​Make a bunch of money doing a flip! OK ok ok, easier said than done right?

Well let me try to help. You will need some money. The best way to get money is by doing a flip! So only for that reason, will I share how to do a flip! Remember I talk big.. but have NO clue what I am doing, but it is still fun and exciting ain’t it?

OK my silly little gringos! So many of you write me and say, Ohh mighty MSOOTKAUG, can you teach me how to be a good little investor?

And I say .. No you selfish mutt, go ask someone who cares! No not really ^_^

So Let me just share what I am currently doing.

So Thing are a bit hectic for me. Long story short. The house we bought is about 2 hours away, and I have no time to drive all the way there so often, my rental contract has expired and don’t want to renew it, so I decided to run a little experiment. Can you cheap out on rent and live in the house you are flipping.. rent free? So I figure, heck, this can be fun so let me try it and see how long i will last without a shower!

I see posts everywhere how to flip houses and then always regurgutated material follows.

How about something a bit more valuable. How about How I find off market properties, run the numbers, make an offer, sign the contract, find contractors, flip the house, list the house sell the house, take the money, fly to thailand, ad eat questionable but highly interessant food? Who does NOT want to follow that adventure?!

OK so lets begin.

We Bought A House In Stafford Springs CT

First, some background. This house is in Stafford Springs CT. Small house, 1008 sq ft, 1 acre of land.

The Numbers:

• Purchase price: $41K
• Cost of Repairs: $48K
• ARV: $160K-$170K
• Estimated profits: $40K
• Project Duration: 35 days

How We Bought This House:

A good flip starts with a good purchase price. Well we did kind of a bad job here. We cut the numbers a bit too close. As long nothing goes wrong (yeah I know … what ever!). I won’t go into too much detail here so I will just list the steps.

1. Seller Finds Us Online

We have the best real estate website in the world, because fairies did our SEO. Enough said! Needless to say we get many leads so sooner than later a good lead always falls in our laps. So one did!

2. We Do Our Due Diligence

I sent my agent this information and she started working on the comps:

This is what happens when you have solid agent seducing skillsz homie! She (because all agents are female…) is awesome!

3. We Make Our Best Offer

Here is where we differ significantly from other investors. Most if not all investors will low ball the sellers. We just give our highest and best offers the first time, every time.And don’t you dare stealing this. This is our slogan.

“Our Highest And Best Offer, The First Time, Every Time!”

Awesome, I know!!

Now we have the ARV and a repair quote. After facturing in holding cost, insurance on the house selling costs, agent fees we can now make a great offer. We make this a very simple process to be honest. We just assume that al the costs involved with selling a house is 10% of the ARV. So for this case, if we sold the house for $170,000 after the repairs the selling cost would be $17,000. This includes realtor commissions.

4. Sign Contract & Close Escrow

We often get our offers accepted as we do give amazing offers, and we closed ASAP. This concludes the buying process and now we are ready to put on our flipping hats!

How We Flip This House

Before getting too excited, calm down buttercup! We need a plan of action! (I will assume you have a good contractor).

• Get A Solid Contact
• Divide The Scope Of Work Into several phases
• Set your deadline
• Set Up Payment agreements With Contractor For Each Phase
• Set A Starting Date IN WRITING
• Set A Finish Date IN WRITING
• Sign Lien Waiver Form BEFORE submitting payment for EVERYONE that worked on the house!
• Pay them suckers!

Phase 1: Demo/Interior Framing layout walls and rooms. [10 days]

• Demo whole house/clean up interior
• Expand walkway between living room to eating are by 3 feet (install new header)
• Frame up new laundry area, frame bedroom wall
• Frame up new patio sliding rough opening and install new sliding patio door
• Fix water damage floor in hallway
• Tile bathroom floor and walls
• Install rough electrical throughout house.
• Install rough plumbing throughout house.
• Install insulation and drywall sheetrock
• Measure windows/door. Place order for items

*Material cost of this section: Seven Thousand Dollars. $7,000,-

Phase 2: Roofing/Exterior Windows and doors. [5 days]

• Close up external side door between living room and kitchen, patch siding, patch wall
• Replace windows, replace front entry door, power wash house/deck
• Restoration of vinyl siding which includes power washing and replace any missing pieces of siding.

*Material cost of this section: Eight Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty-four Dollars. $8,964,-

Phase 3: Interior paint/ Install kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. [5 days]

• Install bathroom vanities, toilets, sinks, tubs.
• Install hardwood flooring, Install baseboard heating, electrical, and plumbing.

*Material cost of this section: Eight Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty-four Dollars. $8,964.-

Phase 4: Flooring and other… Stuff! [5 days]

• Final installation of lighting fixtures and electrical plates.
• Final hardware of doors and cabinets which includes knobs, hinges, plates.
• Interior trim work.

*Material cost of this section: One Thousand Two Hundred Dollars. $1,200.-

Don’t forget the payment plan. This is important to avoid issues with contractors! (see above in green text)

We are set! Let’s Flip This House

OK are we doing this or what!? Let’s flip this friggin house!

… So I moved in!

So I moved in!

My office!

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Day 1: Monday May 14, 2018 -The As Is Condition.

Not much was done but still an important task. Contractors and subs walked the house and got a visual. They pretty much made sure what size dumpster we needed.

Tasks:

• Ordered Dumpster

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Day 2: Tuesday May 15 2018 – Subs come in to evaluate

Dumpster arrived. These Mexi’s are awesome. Best contractors we ever had. I am keeping them! Got here early, started clearing the place.Filled a 30 yard dumpster in half a day!

Day 3: Wednesday May 16 2018 – Here come the issues…

Washer and Dryer were in the kitchen.. whaaaaaaa?? So that wouldn’t fly. We are building a laundry/ water heater/pantry section which just has a better overall flow of the house.

Tasks:

• Demo Bathroom
• Framing
• Closing a room back up

Day 4: Thursday May 17 2018 – Here come the issues…

Of course something always goes wrong &$(@@^%)#! Damn plumbing.

Tasks:

• Finishing framing
• Put in Front Door
• Closing side door
• Cutting out back door
• Widening kitchen entry
• Putting in front door.

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Day 5: Friday May 18 2018 – Checking Out The Plumbing

The French door arrived. What a beauty.Time to deal with the dip in the floor. We removed the plywood flooring and

Tasks:

• Opening Floors To Access And Evaluate Plumbing
• Put in Back French Door
• Closing side door

This is what I love most about flipping. You come across a POS house and you get to design it and make it look amazing with clever choices and finishes. The challenge is to remain in budget which makes it a lot of fun. You look at the house and then come up with improvements/changes, that would fit that particular house feel and flow. Just a simple change like a back door completely changed the feel of the house. I think any buyer that walks in will absolutely LOVE the feel and the light that suddenly rushes into the house!

We knew from our first walk through that the floors had some issues where the well pump was. We figured it was leaking and the floor in that corner gave in.

However when we opened it all up…. this is what we found.

They used irrigation pipes to plumb the kitchen. For Pete’s sake!

But of course this is not all. Would have been too easy!

None of the plumbing in the bathroom was connected. So the poopies just dropped to the floor under the house. And due to the vapor barrier, (a huge plastic sheet) all the little (and not so little ) poopies stayed nice moist and fresh!

And and AND,

They used a baseboard electrical heater under the house (I guess to keep the pipes from freezing?) and powered it with an extension cord.

How awesome is that!

Now we are waiting for a new quote from the plumber to fix it all…

This concludes the first week (5 days) of our rehab. Not bad really. Excited and lots of fun… thus far…

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Day 6: Monday May 21 2018 – Ordering Windows

It’s late and I am tired, and still have to work on my site’s SEO (which I have been neglecting since I started this fip, damn it) so I will just get straight to the point with minimal fluff.

Just ordering windows. How boring!

Tasks:

• Measuring Windows
• Order Windows

Day 7: Tuesday May 22 2018 – Fix Floor Joists

When we first looked at the house we noticed the floors at one spot were sagging. So let’s fix it shall we?

Tasks:

• Fix Bending beams

Day 8: Wednesday May 23 2018 – Time to mow again…

Work is still halted (for the most part). We need a plumber and electrician to come in to start and finish rough work. Because plumbing was more involved than we had expected (before opening the floors), we needed to have a new quote. Our original plumber now quoted us double. Shove it up your butt buddy! However we are now stuck without a plumber and we are scrambling to get more plumbers to give us a quote.

As this is in progress I decided to give the landscape tasks some attention. Tried over 15 companies to quote me on the work that needs to be done but everyone is at least 6 to 8 weeks out. That is not acceptable. I got 3 companies to give me a quote however, but they don’t do mowing. Everyone is too busy. They did quote me for weed removal, lawn treatment and mulching. They offered to plant flowers but they advised me to get the flowers myself. Even so they are still few weeks out. The quote was $560,- for it all. (We are also working on an other house with a much larger yard nd that quote was for $900,-). Nore on that house in an other blog adventure soon!

Tasks:

• Buying lawn mower
• Mow the lawn
• Buying Windows
• Got Quote for The Driveway

Day 9: Thursday May 24 2018 – Moving on

Still no plumber in sight. So we just fixed the roof…

Tasks:

• Roof Repair
• Removing popcorn ceiling
• Siding finishes of the doors

Day 10: Friday May 25 2018 – No More Popcorn Ceiling.

We gave up on scraping off the popcorn ceiling. We decided to just sheetrock over it. Shhhht

Tasks:

• Buy Sheetrock
• Install Exterior light mounts
• Install Sheetrock

Day 11: Monday May 28 2018 – No one shows up..

Found a grill in the shed.. how convenient!!, Stole a cob of corn from some farmer, and chased down a raccoon and ripped a piece off of the damn critter! Happy Memorial day everyone! This is what you do when you have no family or friends in the USA! Steak is my best friend anyways!

Day 12: Tuesday May 29 2018 – Helloooo Hloooo… looooo

ECHOOOOO choooo.. ooo

Well ****.. whats going on.. no one shows up again

Day 13:Wednesday May 30 2018 – Finally, there you are…

Damn it Rocky, on’t scare me like that…

Well it seems they had to bring mom to hospital, and that took several days. I won’t go into detail as this is personal family stuff.. so fine! We are almost half way into this flip and it is starting to warm up more now. It is time to think about curb appeal. We need to landscape. Nothing like a lush green front lawn and some color pops with pretty flowers. Laying down sod is super expensive and we have some time. Why not seed the lawn in? yes, let’s!

Well first we need to prep the yard. Weed everywhere. I tried the weed killer granules.. you know the one where you have to use the scotts spreader to apply it. That stuff just doesnt work (or works way too slowly) and is so expensive. So I placed a craigslist ad and offred a bit of compensation for anyone to remove the weed. Several people replied. I picked one lucky one and voila. Yarded tilled effortlessly (on my end at least).

Meanwhile in the batcave, Mr. Rocky started to do ome sheet rocking. As long as we keep o doing work, we are ok while we wait and hope for a plumber to come along!

Tasks:

• Fixing ceiling
• Yard work.
• Mowed the lawn
• Sheet rocking

Day 14: Thursday May 31 2018 – No one shows up..

Day 15: Friday June 1 2018 – Still no one.

OK I get it, personal issues to attend to, but this has to stop. had a firm word with my GC. GC already had a talk to Mr. Rocky, and things seemed to be sorted out….

Lets see what happens Monday. We are still ahead of schedule but there is no reason to relax as we still need to find a plumber to start the plumbing. Without plumbing and electrical we are sitting ducks. Work can not continue

Day 16: Monday June 4 2018 – Washing the house

Today was a continuous drizzle. Rocky was planning to do some nudding but it was just a chilly wet day so he decided to go get his pressure washer and wash the house and the deck. Like new I tells ya! While they are playing in the rain I decided to get my cheerleading routine on. Look t me go with the hey pom poms! Am I sexy or what! Well let me elaborate a bit on this one. After the dude finished tilling he was supposed to clean and rake the yard (a ***** of a job omg!) but he had to go. He did a good job tilling so I let it go. Paid him and I finished the job. Its tougher than you think! I spent 5 hours comping the yard leveling it all out and turning the clumps of dirt into sand and smooth it all out! After that I used a spreader to spread the grass seed and then finished it al up with a layer of hey!

There you have it. Clean house, clean deck and seeded front yard.

Tasks:

• Fixing ceiling
• Yard work.
• Sheet rocking

See the difference? Front face clean side face dirty stinky and smelly, just like me!

And my job was the yard!

And finally, me as a cheerleader:

Day 17: Tuesday June 5 2018 – Back to sheetrock

We are back at it full time. Trying to do whatever work we can, so we do not fall behind due to missing plumber. Today we are doing ceiling sheetrock and other odd ends. I keep busy landscaping as well.

Tasks:

• Fixing ceiling
• Yard work.
• Sheet rocking

Day 18: Wednesday June 6 2018 – Mudding where we can

We really need to get a plumber in here. Time is starting to run out. We have had several plumbers come in but all gave us ridiculous quotes and they couldn’t start soon enough. We now have a few more to hear back from…

Tasks:

• Fixing ceiling
• Yard work.
• Sheet rocking

Day 19: Thursday June 7 2018 – FINALLY Windows are coming in!!

Good news everyone. The bay window replacement is in. And hopefully the other windows will be in tomorrow. So here is the spiffy: In our original budget we wanted to fix the od bay window as replacing it would be super costly. Sadly after we tried to fix it we encountered it was not fixable. It was rotten all the way to the core! We still didn’t want to buy a new bay window, so we decided to replace that bay window with a flat window and call it a day!

Tasks:

• Putting in Bay Window Replacement
• Fixing and replacing siding
• Odd ends

Out with the old, In with the new.

Day 20: Friday June 8 2018 – FINALLY More Windows !

The other windows came in. Today we spend the day putting windows in and starting the trim work!

Tasks:

• Putting in windows
• Trim
• Do something bout the lawn!

Still no grass damn it!!

Day 21: Friday June 9 2018 – Stare at the grass seed as photons emitted from your eyeballs most likely will aid it grow!

Just pretending I am a good guy and donate some cans. I am evil I tell you. Don’t let this fool you!

Tasks:

• Putting in windows
• Trim
• Stare at the grass seed as photons emitted from your eyeballs most likely will aid it grow!

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Day 24: Tuesday June 12 2018 – Oh My Friggin Lawd It WORKED!!!!!!

I named them. BP Meet George (the small one all the way to the right), Winston, and Churchill, I named these 2 because they are twins. It is creepy how much alike they look, then you have Charles, Jackson and Pete, and Wilma and..

Oh yeah and some wall prep

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Day 25: Wednesday June 13 2018 – Boring stuffs.. Yawns

wall prep for paint. Mudding

Tasks:

• Mudding
• Taping
• Yawning

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Day 26: Thursday June 14 2018 –More Staring At The Grass For Super Fast Growth… And Plumbing

wall prep for paint. Mudding

Tasks:

• Yard staredown
• Plumbing

Day 26: Thursday June 14 2018 –More Staring At The Grass For Super Fast Growth… And Plumbing

wall prep for paint. Mudding

Tasks:

• Yard staredown
• Plumbing