Buying and flipping a house is a great investment opportunity for you, whether you’re flipping that house to live in it, or to resell it. Either way, this is a great way to be able to pay less for a home and put your own personal touch on it. There are, however, a lot of things that you need to consider before buying a new house to flip. Without knowing those things, you could be in danger of doing a poor job or becoming overwhelmed. Below are some hidden costs of flipping a house.
So, pay attention to the details when you’re flipping a home and take these eight steps needed to flip a house seriously.
Bring In an Exterminator
Unfortunately, most homes that are in a position to be flipped are in that position because of some kind of neglect. Typically, the previous owner couldn’t maintain the home, or simply didn’t care to. One hidden costs of flipping a house that can come with this reality is an infestation of rodents and insects in the home. You can’t live side by side with them, and quick do-it-yourself projects don’t work again a full on infestation. Because of this, you’ll need to bring in residential pest control services.
Some pest control services have a specialty. For instance, many pest control services are dedicated to getting cockroaches out of your home. Others, meanwhile, will remove rats and mice from the home. There are also jack of all trade exterminators. Choosing the right exterminator is based on what is right for you. You may want to bring in multiple types of exterminators, to make sure your house is clean, or quickly remove everything. Either way, it’s important to be aware of what you see and hear in the home, and bring in further exterminators if necessary.
If you still think that you can safely overlook bringing in an exterminator, consider this. If there are mice in a home, you’re at risk of several diseases being transferred to you from their excrement and from ticks and fleas of their bodies. This includes diseases like Salmonella and Lyme Disease. So, don’t put yourself or others at risk.
Replace the Roof
Heat rises, meaning that when you heat your home, all of that heat rises towards the ceilings. This is why homes with higher ceilings tend to take more energy to heat, as it doesn’t stay. As heat rises, some of it is going to escape through your ceilings and roof. So, if the roof isn’t properly insulated or is in disrepair of some kind, more heat than is normal will go through it and will turn into hidden costs of flipping a house. In turn, this will require extreme amounts of heat and energy to make your home comfortable. This will also lead to you spending more money on your utility bills than you otherwise meant to.
Of course, while a roof is vital to insulating your home, this isn’t the only reason to replace a roof while flipping a home. Older roofs can also have leaks in them, which will let rainwater leak through the home, potentially letting water damage form in the home. Furthermore, having a new roof just looks better and raises the value of your home exponentially.
Roofing is vital to your home, so don’t hesitate to include the roof as part of your flip. This is also a difficult part of the home renovation, which many people don’t have the skillset to do themselves. So, bring in a skilled roofing company if need be.
Completely Redo and Renovate the Basement
A lot of people tend to overlook the basement of their home. After all, whether your use it for storage or if it’s just where something like your water heater is located, it’s easy to overlook. However, a fully refurbished basement is a great investment that adds value to your home and makes it much more enjoyable to live in too.
Basement remodeling services can turn a basement into your dream. This might be an extra bedroom for guests, a game room for the children, or even a man-cave. Truly, whatever you want it to be, the renovation can turn your basement into. This is great for anyone who is going to be living in the home for the long-term. However, the added value is great for anyone looking to quickly sell the flipped home.
There is another key reason to choose to remodel a basement in the home that you’re flipping. You never know what you’re going to find down there, if it will add to the hidden costs of flipping a house. Oftentimes, basements are moist, which can lead to issues like mold developing. This can make a home unsafe to live in and requires you to remove it. So, remodeling will help you find these issues while adding value to the home.
Have the Plumbing Looked at and Modernized
In any home, the plumbing is vitally important. That’s why you should make sure to check the plumbing throughout the home and bring in plumbing repair services if there are any issues that need to be repaired. After all damaged plumbing can cause a ton of issues in the home. Meanwhile, if your plumbing is effective, but outdated, you may want to modernize it to make sure that it runs as well as possible.
If you do have issues with the plumbing this may manifest in the form of leaks. Leaks can cause you to lose gallons of water a day, which means that you’ll be paying for water that you’re not even using. Furthermore, this leaking water can cause extensive water damage to your home. This water damage may manifest in the form of mold, but it can also create a pooling effect that makes your ceiling cave in or can damage your dry wall. These issues, obviously, become major hassles to deal with while you’re flipping a home.
Of course, modernizing old plumbing is also a great way to add value to a home. For instance, choosing to install low flow toilets is a much better environmental option, while fixing water pressure in the shower makes people much more excited about a bathroom. All of these things to modernize the plumbing in a home are a great idea, as they make it a much better home to live in and raise the value of the home as a whole.
Consider How You Are Going to Furnish the Home
You need to have a plan for how to furnish your home before you’re finished remodeling it. If you’re planning on living in the home, you need to make sure it is completely livable, and the furniture that you bring in, along with any decorations, is going to act as the finishing touch to the home. This will make you more comfortable and excited to live in the home. For someone who is going to be flipping a home to sell, it’s still important to furnish the home. This is known as staging the home. Essentially, you bring in furniture to show potential buyers what the home could look like, helping them to envision themselves in the home. This is done because looking at empty rooms can be difficult for some people to picture how they’d decorate a home.
There are a lot of different options to choose from when furnishing your flipped home, from Amish heirloom furniture pieces to contemporary pieces. The best way to choose them is based on what fits the aesthetic of your home as a whole, particularly if you’re staging a flipped home to sell better. This can include matching a home in the country to that rustic aesthetic. However, in a home that you’re living in, comfort and function becomes vital. So, consider all of this while choosing furniture for your home.
Don’t Forget About the Landscaping
It’s easy to focus on the house itself when you’re flipping it, but you need to take care of the property as a whole. This means focusing on the landscaping, as well as the home itself, is part of the hidden costs of flipping a house. After all, there is a ton of value to be added in having a great yard or garden for your home.
The yard is the first thing that people see when they see a house, and because of this, the condition of the yard is often how a homeowner is judged. It shows care and passion for the home. It raises not just your own property’s value, but the property of other homes in the neighborhood, as other people want to live in a beautiful neighborhood. There are a few ways that you can think about the landscaping in a yard, in particular. It starts with getting full, green grass. You may also want to consider planting trees and bushes to make the yard more beautiful, or even considering adding a garden into the yard, if possible.
So, whether you can do it yourself or need to bring in an arborist, investing in your yard and garden is vital to the flip of your home and is part of the hidden costs of flipping a house.
Install New Hard Wood Floors
One of the best ways to brighten your home and make it much valuable is by installing new hardwood floors. Whether you’re ripping up old carpet or replacing an older and beaten up floor. These will be safer to walk on, without potentially leading to splinters. It will also help to make more people interested in your home if you’re trying to flip it in a sale.
Besides the aesthetic of hardwood floors, there are a lot of benefits to choosing them over carpets in your home, despite the higher initial cost. For one, hardwood floors are much easier to maintain. Carpets can become dirty and stained. Pets may go to the bathroom on the carpet, which tends to hold onto smells longer than wood does. Because of this, it can be difficult to clean carpet, it can become ugly and need to be replaced much quicker than you would need to replace hardwood floors.
To put it simply, you choose hardwoods because they look better in your home, are harder to damage, last longer naturally, and add value to the home. So, don’t skip this step in a home flip. To do this, you may want to visit a local flooring store or hire a local flooring contractor.
Make Sure There Are No Issues With the Electrical Services
One of the most important things to do when it comes to making sure that your home flip is complete is to bring in a master electrician to make sure that there are no issues with the system. Issues with your electrical in the home can lead to a lot of issues that absolutely need to be avoided in the home, including power outages, and paying too much for electricity, which are all hidden costs of flipping a house. However, making sure there are no issues with the electrical is also important in making sure that you aren’t at risk for a fire in the home. After all, issues with the wiring in your home is one of the most common causes of fires.
Furthermore, consider all of the electricity that you’re going to use in the home. Add new outlets to make sure there are plenty in every room, making living convenient for anyone in the home. LED lightbulbs are another great idea, as they can be used for much longer periods of time, burn brighter, and use less energy than regular lightbulbs.
Whether you’re interested in pay cash for homes to turn over as a way of making money, or if you just like a project and the idea of buying your home on the cheaper side, flipping a home is a great thing. You just need to make sure what you’re getting into first and do the job thoroughly to avoid hidden costs of flipping a house. At times this may also mean bringing in a home renovation service. Otherwise, that investment that you made may not be worth it.
