You want to rehab houses, but where do you start? We see the fix-and-flip “reality” shows that, somehow, manage to have no basis in reality. How hard can it be to buy a house, rehab it, sell it, and retire to a life of luxury on the French Riviera? On TV, it all happens in thirty or sixty minutes. Easy, right?

Rehabs fall into three basic categories:

 

  • personal use
  • rental
  • flipEach type carries a different level of risk. My recommendation for most people is to start by rehabbing a house for their own personal use. It carries the least amount of risk since you will not have the added carrying cost of a second property. If you live in the house while you are renovating it, you just have your regular living expenses.There are other advantages to living is a house while rehabbing it. You do not have the same time pressure. When you are rehabbing a property with the intention of flipping it, you are losing a little piece of your profit everyday. Holding costs are a ticking clock, time is money. When you experience a delay, you lose money. If the market makes a quick sale difficult, you lose money. The risks associated with flipping are enormous. The current real estate market conditions just make it worse.Make It Your Own

    When you are renovating a house with the intention of flipping, you need to keep the end user in mind. This usually means making conservative choices that will appeal to the widest number of potential buyers. If the house is going to be your residence you have the ability to incorporate your own personal taste. If you want purple walls with a pink ceiling, then go for it. Rehabbing a house for your own use allows you to create a home that fits the way you live.

Read more of this article by Richard Warren at: http://bit.ly/2vPZAEa