I admit it: I’m addicted to those house flipping shows on TLC and HGTV, in large part because I am a frustrated flipper wannabe.
I’m always amazed at how clueless some of these people are. “I bought this house for $160,000. I plan on spending $15,000 and hope to sell for $345,000 in eight weeks.” Are you kidding me?
It never turns out that way, of course, because these folks don’t know how much things cost or how much work is involved in a renovation. They tear out perfectly good walls, floors, and cabinets and skimp on the necessary repairs. And they never listen to the experts.
If I were to flip a house, I would like to think I could do it a lot better. One thing I would do is buy a membership in directbuy so I could get a lot of my supplies at manufacturer-direct prices. I would also do my homework, hire people I can trust, and closely supervise the job so as to avoid those nasty surprises. I would also try hard to be more realistic about the market and the amount of work involved.
There are a lot of jobs I could do myself; there are many others I would hire a subcontractor to do. I just don’t understand how these flippers fail to know themselves and their flips so consistently.
I want to know where these people get the cash to buy a 2nd home, and the cash to fix it up!
That’s probably why I want to do this, Colleen. If I could happily run over budget by $50 or 60K and cough up several $3500 mortgage payments like they do, I could certainly pay the bills I have now!
Haha! I always get frustrated at those shows too… I think I could do it better than them, at least I wouldn’t be dumb enough to think I can renovate my kitchen for $1500! In reality, I’d probably make all kinds of stupid mistakes. Not that it matters since I can’t afford a first house, much less a second one to flip!
There’s something very satisfying about being so much smarter than other people, don’t you think? Jerry Springer and Maury Povich sure understand that.