Over the past few days I've been on the house hunt with a great young couple relocating to Fort Belvoir this summer. Based on their price range we have been concentrating on properties in the Woodbridge area of Prince William County. The more listings we pulled, the more "flips" we found and a tour of ten of those over two days found some surprising differences.
Obviously the goal of a flip is to get a home ready, on the market and sold as quickly as possible. A few of the properties we toured are owned by the same investment group and you could instantly tell their style. The same paint color, the same appliances, the same carpet, I think you get the picture. We called them the Stepford Houses after the movie Stepford Wives. They looked good but when you started examining the details you found a number of flaws.
Some of them were little details. Missing molding around the engineered flooring, cheap fixtures and bad caulking in the bathrooms start to become more noticeable as you tour more homes. Very few of the properties had spent time on the outside of the property. Overgrown bushes, messy yards, dirty decks and leaning fences were common.
Then there were the homes that tried to WOW you with a kitchen that is straight out of HGTV (okay the Ikea showroom). Except as you look around the house you find they left the 1980's wooden stair railings, the 1990's wall mirrors in the hallways and ceiling fans that are covered with at least 5 years of dust. Painting seems to be the biggest issue that flippers seem to have. Certainly it is cheaper and easier to get out the spray gun and go to town. But painting over every electric outlet and light switch, is just sloppy work and devalues anything else you might have done.
The house we found and have a ratified contract on wasn't the fanciest of the bunch but the contractor had done a reasonable job on the both the inside and the outside of the home. It doesn't have granite and stainless steel appliances but it does have a power washed deck and a new fence! It does have new light fixtures that match and the paint job wasn't slapped on with the cheapest paint they could find. Will we find a few issues during the home inspection? I can see tell that they forget the GFCI switches in the kitchen and bathrooms during the remodel but overall this flipper spent money wisely. They didn't try to WOW you with a kitchen that doesn't fit with the style of the home or take the cheap way out with a spray gun. They took care of both the inside and the outside of the home and made it fit with the rest of the neighborhood.
So house flippers step back and take a look at your properties before you put them on the market. Just like every seller you need to take a look at your investment through a buyer's eye. The details matter and can be more important than the WOW factor when it comes to getting your home sold.
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Helping buyers & sellers throughout Northern Virginia. Specializing in support for military relocations including Fort Belvoir, Quantico, Pentagon and Military District of Washington.
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Great points, Cindy. "The Stepford Houses" -- too funny. I find it disheartening to see homes where people (flippers and also regular homeowners) have put money into all the wrong places. What a waste! You get the sense that someone tried something...but that it was either a shoddy job because someone didn't know what they were doing or they had to skip half of what was planned because they ran out of money. A good stager can help guide these efforts to get great results...on budget...whether it's for a homeowner or an investment company.
So true Cindy! It is important to put some "TLC" back into those fixer uppers before listing them on the market. There are quite a few "frist time home buyers" out looking for their dream home and if they walk into a home that is not...so great...they will keep looking!
Yes, Yes.... Do not forget the little things to make a home sell faster. Thanks for a great post.
Glad you could help your clients find the home with the best true value. Recently saw a home that had the ceiling retextured, along with the crown moulding. How could they not know better?
Good post!
Very good advice. . . having currently preparing one for the market
Attention to detail, it is not all the fancy stuff tha make a house a home. Thanks for the post and I want to reblog it.
Cindy, it's so easy to be drawn in by a Wow kitchen and baths. But you're right about the need to check out the other details.
This is a good post - I wonder if you saw houses done by a contractor/flipper that works in the McLean area - same granite, floors, and bath tiles, etc. Predictable but fun.
This young couple clearly benefited from your years of experience and wisdom. They may not have noticed many of these little shortcuts. Hats off on finding them a good one and getting them under contract. Smooth sailing with the finale, Cindy!
Cindy - One of my recent buyers was turned off by a flipped home with a spray gun paint job. Even with everything freshly painted, she said it gave her a false sense of peace of mind.
Tanya-poor workmanship shows very clearly in a number of these projects. A recent home inspection on a flip with another buyer found more home inspection and walk-through items than I have had on any regular sale this year.
Terrie-I've been in some where they bought it and put it back on the market without doing anything!
Terry-little details go along way. The flash grabs you when you walk in the door but the details will get you the offers.
Sara-oh that is a classic. Contractors with a spray gun are not always a good combination.
Charles-thanks for the reblog. I'm amazed at what flippers forget to do when putting a house on the market. The spray paint over all the electric outlets and light switches is just annoying!
Patricia-when we starting disecting one of the WOW kitchens we saw how poorly it was planned. Dead corners, fridge directly next to the stove and shallow cabinents. It looked great but would not function well.
Lise-there are a number of "groups" in our area that have purchased a dozen houses or more. They obviously have a team that goes in with a formula of updates to do. A 150K TH in Woodbridge doesn't need the same upgrades as a 1M house in McLean!
Irene-hopefully we will make it to closing without any issues. Home inspection next to see how good a job the contractor really did on the basics.
Carol-you can spot a spray gun house right away. Usually it is the quality of paint or perhaps it is the tell tale signs of lack of prep work.
Great advice. Over doing can be costly. Just ask one of my clients. The home is sooo beautiful but may not bring what they want since the comps are not there.