We all LOVE a good fixer-upper show and seeing a house go from junk to WOW in less than an hour… Well, it’s convinced more than a few of us to try our own hand at flipping homes.
What exactly IS a flip? It’s when someone purchases an older, outdated home, updates it, then puts the home back on the market in hopes to sell it for a profit.
Let’s say you go out home shopping yourself and you see a home that has just been flipped. How do you know if it’s a flip that was well done or one where the person doing it cut some corners?
First of all, there tend to be a few types of house flippers. One I like to refer to as the ‘lipstick on a pig’ home flipper. These people tend to do fresh paint and new carpet or flooring, so that home LOOKS and FEELS fresh, but they’ve done very little to make the home actually updated.
Of course, there are those who come in and do everything- updated wiring, plumbing, new roof, new appliances, and the whole nine yards.
Then there are those who go somewhere in the middle, picking and choosing what needs to be updated most.
It can be difficult at first glance to tell if a house has been properly and fully updated during a flip, but here are a couple tips to help you figure it out!
One thing to look at is the windows. New windows make a big impact on the home but are one of the more affordable updates to do. If you are looking at a recently flipped house that DOESN’T have updated or new windows and instead still has the 70’s metal windows or original wooden windows (in an older home), this can be a red flag. Why? Because if they skipped this, they likely haven’t updated far more expensive things like plumbing, furnace, or the AC.
Another update to look out for? Linoleum vs. vinyl. Vinyl lasts and wears far better than linoleum and linoleum is far cheaper, so if you encounter a home with linoleum, it’s another sign that the flipper is cutting costs.
Need more tips? Feel free to contact me and I can give you extra things to look for!
