After reading the Fox report it got me to thinking. Time is money the pressure to finish must be unbareable!

I do not think I would buy one. Flippers tend to make their houses too "generic" and too "neutral". I'd have to spend too much money customizing their work to suit my own tastes. Some of the houses I've seen on flipping shows do turn out very very nice, but I could not live in most of them without making significant changes.

I know a few people who do buy and flip houses in this area. They seem to do good work, but I'd still have to make changes.

I'd never buy a flip. I've looked at quite a few and the quality of the work done for the price they want is unreasonable. A $7000 trip to home depot and a months of working weekends does not equal 60k to 100K or more mark up.

I also agree with Just, I'd just have to redo everything they did anyways. I have always loved fixers and now that the spectulators are leaving the market, I can find one at my leisure to renovate for myself.

I bought a flip once and hated it. I don't work, only make investments and live off them. This flip made me feel as though I had a job, as you said time is money. I like the slow route, buy and hold, sell after a while or keep. I can't remember the details but we did make a good return on our short term investment. Good return, but too much work, compared to other investments.
Did do another house, sold it after a year, didn't by to sell so quickly but did for other reasons. I had fun with that house, really transformed it. The buyers had viewed it before we bought, they were thrilled to buy the renovated house even at the higher price.

We looked at what I assume was a flip when we bought our first house. It was advertised "recently remodeled country charm." As our agent so aptly put it, "They remodeled any charm right out of this house."

Apartment beige carpet in every room except kitchen and bath. Every piece of woodwork and cabinets painted a neutral off-white. Some of the trim may actually have been really nice were it stained instead of thickly painted over. They had also tried to remodel the "attic" into 2 additional bedrooms, but the way the ductwork was run, the ONLY heating vent was a small one in the landing floor. Not a single vent in either of the bedrooms, which would've made for some pretty cold Midwest winter nights, especially if one wanted to shut the doors for privacy.

Anyhow, cheap carpet and linoleum, bad quality neutral paint, and a new front door and siding do not a charming home make.

I suppose if I ever saw a flip that actually looked like someone had lived there and taken care of the place, I might consider it, but the flips in our area tend to be turning something run-down into livable with all neutral, cheap materials that mean it's only one step up from a true fixer-upper, not worth the extra money for us.

I had the same experience as Kitty's Mom. DH and I saw a house, "pre-flip", that had a fair amount of potential though it needed significant work. I saw it again after the flip and the owner had managed to decorate in "mid-range apartment complex" decor. He'd put down laminate wood flooring in the hallways, but the bedrooms had real hardwoods (and if you ever want to compare the difference in appearanc, this would be your best opportunity. Ugh!) Apparently, he'd watched enough HGTV to know that walk-in showers were the latest craze so he removed the bathtub in the master bath and put in a walk-in shower. Unfortunately, the tub hadn't been positioned at the back of the bath so he could increase the size. Now the shower was more or less unusable - too narrow for a walk-in. It occurred to me that it would take as much money to fix his flip as he'd probably spent to make this mess and he'd almost doubled the price of the house.

With the market the way it is I would think you would have to be prepared to wait for a sale. I would love to pick out the stuff but to invest forget it! Also what about the quality of work seems like stuff is done so fast wonder how good it is!

I've seen flips in varying quality. A flip is not always done on the cheap. Just depends on the target market.

Looks like my FOX "Flip Story" disappeared. BTW, is A&E owned by HGTV?

My baby brother has been flipping houses for a living for about 15 years, and he does not do it on the cheap. He has a marketing degree, a real estate license, and a class A contractor's license. He always looks for the worst house in the best neighborhood, he works with an architect, and he doesn't use outside financing. By using his own money, he doesn't have the pressure of mortgage payments, so he takes as along as it takes to do the house right. He usually has at least three houses going at once, all at different stages, and subs out all of the work to people that he knows and trusts. He also has the ability to do any of the different trades' work himself if need be. He does a great job of getting the neighbors excited about his projects, and on several occassions, he has had buyers ready and wating for a house, just by word of mouth. He says that his biggest asset is his reputation, and he never does anything to compromise it. He makes a very good living at it, and did I mention - he's single......

We have both flipped homes and most rcently bought a flip home for ourselves. The flips we did were in NYC, then we decided to buy a home for ourselves in Miami. Looked at everything, most needed some renovations and we didn't have the time to put in. I like to move into a house that has everything done!!! Finally we found a home that was perfect for us. Kohler sinks, Miele appliances, granite, custom cherry cabinets, Natural stone bathrooms, Brazilian cherry floors...all the upgrades i need. The two guys who did all the work, one a designer, one a contractor have actually done 4 homes on the same block...all beautiful. They stand by their work and even came over to help when the pool contractor was designing the pool!! I also know where to find them if anything goes wrong.... 2 doors down renovating another home!!!

aggiearchi and jojo2be, you are giving good examples of quality flips. I'm glad you are correcting the thought that flip means "cheap weekend special".
Only thing I question aggiearchi, time is money, paying cash still cuts into the time value of money for an empty house. I paid cash for my flip, but it meant not getting a return on my investment until it was sold, can't let it sit for long.
Oh, and I wonder, does your brother like being called "baby brother" ?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Meischa,

That is pretty much what we did. We bought a bank repo that had a partial remodel already done. We are living in it and are finishing the work and in some cases redoing some.

We built a new house last year with the intentions of living in it for a year or two, then selling it. That is the plan for this house. WE sold the new house...so we plan to live here a year or two then sell.

When we "do" a home, we tend to do it as if we are going to live in it. The people that bought our new house said they had looked at over 100 homes and as soon as they walked into our new house, they KNEW the house was for them...

Sounds like the last three really know what they are doing if I was to buy a flip I would buy it from you guys. I especially like the Baby brother flip! He seems like a nice guy! Those guys are hard to find! Anyone here looking he seems like a great find!

I recently visited a former home that obviously had been flipped. I couldn't believe some of the changes that had been made. In the main entryway, all the hardwood flooring had been ripped out and tiles laid in a diamond pattern. They alternated between yellow and white and extended into the kitchen. I know the vinyl flooring that was originally in the kitchen needed replacing but why not extend the hardwood flooring into the kitchen? Then this person decided to have central air conditioning installed. It made little sense because this is in a part of the country where it rarely gets hot enough to even need an air conditioner. Before we bought that house, we had lived in an apartment that had air condioning. We never once turned it on and so decided not to have it installed at the house when we bought it. Now there's a big ugly unit that takes up much of the side yard. There was no attempt to conceal it with bushes or even decorative fencing. Then a deck was built off the back door. The house has a small level area in the back yard with a retaining wall at the back that holds up the rest of the yard, which slopes upward. The deck now fills up nearly the entire area. It blocks out light to two basement windows, which makes the basement much darker. There are no railings even though the deck itself is at least 15 inches off the ground. What's worse is that it is pretty much useless. People can't keep lawn furniture on it because it will blow right off when frequent strong winds occur. We used to keep our grill in the garage because it kept blowing into our neighbor's yard. Then that person failed to notice that the area is prone to drainage problems so now the deck slopes badly to one side. In building that deck, the flipper destroyed the sprinkler system we had and now the lawn looks terrible. Based on what I saw with this house, I would not buy a house from a flipper. I know there are some good ones but a lot of them only seem to be doing it for the money and don't really care about quality or workmanship.