Rules of Renovation Reviews: Make Your Next House Flip Simple

How much of a perfectionist are you, on a scale from 1 to 10? If you’re at the higher end of the scale, you should learn how to flip a house in the simplest way as early as possible. Not every house needs to look perfect. Your houses should simply be functional, safe, and profitable. One way to overcome perfectionism is to set a goal of a certain average profit on a large number of flips. There’s an art to renovations, but you can only experience those great renovations when you practice hard-nosed business principles. Read on to learn our best strategies for how to flip a house while keeping it simple.

1. Don’t Always Plan on Extensive Remodeling

Most of your properties shouldn’t require too much renovation. Don’t plan on a massive overhaul of every house flip. About 80–90% of the time, try to pick houses that require only minor repairs.

Learn to be disciplined about this. Get a thorough inspection of each property, and add up the potential costs of repairs and renovations. Make decisions based solely on the numbers, referencing your own preset cost limits. Move on if the costs are too high, no matter how good a feeling you have about the property. If it takes a lot of inspections to find a few good house flips, that’s okay.

Move through them quickly, add up the numbers, and let the law of averages work for you.

You should only go into a larger renovation project about 10–20% of the time—if that—and only when the numbers are objectively telling you that there is massive profit potential in it. You should flip a lot of simple repair jobs for every one major renovation.

2. Plan on Short Time Horizons

Even when the potential profit on a big remodel is extremely exciting, pause. Think about how long the remodel work will actually take. Talk to your best contractors and get time estimates. If it’s going to take more than a few weeks, take your emotions out of it and seriously discuss with trusted advisors how volatile the market is.

We’ve seen many investors spend months working on a seemingly exciting flip, only for the market prices to drop so much that they couldn’t even break even. So, get to know the history and the potential future of your local market.

Most of your house flips should be quick. Think of your overall business more than about every single flip. Keep checking how close your yearly average profit is to your target profit.

3. Let Go of Perfection

Part of learning how to flip a house involves letting go of perfectionism. Remember, you personally are not your work. Your own worth isn’t tied up in how good every property looks. Be ready to sell houses that just look good enough.

At the same time, your reputation depends on the safety of each house and on keeping your promises. You should repair your house flips so they are functional and safe, as you would for your own family. You should also deliver exactly what you promised in your ads—if not more.

Build a reputation for your integrity and care for clients, but not on the beauty or artistry of every property. You might pull off a beautiful renovation once in a while—just don’t stake your business on that, because market prices and consumer demand can change and let you down.

Build a Principled House Flipping Business

Using the three principles above, you’ll be able to improve your house flipping business. Set your sights on a particular average profit, and don’t let perfectionism keep you away from that number. If you want to learn how to flip a house better and more principles to do so, register for a Rules of Renovation course near you today.

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