Do it yourself?

Question

When flipping houses do you personally do the repairs to save money or would it be easier to allow the contractor to do the repairs?

Dan Liptak · Answer

Its good to start and build up some capital but if you are going to be doing this full time you will want to develop relationships with contractors/electricians/plumbers.

I usually do the big stuff my self electric/plumbing/hvac and leave the labor intensive stuff to others carpentry/drywall.  Wife likes to paint so that works well!

Kyle Penland · Answer

@Adam Bartomeo has it right...If you are the one working, you could also miss a deal by your home not being ready and missing a potential buyer.  Manage your business is my philosophy.  Also I am not the best at everything in the world...I'm a great painter but if I go in to a house and paint the entire thing, that is a lot of hours I'm saving not having to pay someone to do it, but also I could be missing the deal of a life time.  I've found it best in my past to manage versus actually do it.

Kevin Zimmer · Answer

How handy/skilled are you?How significant are the repairs? How quickly can you get the work done if you are doing it alone? What are your holding costs while you are doing the repairs?Do you enjoy doing fix up work?Do you have another source of income?Are you knowledgeable about how much the work would cost doing yourself vs outsourcing?

I agree with Adam on all points…you can save a lot of money doing it yourself, but you can only do one thing at a time, and you will miss other opportunities while you are working “in” your job.

It is possible to do a little of both.You act as the GC, and sub out the major repairs, while being in the building working on little things and overseeing the project.

Adam Bartomeo · Answer

I have done several flips where I have done almost all of the work. I have saved ten's of thousands of dollars per flip by doing all of the work. I have also missed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of deals that I couldn't participate in because I was swinging a hammer. I have recently began pulling back from the labor aspect and began running my business instead of working in it.

Having that said, the only reason I am able to step back now is because I saved the money by swinging the hammer. Just know the that your choices can both have positive and negative effects.