Amazing how many realtors don’t flip houses using their expertise in the market.
1 Like
Why gamble when you get a guaranteed piece of the action?
If it’s a “gamble,” then the realtor is no expert, and, studies have already shown that realtors in general have only self-interest in mind. (Source: Freakonomics.)
Money? Meet mouth.
1 Like
In my limited experience, buying and selling about 8 transactions, the real expertise of a realtor is pretty limited in scope.
They used to claim that they could and would check out every house that goes on sale in a neighborhood or town, and would then save you tons of search time by narrowing down all the choices to only those that meet your criteria. Now anyone can do that crap online for free, and everybody does it themselves.
So now the advantage of a realtor is that they have access to the local multiple listing service, which is the easiest way to get noticed.
The other part of their service is to continually prod the seller to lower his price expectations and continually prod buyers to pony up more dough to get “the home of your dreams”. Really, his/her only function is to make a market price transaction happen.
1 Like
That’s true, but varies depending on the unit dollar.
If you pay 75k for a kitchen because you’re paying a kitchen contractor, that’s tough.
If I’m doing it for 20k, then it’s different.
You can make money flipping, if you’re careful.many people are not careful.
Fixed, for reality.
My realtor (Chinese) refunds half of the seller’s commission to me, or 1.5% if I were selling. None of my white realtor friends are even allowed to by their brokerage. This is why we are losing everything to China.
1 Like
Yeah, I guess I think it takes more than carefulness.
You have to be willing and able to do a lot of the work yourself. You have to have contacts for people who are willing and able to quickly and efficiently and cheaply do the stuff you are not willing and/or able to do. You have to be able to pick out materials and finishes that are sellable. You have to know what upgrades are going to give the highest return on a value increase: cost ratio basis.
And I think that maybe you have to have enough perseverance to learn through a couple of failures and money losing attempts.
Seems A LOT of it has to do with getting a low buying price relative to the nearby house values in the first place.
You can also swoop in on failed flippers.
That’s what I meant by careful! 
Document all of that, and be prepared for downsides and variances. If the downsides and variances are worst case break even, then it’s a go. If they’re worse than breakeven, then I figure if I want to take the risk. Probably not, but sometimes I do (*).
I’m a bit more cautious in appraising risk than most people, and as a result, I think, minimizing it.
Well, we’re getting closer. Might be looking at a candidate house this weekend.
It’s in need of renos, but nothing structural (unless son in law decides to knock a wall out). It’s got problems, that I think I can resolve.
- it’s two apartments in a century home, with one person still living in the apartment. It’s not worth much like that, a lot more value as a single family home. Just have to convince the tenant to leave (which I think I can do, through $'s).
- wallpaper and carpet everywhere, which is a turn off to a lot of people. Just work for me.
- smell of smoke. I can deal with that, wash everything, prime everything, 2 coats of paint, no more smoke smell. + an ozinator if needed.
- complaints of sewage smell in the basement. Someone viewing the place actually decided not to buy because of this. Nobody seems to know what’s going on it’s a concern. Yeah well, the bottom unit has been empty. The water in the trap in either the sink or the floor drain has evaporated and is allowing sewer gas into the basement. A cup of water down the drain, and the problem is solved. I guess they don’t know this.
Initial guess, not having looked at the house, buy for $500K, total cost all in $75-125K to reno, resale 800-900K.
Or, there’s issues with the plumbing piping that need to be fixed.
Yeah, could be either, but I’d say 95 percent it’s just the trap.
Kilz has a product here in the states, it’s probably available to you as well, that works great for smells and would probably save you a bunch of time. No wall washing, no 2 coats of paint - just a primer, it goes on white, quickly dries clear and effectively blocks the smells; pet odor, cat pee, smoke.
You can also use it on the subfloor after you pull up the carpeting and before you put down a new floor.
I’ve had great success using it. highly recommend
2 Likes
I’ve used Kilz on subfloor to get rid of the smell of the prior owner’s dog’s pee and it worked great for that.
Didn’t know you could use it on walls or for smoke.
Highly recommend Kilz. I’ve used it on dog and cat urine as well as a sealer for a sewage backup. Very nice stuff. One coat and you’re done.
This topic was in my suggested reading list at the bottom of another thread & I just read this article in my Apple news feed. It may or may not apply to anything in this thread.