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It isn’t as sexy as HGTV makes it look.
You hear the music drop when something goes bad on TV, and it is easy to say, “man that sucks.” It is a very different vibe when it is your money on the line and the contractor calls with those same issues on your house. The emotional highs and lows were much higher and lower than I anticipated. I have never written checks (and sent wires) for that much money before, it is INTENSE! While I can confidently say that I am proud of what we accomplished, it did not come without a few sleepless nights.
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Moms on maternity leave or raising children, enter at your own risk.
This is an awesome way to spend your time and teach your kids lessons about life. I would say I recommend waiting until after maternity leave, and maybe even longer until you are sleeping (and making pretty good decisions- can’t ask for too much clarity post childbirth). Breastfeeding with contractors at the house just added a small layer of complexity I wasn’t really thinking about in the haze of motherhood when we bought the house. But, thank you to my sweet Eloise, for making me crazy enough to take this plunge!
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A good contractor is critical.
There are many ways to be good, and to find a contractor good in all the ways is like finding a unicorn. Especially in the market we have been experiencing the last decade, contractors are in demand. My dream contractor would know how to scope and estimate the job and build in risk contingencies so they don’t need to nickel and dime but don’t charge too much. My dream contractor would be an excellent communicator- which was one of the positives from this experience. Good communication on issues early in the process is really helpful to set clear expectations.
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Finding good contractors is hard (see #3).
The social proof from sites like Nextdoor and Angie’s list are important in vetting contractors. I could have done a better job with this, but I feel pretty good about my general contractor. Most of my other disciplines I got from recommendations or personal relationships, and all of those were great contractors.
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Don’t over do it.
At the beginning I had big aspirations of making this the best home a buyer could purchase. But it was still a 936 SF home. So while I wanted it perfect, paying for a new roof was not going to give me any returns or make any new buyer more drawn to it. Maybe the counters were a little fancy for this place, but the kitchen was the selling point of this home. Make it price appropriate and put your money where it matters.
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Expect everything to take longer and cost more.
I did a lot of homework. I listened to a podcast series that I found super helpful (ping me if you want to learn more). I downloaded spreadsheets to calculate costs, I researched contracts and lien waivers, I read and re-read and listed more just to learn what I could in the few short weeks we had to prepare. All that homework certainly helped set the foundation, but there were still bumps along the road. Home renovations (at least for the inexperienced like myself) are not the place for tranquility. You can expect to have problems at every turn. That was part of the fun in trouble shooting, but also part of the stress in wondering the downstream impacts of every issue and solution. For example, we should have just cut out the entire ceiling, redone the structural components and then redid all the drywall rather than patching in puzzle pieces that barely fit together.
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Do your homework during negotiations.
I thought I was doing well when I negotiated the price down because of inspection items when I bought the house. I got a few phone bids on the asbestos mitigation and the furnace work. Those turned out to be my biggest ticket items and were 5x what I was quoted. Yes 5x. Whoops. Get actual bids and delay negotiations if needed to ensure you have accurate numbers for that work. As one company said- if they are willing to give you a price over the phone without seeing it, you may want to question their work.
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Finding a project manager that complements your strengths brings great peace of mind.
I had a PM that was committed to the details. The trim looked perfect, the paint was flawless. I know myself and know I would not have had her patience. I had the big picture ideas of what to add to the exterior and how to solve the structural issues. She had the experience of how to get things done and the contacts to ask questions when needed.
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Make sure you can get to the house easily.
Plan to go over every day. This house was 5 min from our house, and I was there WAY more than I thought I would be. Especially as the house was listed and the work was done, I thought we would not be there as much, but we spent many hours over there turning on and off the sprinkler and moving it around.
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No risk, no reward.
We bought a house during the most unprecedented and unpredictable time in our economy at the beginning of the pandemic. It was scary and we almost walked a few hours before closing because of it. However, we took a risk. We made some money. We were paid to learn. The stress way higher than I expected, but in the end, I am proud of the product our team created and the home that the buyers get to live in.
Lessons Learned from our First Flip
