Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the investor agent podcast. On site with Zach. Zach, you finished up. This flip looks amazing. Take us through.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Let's go.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: So we got pretty much, you know, redid everything in here.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: The staging looks great. Do you stage all your flips?
[00:00:16] Speaker B: I do stage every flip, yes. Yeah, yeah. So I use a brand new one, staging for everyone. Recommend them to all my clients. They do an excellent job. It's always fabulous. Lots of compliments on the staging. It looks.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: It's always hard to know, are you going to, you know, is it. Is the investment worth it? From a sale price standpoint, it looks like this really helps the house show. Really nice, right?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Because there's a couple of reasons. I mean, I've seen houses without it, and then I've seen it with it, and I've used different stagers, and I've kind of gone through it and thought, man, I don't want to. I want to save 500 bucks. But you're definitely going to get 500 bucks.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Well, you're not staging this for 500. What is this? Yeah. What is the staging cost? About approximately.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: I'd say around 3,000. Yeah.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: And that's such a small amount for the sale price. So even if it drives the price up 1% or just helps itself faster.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Multiple offers. And then you gotta think, too, people are gonna go off the pictures.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: This is gonna give you the best pictures. Cause they're gonna fall in love with the pictures, Then the price is gonna draw them in. You got them in here. They fall in love with the house.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah. As soon as you walk in, it makes it feel like home, you know?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: And the vinyl floors came out great.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: What color do. Do you know what color you use on the walls? Do you have a specific color or.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Drift of mist? Actually?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah, drift of mist.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's actually the.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: He's giving all his trade secrets here.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: These are all my trade secrets, though.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: All right. All right. So the kitchen came out pretty good.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, I.
I like the kitchen a lot, actually.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: These were the. These were the cabinets.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, these actually were the original cabinets. And they look great. Right. Thank you. I painted them and changed the hardware and got new quartz countertops and at a backsplash.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Did you change the hinges, too, or the hinges just got painted?
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Actually, they might have been painted with the hinges. The hinges are painted.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: The black on white looks great.
And then you did a accent color on the island.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yep. Accent color on the island via recommendation.
And I like that too. And then added the backsplash. All new appliances, too.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So you even staged out on the. On the deck?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yep. Staged the deck. I thought the deck looked really nice, so I think it's kind of a big plus. I also changed the slider out. This is a new slider, so.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Looks good.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: It's nice and bright in here, right?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Not lots of natural light. Nice ceiling lights right here. Didn't have to, like, rough anything in.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: No, I think everything you did was very neutral. It's probably really important thing to do when you're flipping is stay neutral.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Right. You don't want to put, like, your own personal touch into it. Like, oh, I like a blue living room or green, you know, And I noticed some people do that.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: And you finish the basement. Well, it was already finished, right?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Exactly. It was finished, but it was old and it wasn't drywalled.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: It was a lot of extra living space.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: That old paneling. Yeah. I think this is great. I love a finished basement. Definitely raises the, you know, value of the house and what people are willing to pay.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Looks great.
So where do you draw the line with what you're going to do and what you're not going to do? I know we talked about it a little bit last time, but, I mean, you pretty much covered every surface in here, right? Like light switches, outlets.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah, all the little things. Yeah.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: When do you pick and choose if you're going to leave something or replace it?
[00:03:37] Speaker B: Can it be touched up essentially? Like, can it look okay with some paint and caulk or something?
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Like the cabinets?
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Like the cabinets. Exactly. They were in good shape, so there's no reason to rip them out and put new ones in, especially, you know, if they're good. But, like, I always change all the knobs, hinges, like you said, outlet, covers, switches.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's all the little stuff, all the little details, because if you don't finish that, it just looks half ass.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks even worse. And it's like, dude, just spend a few extra bucks to make it look top tier.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, let's check out upstairs. Yeah.
Carpet on every flip.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: I actually just used a new carpet guy for this one, but I do. Yeah.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Typically, same.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Typically.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Same color. Same color on the floor, same color on the walls.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: It's just copy and paste.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Oh, this came out nice. Right for glaze.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So tile and everything was in good shape. It looked great. And we just reglazed it and cleaned it up.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah. That's always a tough decision because it's not a huge job to rip it out, but then you get into. It just spirals into more things.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: And if you can speed up the process and have come someone come in and glaze it, make it look nice and clean.
Tile's in good shape. It's not cracking.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Grout's intact.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah. New fixtures, of course, in the shower and, you know, new vanity, new toilet.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: What is the glaze? What. What does the glaze run you on that for this tub surrounding the floor.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: I'd say you're anywhere from like 12 to 15.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: 12 to $1500?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: It's really very reasonable.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: You would never be able to redo a bathroom for 12 or 15.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Exactly. That's why it's just like, dude, no question. If the tile's in good shape, let's go. Unless you're like, maybe if I'm in like this huge, you know, 3,000 square foot house in Westchester, I'm doing brand new tile, making it super nice. But you know, something more in that, like, let's say 3 to 400 range, I think that's completely reasonable.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: It's a huge master, right?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good size master.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Big walk in.
This thing's gonna. I think it'll sell quick.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah, me too. I think it's gonna go well.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: And what do you think your total all in was? Because that's always the big question.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: How much did you put in?
You know, what'd you buy for, how much did you put in and what do you think you'll sell it for?
[00:05:53] Speaker B: So I put in total, like all. All costs included, probably a little over 3, 300. A little over 3, maybe 3, 300. 305, 310. Somewhere around there, I got to look at it again. I ran my numbers, like initially, and I kind of keep up with it way for, you know, when I get.
Basically what I do is I write down everything I spend so I can have it on. I don't do like a spreadsheet. I just do like a document in Google and type it in and compare my initial estimates. And I was actually perfect. I guessed it would take 45 based on my initial estimate, and I spent like literally on the nose. 45.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: That's perfect.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: That's experience.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah. It definitely has come a long way from my initial, I guess, assessments.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And then how many. How many weeks or how many months did this take to renovate?
[00:06:40] Speaker B: It was a month. And honestly, that was only because it would have been three weeks, but it was a month because my countertop guy Took a little extra time.
And he's a great dude. I love him. I love working with him. But then we couldn't put the backsplash in. So then that crew moves to my other house, and then, you know, it's a listed up.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Well, you guys saw this before. I mean, that's impressive. Four weeks to turn this whole thing around.
That's probably one of the biggest mistakes that I see flippers make is they take a project like this and they take six months, you know, I mean, they should never take six months on a project like this. But it happens because people are indecisive. They don't have enough funding. They're waiting for whatever, you know, they just wait for different things to happen. And to do all this in four weeks, you definitely had to stay on top of this. Do you GC everything or do you hire a gc? How do you. What's your structure? Like, are you hiring subs or what's. What's your model?
[00:07:32] Speaker B: I've done both ways, and now I work with a GC that I really like working with who does a good job. And it's a little bit pricier than doing it the other way, but it's 100% worth it in my opinion. But then I sub out a few things because, like, I have my really good friend who does electrical work, you know, and then, like, I have my countertop guy. And so I.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: You bring. It's mostly gc, but I bring in.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: A couple things here and there. Like on my other property, I got. I got a dude going to H vac. I had my roofer come up and do the roof. So, like.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: So you did end up doing the roof because that was one of the things that was not in terrible shape. You're questioning whether you're going to do it or not, but you decided to do the roof.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Decided to do it because I got it at a good price.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool.
Anything else you think people should be aware of with doing flips? You know, I know we talked before about if you're getting started, you don't want to take on a huge project.
I would not call this a huge project, but I would also not call it like paint and floor, because you did. You did the kitchen, you did the bath, you updated the basement. You know, you did more than just kind of a lipstick. But it's not a full. Full gut rehab, right?
[00:08:35] Speaker B: No.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Any. Any suggestions for anyone listening in terms of just getting started or growing?
[00:08:41] Speaker B: I think about the work, like you said, like, what's the. Like the speed thing we were kind of talking about, definitely, like, kind of knowing what you're going to get up front. Because I had the process down, but also I didn't do any of the work myself.
And I think that's where a lot of new guys get called in. At least my investors, like, it'll be their first flip and they're in there doing a bunch of work themselves. And it takes them like seven plus months. And I'm like, look, I get that it seems like it's going to be better that way, but don't.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, you saved. You saved 10 grand by doing it yourself, but you cost yourself 15,000 in interest payments.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Right? Exactly. It's like.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: And all your time.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: So what'd you make? Nothing.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: What'd you lose all that time?
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. It's just not worth it. So just get everything lined up accordingly.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: And especially if you do want to do more than one at one at a time or you have other, you know, maybe you have a W2 job or a career.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: You can't dedicate all your nights and weekends to something like this. Cause you'll be so stressed you won't be able to function properly or it's gonna take away from your family. It's just what he's saying makes a lot of sense. And I did it the other way. I did a lot of the work myself, so I can vouch for what he's saying. Don't waste your time. Learn from the people that make mistakes versus have to do it yourself.
I've been there. Scraping paint off the floor. Stupid stuff.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yep. Getting materials.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: What we were talking about the box of roofing nails. You got a roofer there, and they're one box short, and you got four guys there. So you run out and get the box of roofing nails, but it takes you two hours because you drive 30 minutes to depot, you can't find the nails. You stand in line for 30 minutes, you get out the door, you hit a traffic jam, you come back and then, you know, then you find out they found the box of nails.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Right. I'd rather just call the contractor and say, I'll pay for it, go pick it up. I'll give you extra 20 bucks. And they're probably happy to do that.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: All right, well, I think it looks great. So hopefully you guys found some value in this post. Some questions or questions in the comments. So, you know, what do you guys want to hear on the next one? Because we're going to continue to show all the different flips that Zach's doing and some of the other agents on the Investor Agent podcast. So thanks for listening.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: All right, thanks.
