. I have a couple ladies on my team that pick our colors, cabinets, countertops and so on. They are not interior designers, but they seem to have a pretty good gauge on what looks good. 

[Robert Payne]

If you are comfortable putting out a product that looks like everything else on the market, no reason to hire someone. It isn't that hard to look around and see what is popular with the majority of people. But if you are aiming to be different, I would talk to a designer. If you think the home can support a higher than average price with the right finishes, or you think it needs to stand out to sell quickly, these are reasons to involve a designer.

[Eyal Goren]

Quote from @Shawn Parsh:

Eyal,

I guess I'm the odd one in the group, but I have never paid for an interior designer on my flips. From my perspective, if you know your market well you should know what buyers like and are looking for. As far as colors go we always try to stay fairly neutral. In my experience if you have three people picking a color you will have at least two different opinions. The chance of me picking a color that every potential buyer would like is slim at best. 

Having said all of that I have no idea what an interior designer cost so maybe by hiring one it would increase the bottom line, but someone would have to show me the numbers. I have a couple ladies on my team that pick our colors, cabinets, countertops and so on. They are not interior designers, but they seem to have a pretty good gauge on what looks good. 

 Thanks I appreciate it. Sounds very logical and simple.

[Jonathan Bock]

@Eyal Goren

Will buyers in your target market pay more because you paid a professional designer?  

In my area designers are in the $120 to $200/hr range so if it adds value do it for sure but on small scale projects I really don't think you will get that much impact especially for a vanilla basic house flip.   

[Peter Humpton]

I'm so glad you asked this question! I was thinking something very similar. A lot of the listed renovated houses look the same/similar. I'd love to have something that stands out, but am totally inept at color coordination! I'm actually wondering the same question for exterior changes - how/when to know if siding should be changed or new front porch built: is that a designer as well or architect?

[Bruce Woodruff]

Only if you are sure that spending the money will result in a large ROI. And I don't know why you'd care if your house looks like other houses. The question is: will you make money?

You can look on VBRO and see what the successful people are doing. Just copy them and make money yourself....this is not rocket science :-)

[Nick Giulioni]

Quote from @Eyal Goren:

Just to clarify - we're looking to flip our first house in Indianapolis. Our budget with rehab is around 150.

We do understand the value of professionals and I guess a great interior designer can actually pay itself (by increasing the ARV).

Just wanted to get the community's take.

 I have worked with them in the past but don't tend to on a day to day basis. 

[Alan F.]

Quote from @Eyal Goren:

Just to clarify - we're looking to flip our first house in Indianapolis. Our budget with rehab is around 150.

We do understand the value of professionals and I guess a great interior designer can actually pay itself (by increasing the ARV).

Just wanted to get the community's take.

 I don't, I use comps. I want it to sell quickly so it needs to appeal to the widest pool of available buyers. "Normal sells" I want my house to look just like it was newly constructed.