Buying and flipping investment properties is a great way to make extra, or even full time income, but a lot of home buyers don’t realize the potential to do the same thing with the home in which they live. As you can probably tell from other posts on my blog, I’m a huge fan of flipping personal homes for profit. Okay, I know for some of you, this concept conjures up horrifying images of living in the same, dilapidated, ugly home for years, and you’re probably wondering if it’s really worth the hassle. Well, in my opinion, the answer is a resounding “YES”!
The key here is buying a home that just needs some minor to moderate cosmetic work to make it look like a showpiece again. By all means, stay away from homes that need to be gutted and renovated from the studs up. Look for homes that desperately need new paint, both inside and out. Find homes that have ugly carpeting that could be replaced with gleaming, new hardwood. Atrocious landscaping? Great! A kitchen in need of a facelift, even a major one? That’s totally fine.
As I’ve written in other posts, my wife’s and my first home purchase was a cosmetic fixer that we ended up flipping. We were able to buy it for $20,000 under listing because of how ugly it was. We worked on it and hired other people to help us rehab it over the course of about a year and half, and we sold it for a great profit.
In my next few posts in this blog series, I’ll get into specifics about the improvements we made to our home. Click here to read the second post in this series.
If you’re considering selling your home in Northern Virginia, call me at 703-462-0700 – I’d be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis. This will give you a good idea of the fair market value of your Northern Virginia home.
If you’re looking to buy a home in Northern Virginia, I would love to help you in your search. I’m an experienced buyer agent who grew up in this area and knows the Northern Virginia real estate market very well. I’m very knowledgeable when it comes to contracts, and I’m a good negotiator who will work hard to get you the best possible deal.
Click here to search online for Northern Virginia homes.