First house flip! Gimme your best tips

[CharChar]

I just had an offer accepted on a home that some family members and I are going to flip and sell. Its a lovely home and most rooms need very little work. The kitchen, however, will need to be completely redone. There is a small formal dining room which then leads to the very small, closed off, galley kitchen. We are going to open it up and make it more of an eat-in kitchen. But what I'm wondering is if anyone who has this kind of experience could make recommendations on brands and products, money-saving tips, maybe even planning and design strategies? I'll be walking through the home again later to take measurements, pics and notes. After that I'll be planning trips to Ikea, Menards, etc. to get an idea of what kind of products I want to use. (Although I will bargain shop on CL and other discount places when I can). The home was built around 1939 and has some lovely built-in cabinetry in the hall and dining areas. I'd like to mix these features with a modern kitchen. I love the look of gray slate floors, cement countertops and floating top shelves. So that's kinda what I'm going for.

Anything else you can think of that might help a first time flipper would be much appreciated!

[arebelspy]

Get familiar with your competition to see what level of rehab you should do - too little and it won't sell, too much and you'll lose your profit.

The rehab required depends on the market.

Start reading sites like www.123flip.com to learn more about the nuts and bolts of rehabbing.

[CharChar]

Well there's my reading for the rest of the month! Looks like a great site. Thanks :)

[socalwkr]

If you are flipping you might want to steer away from concrete counters, a lot of gray and just go with a more neutral granite that has widespread appeal.  Same with a lot of open shelving.  If it is a small kitchen they might need all the cabinet space available.  Just my two cents though!

[CharChar]

Thanks. We are going to have to play around with how we can rearrange everything. Depending on that, I might not do any floating shelving. I just meant that I like that look and feel and would like to incorporate some modern features like that into the home. And on the gray, I would definitely make sure it was not too over the top. But again, these are just some of the designs I've seen that I like. I plan on exploring other styles before making final design decisions. I REALL REALLY don't like granite counters though. I know its not for me but I will still try to avoid them if I can! Solid colors and butcher blocks can look just as fancy. One other note, the homes surrounding this one have more modern features. I'm hoping to find an open house in the same neighborhood to attend to get an idea of what styles are used inside the surrounding homes.

[MikeBear]

I just had an offer accepted on a home that some family members and I are going to flip and sell. Its a lovely home and most rooms need very little work. The kitchen, however, will need to be completely redone. There is a small formal dining room which then leads to the very small, closed off, galley kitchen. We are going to open it up and make it more of an eat-in kitchen. But what I'm wondering is if anyone who has this kind of experience could make recommendations on brands and products, money-saving tips, maybe even planning and design strategies? I'll be walking through the home again later to take measurements, pics and notes. After that I'll be planning trips to Ikea, Menards, etc. to get an idea of what kind of products I want to use. (Although I will bargain shop on CL and other discount places when I can). The home was built around 1939 and has some lovely built-in cabinetry in the hall and dining areas. I'd like to mix these features with a modern kitchen. I love the look of gray slate floors, cement countertops and floating top shelves. So that's kinda what I'm going for.

Anything else you can think of that might help a first time flipper would be much appreciated!

Dealing with family on this? My best "tip" is to put EVERYTHING in writing, and make sure all the family members agree.

This is right up there with the rule: "NEVER loan a family member money".

[lpep]

There are lots of good ideas for re-doing kitchens on here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/categories/kitchen

They have "renovation diaries" where the budget gets broken down. Common thread: it costs more than you think :)

Good luck!

[CharChar]

Thanks everyone! Yes I am working with family. We have an LLC through which we bought a duplex that we renovated and rented out. We are doing everything under the family business to reduce risk. I took the initiative to find a flip and sell home because its something I've always wanted to try. If we are not successful, it will at least be a learning experience. You gotta start somewhere!

I appreciate everyone's input. I'm loving the websites you guys are recommending!

[so.mpls]

http://imgur.com/gallery/ysuWO

Here is a diy countertop project that I have bookmarked, because it's pretty cheap and looks really nice imo.  Might be something to consider and should save some $ over granite or cement.

[CharChar]

Love it! Thank you. I'd love if anyone else had some good DIY ideas. Here's another question...We JUST got an IKEA where I live so I'm not too familiar with it. Anyone buy kitchen products like cabinets and countertops there? Do they have different levels of product quality?

[rocksinmyhead]

I know this is totally not helpful but just wanted to say I'm with ya on the granite. We will probably buy a house in the next few years, so I peruse the listings from time to time and I see this shit everywhere (and then they totally overprice the house to go with it). I don't know exactly what type of house you have, but I think it looks so damn stupid when a cute little 1200 sf 1940 house has this granite-countertop, mosaic-tile, totally 2014 kitchen dropped into it. And it's going to look extra stupid in 5-10 years. I LOVE butcher block though. But I have no idea how many other potential buyers feel the same, or if 90% of people really do love granite.

Anyway, good luck!! :)

[CharChar]

@rocksinmyhead Totally! Granite is supposedly "going out of style". I've heard that several times. But I have never liked that look. I do also LOVE the butcher block counters though. My home is over 1300 sq. ft, built around 1935, and has beautiful arch ways throughout the home. It's very intimidating trying to come up with design ideas for the first time. One thing I know for sure is that I'm going to keep it simple, with clean lines and obviously neutral colors. I'll see if I can post a few pics...

[CharChar]

Ok so I'm only able to get a pic of the exterior of the home but at least you can see the style I'm dealing with. I'll add pics of the kitchen if/when I can.

[v10viperbox]

Love it! Thank you. I'd love if anyone else had some good DIY ideas. Here's another question...We JUST got an IKEA where I live so I'm not too familiar with it. Anyone buy kitchen products like cabinets and countertops there? Do they have different levels of product quality?

Research your market like crazy. Never be the most expensive or renovated home a neighborhood. The number one mistake is over investing in the rehab to levels beyond what the neighborhood will support. You do not make your money on sale, you make your money on a good purchase. You should be able to say with 95% certainty what it is going to go for when you are done. REmeber taxes eat into profits, real estate agents eat into profit, title issue you guessed it eat into profits. 

First do EVERYTHNIG that you can yourself. Demo/Painting get good. Never rip the kitchen out until you get the cab's in. NEVER trust your cab maker, though IKea always has everything in stock. I have a small group of all around guys that can do anything from drywall to kitchen installs that I pay by the hour. they love it, work on the weekends when they want the cash if not it gets passed onto the next in the list. This is only for use when time to market is important.

The IKEA cabinets blanks are great. I use the cab's then do custom doors to save money all the time. Or if the house already has good base cabs veneer the cab fronts in something simple and neutral.  If you have a period house and you want to bring the kitchen up but not do granite you can do 12x12 granite tiles. The grout line goes a long way to keeping the feel of the house and if you are really thrifty like I am you buy leftover granite flooring tiles from on Craigslist for 1.00 SQF.  The last kitchen we did would have been ~5.6K in granite, we did it for ~340$ in used granite tiles and supplies for the float.

Current house has Ikea cabs throughout the kitchen, with a zebrawood veneer for 500$ in materials. A travertine floor from leftovers from a large hotel job and a backsplace made from copper sheet and new appliances from the scratch and dent sears I might be 5-6K into the kitchen and it will add almost 10% to the sale price of the house. It pas me back almost 100K for that 5-6K worth of work.

[CharChar]

I left some info out of my first post to keep it short. We will be doing all foreseeable work ourselves. My brother has his own business doing mostly flooring, but he has lots of experience with just about everything else as far as interior remodeling goes. His employee happens to be my SO, and he's got plenty of experience as well.
Thanks for the tip about saving money on the cabinets. I'll definitely benefit from that! I've done a LOT of research and my RE agent, who is also an investor and has flipped several homes, has been extremely helpful. She said exactly what you said about being the nicest house in the neighborhood. We added $10K to our expected remodeling costs as a buffer. In fact, all of our numbers have some sort of buffer.
At this point I am just trying to focus on choosing designs & colors, finding all the tools we'll need, and mentally preparing myself for a lot of hard work!

[so.mpls]

The exterior looks very nice. 

Keep us updated, I'm interested to see how this turns out!

[Weedy Acres]

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/

This is the best forum ever for kitchen remodeling.  Post your floor plan, ask design questions, lots of very experienced people to help you out.

[lpep]

Love it! Thank you. I'd love if anyone else had some good DIY ideas. Here's another question...We JUST got an IKEA where I live so I'm not too familiar with it. Anyone buy kitchen products like cabinets and countertops there? Do they have different levels of product quality?

See this article: http://www.thekitchn.com/ikea-is-changing-their-kitchen-system-akurum-to-be-replaced-by-sektion-210635

IKEA is discontinuing their current cabinet system and starting a new one in Feb. So parts for the current system will be hard to find after awhile, and the new one will probably be chaotic for awhile. This site has lots of love for and knowledge IKEA kitchens.

[CharChar]

Great thanks for the websites! I did notice that on the IKEA website and was curious about it. Ill look more into that. Here are some pictures of the kitchen I'll be remodeling...you can see it is very narrow and needs to be opened up. Behind the stove/fridge is the dining room, with built-ins on one end, windows on the opposite end, and then doorways to the kitchen and living room on the other 2 walls. Its definitely going to be a bit of a challenge.