House flipping is more popular than ever, with many people buying homes at low prices and flipping it for a much larger sale. It sounds a lot easier than it is, and requires a lot of research, time, and capital. It may look like a breeze on reality TV, but there are a lot of things that go into the purchase, renovation and sale of a home.

Flipping a home

Get Your Finances in Order

Before you think about looking for a home to buy, you need to have the financial stability to make the purchase. Traditional banks and lenders have tightened the reins on their lending processes, leading many real estate hopefuls to look elsewhere for financing. This is especially true in populous cities and states with intense real estate competition.  If you’re shopping for property in ever-popular California, you may need to pursue financing from Bakersfield hard money lenders; if you plan on purchasing in the expensive southern portion of the state, shop around for San Diego private money lenders.

After getting your finances in order, it is important to have realistic expectations and understand how house flipping works. The real money is made in your purchase of the home, not really in the flipping of the property. After you buy the home, you have to put a lot of money into the renovations (make sure to have plenty of capital set aside for the renovations). Buying a home at a low price is your best bet—when you buy cheap, you get a much larger return after flipping it.

Get an Inspection

Make sure to have an inspector do a complete survey of the property. This will cost a couple hundred dollars, but it could save you thousands down the line. From cracked foundations to insect infestations, a full inspection will give you a total rundown of everything wrong with the house before you sign that sale contract. If you notice cracked foundations you may hire professional foundation repair contractors.

Hire a Renovation Team

If you want to flip a house quickly, don’t both trying to do the work yourself—not unless you also happen to be a professional contractor with a full team of workers at your disposal. Hiring a contractor with a team can help you get everything done in a month; a project which might otherwise take you five months to finish. You can take care of some pretty worthwhile upgrades that potential buyers will take note of, like a new ac installation. Having a working ac is so essential that even recent air conditioning repair and maintenance that ensures they won’t have to deal with that for a long while is taken into account.

Sure, you might want to save money and maybe you’d rather not hire someone to do the work for you, but consider this: if you do it yourself, you won’t have the time or energy to look for your next house to flip. Additionally, exploring professional services such as Cladding Colour Transformation Services can not only save you time but also provide expertise in enhancing the exterior aesthetics of your property for a more appealing transformation.

Listing the Property

Once all of the renovations are done, you should list the property for below market value; homes that are listed higher than market value just won’t sell as quickly and having a house sitting on the markets for months and months will just lose you money. Since your goal in house flipping is to buy, renovate and sell as quickly as possible, you should list the home for cheaper than all of the other houses on the market. As the cheapest option, your house will theoretically blow away the competition—you will likely have several different offers in no time, which will encourage a bidding war. You might even get market value by the end of it all.

If you haven’t flipped a house before, you should probably enlist the help of a real estate agent. They know the system and will be able to market your home in ways that you can’t. Plus, people searching for a new home are far more trusting of an actual real estate agent than they are of an advertisement on Craigslist.