Flip Planning

 Hey everyone

My apologies, it's been awhile since I posted.  I felt the need to get back in front of the keyboard to talk about a trend I see every year around this time. (investor's..THIS MEANS YOU)  Once we get deep into the fall/beginning of the winter the real estate market tends to slow down in activity...although this is understandable for regular home buyers, it's the WRONG time of the year for investors to slow down.  There are a couple of reasons I say this.  

The first reason is pretty obvious...if the market is generally slower, the properties that ARE listed tend to be homes that owners are more determined (desperate?) to get sold, hence you can frequently find bigger deals.

The second reason is for more logistical reasons.  If you are looking to buy, rehab and flip an investment property; that takes a timetable of work that must be planned out thoroughly.   I work extensively with investors in Philadelphia.  For flip properties, we usually see rehab jobs running between $30K to $50K depending on how extensive and how many features are being added to the job.  You can usually figure about $5000 worth of rehab work a week as a round planning number.  That means rehab timetables of 6 to 10 weeks and you should add a couple of weeks to that number for possible delays/issues that might occur.  That means 8 to 12 weeks.  Add to that the time it took to go from agreement to closing.  Depending on how busy title companies are and how readily your funding is available your looking at 2 to 4 weeks for most investors to close on a property.  So now we are at a range of 10 to 16 weeks for your project....What does 3 or 4 months mean if you BUY a project NOW?  It means it's ready for SPRINGTIME which is exactly when you want to start marketing your flip.  Think about that if you are looking for an investment flip.  RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME...this is prime buying season, so don't pass on the opportunities.  

If you want some guidance or have questions about rehabbing and flipping homes, please reach out to me.  I love helping new investors get started on their way.