20 Steps on Rehabbing a Property
Author: Sherry Carlson
If you are new to flipping homes or just thinking about getting started and don’t know where to start, here are 20 steps to walk you through the process.
- Make sure you have insurance on the home and you turn on all the utilities.
- Thoroughly inspect the property identify all areas that need work. Should include the heating and air conditioner, plumbing, electrical system, roof, attic, any visible insulation, walls, ceiling, floors, windows, doors foundation and the basement. If you are not a contractor you can hire a home inspector. The cost of an inspection varies by the size and geographical location of the property.
- Take multiple pictures of home before, during and after construction.
- If there is a home for sale in your neighborhood make an appointment to view it. This is your competition and you want to make your home one step above that home.
- Create a rehab checklist that will include interior and exterior items.
- Create and stick to a budget. The budget should be itemized for each individual repair and if a repair exceeds your budget, you will need to make some changes to your checklist.
- Have a meeting with your contractor or line up your sub-contractors and meet with them in order to get bids. Remember to get 3 bids on all work.
- Award the bids to the contractor or to the sub-contractors. Get everything in writing including a start and finish date. When paying contractor or sub-contractors make sure you get a lien waiver. (A document from a contractor, subcontractor, supplier or other party holding a mechanic’s lien stating that they have been paid in full and waiving future lien rights to the disputed property.)
- Get all necessary permits. Could include installing new electrical wiring increasing the square footage of the property, installing a fence over 6 feet tall and anything that involves a public sewer line. Contractor can help you with the permits.
- Order all new material that will go into the home. Cabinets, countertop, carpet, tile, paint etc. Contractor can do this for you.
- Create a schedule and time for each sub-contractor to start and finish their job. Contractor can do this for you.
- Begin with demolition and trash removal. Remove any trash from the inside and outside of the property. Remove any items that are damaged or that you will be replacing. (i.e. flooring, cabinets, appliances, light fixtures, toilets, water heater etc.)
- Get home ready for the painter. On the outside if roof needs repair. Get that done to stop the roof from leaking into the home. Remove wallpaper patch walls. Get new hard surface floors put in. New baseboards installed and new doors delivered. So painter can paint.
- Have the interior of the home painted.
- While the painter is painting the home have a crew move to the outside to do repairs. Examples; fix fences, decks, etc. Get the exterior of the home ready to be painted.
- Have painter move to the outside and get the outside painted.
- When painter is finished with the inside put the home back together. Example install cabinets countertops hang doors appliances carpet goes in last.
- Clean house.
- Stage the home for selling. (Home staging is the act of preparing a private residence for the sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money. Staging techniques focus on improving a property’s appeal by transforming it into a welcoming, attractive product that anyone might want.) I like to stage the front room and kitchen and put towels and accessories in the bath room.
- Put house on the market for sale.