Although the housing market crash is well behind us, the lessons it taught us are still fresh: flip quickly, flip cheaply, and always research the local real estate market thoroughly before making any significant investment. As such, it may be wiser to take an early offer even if it’s not quite what you were looking for, and that can be especially true if you’re flipping a house at the low end of the market.
Play To Local Tastes
You can get a good sense of national and global interior design trends by doing research on the internet, but that should only be a start. Different regions and even different neighborhoods often have specific preferences, and what’s suitable for a Southwestern city may be completely out of place along the Atlantic Coast. You can investigate local preferences by interviewing construction companies, visiting open houses, and speaking with real estate agents.
Stay Within Your Market Sector
Granite countertops and hardwood kitchen floors have universal appeal, but that appeal will be wasted if your upgrades wind up making a one-story house too pricy for the kind of family who would be interested in such a home. While you may be looking to make a big profit, home buyers are looking for a big bargain, and if you want to flip a house quickly you should aim for the sweet spot where your two interests meet rather than shooting for the highest possible price.
Remember Curb Appeal
The reason everyone says “don’t judge a book by its cover” is because judging books by their covers is exactly what everyone does. First impressions count for a lot, and the first impression of a house is its curb appeal and the state of its front yard. While the interior and backyard quality certainly count for a lot, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle if the prospective buyers wrinkle their nose at an overgrown yard or a grimy façade before heading inside.
While the goal of any real estate flipping business is to make money by putting more attractive homes on the market, you should remember that you won’t see any profit if you make the home too unattainably expensive. As such, it may be better to keep your improvements inexpensive both to boost your margins and to keep the asking price within the means of interested homebuyers.