My fiancée and I are beginning to look for a home and we’ve run into one item that we don’t really see 100% eye to eye on.
We have looked at some open houses and have seen a few with our agent and my future better half tends to go a bit gaga for some renovation/flip tropes that I am much less excited by (stainless appliances, granite/quartz counters, crown molding, new cheap cabinets, fresh paint etc).
I don’t have any desire to buy a place that needs to be gutted to the studs, but I am fairly handy and don’t mind doing finish carpentry and paint work myself, and am looking forward to the sweat equity you can gain from those projects.
My concern with this is that I view flips fairly dubiously (even when done well) because of the profit motive. I believe very strongly in aligning incentives and even honest people will subtly (or not so subtly) make decisions in a short-term profit driven way. In short, anything with a positive ROI has been done, and while the work might be good, it’s all been done by someone who won’t be living in the house in 5-10 years (when poor work really begins to show).
In my mind, the best possible outcome from a flip is still not great. You’ve paid to turn a rundown home into a nice, safe place to live and have also paid for the profits + 6-12 months of interest on a construction loan.
Am I wrong in my thinking here? If not, what are some ways you have helped a SO see past the shiny gadgets when buying a home?