This post is from my super awesome wife, Melissa.
I handle the marketing, buying and rehabbing. She handles EVERYTHING else regarding the business… which includes the most important thing, selling the houses after they are fixed up.
She wanted to share some of her best tips in the getting our houses sold super fast and for at or above our asking price. Enjoy. 🙂
First, have you joined our private FlippingJunkie facebook group? Come network with us!
So you’ve bought your investment property and completed the rehab. Now to reap the rewards for all of your hard work–it’s time to list the property for sale! Over the years we have sold many houses, and I’d like to think that all of this experience has taught me a few things about how to do this quickly and effectively.
By using the following tips, we have had multiple offers on our rehabbed properties within the first two days of listing, for up to $10K OVER our original asking price! Here is how you can do it too…..
This is probably the most important thing. The home MUST be priced to sell. Double check comps in the neighborhood and make sure what you are asking is realistic. If you are buying the properties at the right price, then you can afford to do a bang-up job rehabbing and still sell for plenty of profit.
Everyone wins-the buyer gets a beautifully remodeled home for a great deal, and you are able to unload the property fast, for profit, allowing you to move on to the next deal.
Every time the contractor says the job is done, I show up at the property with my pen and notebook to do a final walk-through inspection. I’m sure he hates this, but it’s a necessity! I make notes on every single thing that needs to be done.
Ensure that there are light bulbs in all of the fixtures and that all of the switches are working. Check for any leaking fixtures, faucets, and toilets. Make sure the dishwasher, garbage disposal, and garage doors are in working order. Run the HVAC and make sure the filters have been replaced. Make sure all of the doors close properly.
Put yourself in a potential buyer’s shoes as you walk through the house and look for the little things that sometimes get overlooked. One of my pet peeves is sloppy paint work on trim and baseboards. In addition to any repairs, have the house cleaned from top to bottom by a professional. Potential buyers LOVE walking in to a clean, fresh smelling house.
Also make sure you have all of the windows cleaned, inside and out. Open up those blinds for showings and open houses and let plenty of natural light into the home.
I can not emphasize how important it is to do some sort of home staging, no matter how minimal. I wrote an entire “how to” post on this here. I have invested in a few critical pieces of staging furniture that I move from house to house.
I typically furnish the living area, dining and/or breakfast rooms, and the master bedroom. I found that these are the easiest to do, and make the biggest impact. My main bedroom set came from Salvation Army. I scored a living room set from Big Lots. Same for my breakfast room set. I use our old dining room table in some of the houses.
My biggest score lately came from a house we bought where the owner didn’t want to bother moving everything out–I gained a complete leather living room set with tables, another breakfast room set, and another bedroom set. I’m telling you this because you don’t have to go out and buy super fancy stuff. Find something with a clean design and fix it up. Use nice bedding.
Fill in any scratches with furniture paint pens, or if you are talented and have the time you can paint furniture to make it look new. You can check out my Pinterest Board for lots of staging ideas. Hang some fluffy towels in the bathroom. Set the table. Hang shower curtains. Use wall art. All of these little touches make the house feel more like a home.
People want to feel comfortable when they walk in. They want to envision themselves and their families making memories there.
I have learned that spending a little bit extra on the yard can also make a huge difference. Before we didn’t do much to the yard other than mowing. The houses looked great on the inside, but the outside was left looking a wee bit blah.
No matter how great your exterior, if the yard looks funky you’re going to have a problem. These days I always make sure to meet with our landscaper and make some sort of plan, even if it’s nothing too fancy, for the yard.
My plan usually includes trimming any trees (especially ones rubbing on the roof), and creating at least one large flower bed. And for heaven’s sake–stay away from the red mulch!!! Dark brown mulch makes a much better contrast in a flower bed and goes with pretty much any color you would imagine on a house.
Look at your rehab. Is there one (or maybe two) things that really stand out about your house? Be honest. When we finally stopped making all of our houses look like every other rehab, we found that our DOM dramatically decreased. The houses would always look fine, but they were so boring! All of that beige and brown and neutral paint.
No wonder it was taking longer to sell houses. This is the biggest thing we have embraced over the past couple of years and has made the most difference. When we quit painting cabinets white and stopped using Navajo White on the walls, things got so much more fun (ok, for me at least since I am the “artsy” one haha).
Don’t be afraid to use a little color. I’ve chosen a really nice gray-blue paint that has worked beautifully in our kitchens. We use more modern and interesting tiles for backsplashes and tub surrounds. These things don’t cost any extra, but by doing something different, you achieve better results. Buyers will come in after seeing ten other homes that look the same, and remember yours.
You want your property to be the one that stands out!!
I hope that you found these tips to be helpful, and will consider them when getting ready to put your next rehab on the market. I’d also love to hear any other suggestions that you may have (please share them in the comments below).
-Melissa Johnson
If you have a house you want to sell fast in Pensacola, FL, my friend Bill Allen can make you a fast cash offer. He and his team buy houses quickly and professional. You can find his website at We Buy Houses in Pensacola.
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Comments (33)
Great tips Melissa! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Justin!
Great post Melissa!! Awesome info here. I loved this article and will follow it closely on our current rehab. Thanks!
Thank you, Andrew! Hope the current rehab turns out well and sells FAST! 🙂
Excellent tips Melissa! Looking forward to my first rehab. I have been wholesaling or marketing for 1 year with no success as of yet. I recently completed studying for a real estate license in New York. I was wondering if actually getting my license would hurt or help my wholesaling business? I would rather be an investor than an agent I just wanted to learn more about the business. thank you.
Great tips!
I wanted to know if you and Danny can share some tips on working with title companies. What are some of the benefits and what are some of the cons (or which type of ones to stay away from)? Thanks again…
Ralph,
Thanks for the idea for another blog post. Quickly to answer your question, I would try to focus on a title company that is working with other investors already. Title companies are something that most investors are not usually hesitant to share. So ask other investors in your area who they recommend and/or use.
Perfect because I’m in San Antonio too! Hopefully you won’t be hesitant sharing 🙂
Its VERY important to ask them directly if they handle double closings. Their answer will tell you immediately if they are an “investor-friendly” title company or not. This is especially helpful for wholesalers. Otherwise look for another title company. But as Danny said, ask other investors and network, network, network at yor local REIA clubs and associations.
Thank I’m glad to know color is acceptable. Some people told me that everything had to be cookie cutter colors.
On kitchens, many women love lighter yellows as well. My personal fave is “sunshine Yellow”. Not quite pastel, yet not too bright either. A really nice color that does the job subtly.
Nice and Remarkable information provided here. I really like your article. Thank you for sharing!!
This blog is really informative – it shows how much work you do to make your profit. I have seen a couple of properties flipped for a huge profit, and wondered how it was done. One was my deceased step-father’s. His heirs sold the house for 80 K, the buyer brought in a dumpster, cleaned it out, and sold for $160K less than a month later. The new owner still had to do a total rehab. Another was a unit in my condo village – sold for $155K, then completely rehabbed (2 bed 1.5 bath townhouse), sold for $325, in about 120 days. They probably spent about $30K. I was mad when I heard the original sale price, thinking about what this would do to my home value, but was ecstatic to see the final sale price. So you folks are good for the neighborhood!
Joan,
Those sound like some pretty darn good deals! Sounds like you should be trying to go after some of those. 🙂
Excellent tips that should aid any flipper in getting top dollar for their home.
I love your article: great tips on walk through but I especially like your ideas about staging with used and found furniture. To your continued and fun success!!
I think most of these tips are applicable to any seller, not just rehabs. Really great information. Staging and using some color also makes photos look better, which get those potential buyers in the door.
Can’t agree more with home staging. People are always on the go these days and they want to know if a property is worth seeing before actually driving for a home inspection.
Staging a home is so very important. The writer clearly defines all of the important matters that need to be attended to when selling your home fast. I compiles a list similar to this with details that can help with selling the home after the repairs are done.
http://www.investorwize.com/the-top-ten-tips-for-selling-your-home-fast/
By the way you wife Mellissa is awesome. She clearly knows her stuff.
We use these same tips in our area. They work great. Adding one or two features that no one else has puts you at the front of the line for buyers.
Great article! I’m in the whole “sell your house fast” in El Dorado County industry and pricing has been my saving grace for getting rid of my properties quickly, as well as cleaning up the landscaping. I may need to look ore into home staging for some of those tougher properties. All in all, great article that gave me a few new ideas! Thanks
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the article. Great that you work to help people sell their house fast!
To cut to the chase, selling a rehab home can be very challenging as you are trying to sell a drab of a house, a house that was once tattered and yet you transformed it into something that is undeniably gorgeous and make sure it is marketable and profitable. This is the goal when you want to venture into selling rehab homes as a real estate investor.
My mom was thinking of selling her house to get a better place to live her empty-nester lifestyle in. She wants any tips that she can to make this an easier process. The tip about looking into spending a little more on your yard to add to the curb appeal would help her a lot.
Great. Glad it helped!
I like how you said to make sure you do a walk through before you buy a house. I am looking to buy a house this year. Thanks for the tips on selling and buying a home.
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