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Only dumbsh|ts don't get an inspection - on each and every house they are prepared to make an offer on.
You don't get inspection done on a house before you've put an offer on a it and have the offer accepted - essentially you are under contract to purchase the house.
No seller is going to let people inspect their home without being under purchase contract. That's not the way it works.
So if you must be under contract to buy a house before you are able to inspect it, then it is extremely unlikely you will ever inspect nine houses.
You guys are coming down a little hard on the guy...although your responses are the market will dictate what the house is worth (in it's current flipped state)..his question was somewhat legitimate. He just did not word it correctly. If an elderly couple is selling their home that they lived in for 20 years and they are going to take their profits to a retirement home community....they may be a little less willing to take a low ball offer.
however, a flipper, who may have 5-6 homes on the market at once....and say the one particular home the "buyer" may be interested in has been on the market for 8 months to a year now.......the seller may be more motivated to take a low ball offer, so he can move on to his next flip. The question was not that outrageous.....basically he was asking is a flipper in some cases willing to take a low ball offer more often than a regular home owner who lived there.......so yeah, he was kinda asking how much "PROFIT" will this flipper be willing to accept. Of course, the answer is...wait for it...IT DEPENDS...but his question was not as silly as you made it out to be.....
You guys are coming down a little hard on the guy...although your responses are the market will dictate what the house is worth (in it's current flipped state)..his question was somewhat legitimate. He just did not word it correctly. If an elderly couple is selling their home that they lived in for 20 years and they are going to take their profits to a retirement home community....they may be a little less willing to take a low ball offer.
however, a flipper, who may have 5-6 homes on the market at once....and say the one particular home the "buyer" may be interested in has been on the market for 8 months to a year now.......the seller may be more motivated to take a low ball offer, so he can move on to his next flip. The question was not that outrageous.....basically he was asking is a flipper in some cases willing to take a low ball offer more often than a regular home owner who lived there.......so yeah, he was kinda asking how much "PROFIT" will this flipper be willing to accept. Of course, the answer is...wait for it...IT DEPENDS...but his question was not as silly as you made it out to be.....
But answering a 3 year old thread is kinda silly. . .
I don't know if I would ever buy a flip. Here is why: My neighborhood was built in 1962. The homes have things that need to be replaced. We are working on replacing our water lines. I also want to upgrade the electrical.
On our street a house was sold to a flipper for $369,000. He spent a couple months cleaning it up, replacing the windows, repainting, fixing the yard, new cabinets, crown molding. The place looks nice. On the flip side, I know the plumbing needs to be replaced. It could go out at any time. The kitchen drain line is probably rotted out. Many of the owners, us included, have had to reroute the kitchen drain line because they rot out and we are all on concrete slabs.
What I am saying is make sure what repairs were needed because just making a place look good is like putting lip stick on a pig. It may look nice but it does not do anything for the pig.
But answering a 3 year old thread is kinda silly. . .
No it is not silly. Making new threads repeatedly of the same topic I think is silly (and seems to happen often enough).
The subject of this thread is still perfectly relevant and is a common thing to be discussed, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with resurrecting an old thread.
That said, in regards to 'flips' I have seen properties essentially run a whole gamut from well-done work and use of quality materials and fixtures to very lousy work that definitely would fit into the "lipstick on a pig" category. I would not wish to generalize on that, though in my experience with flipped houses, there does seem to be a tendency for flippers to go the route of using cheaper, builder grade materials and using other reasonable cost-saving measures so it does not eat too much into the potential profit. I think it really depends on the specific situation.
Some flips I have seen have been very well done, very diligent work on behind the scenes repairs and use of good quality fixtures (one old Victorian I saw before/after that was flipped was totally rewired, new roof, used excellent quality materials for new kitchen and baths, though it was in a fairly pricey neighborhood where higher end stuff is expected--the house was under contract within two weeks).
I have also seen several awful jobs, too. The more inferior flips I have seen tended to be either done by those new to the work or were compensating for unexpected expenses and problems encountered during the renovating process. I saw one job once where a new tile floor was placed right over an old vinyl floor, with just a very thin underlayment of plywood. Later on it was revealed the actual sub-floor was badly rotted around the toilet and sinks. Another had a cheap asphalt shingle roof placed right over an old one. That lasted about 12 years. So, they can run the whole spectrum.
If I was actually going to buy a flip, I would concentrate more on who did the work, who owned it (and coordinated the work) and get a good independent inspector.
No it is not silly. Making new threads repeatedly of the same topic I think is silly (and seems to happen often enough).
The subject of this thread is still perfectly relevant and is a common thing to be discussed, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with resurrecting an old thread.
Actually it is silly in most cases.
OP was asking for advice. I highly doubt he is still looking and that the house in question is still on the market. Advice is irrelevent now.
Also, markets change. What was good advice or a rule of thumb 5 years ago (which is now how old the thread is since you bumped it) may no longer apply.
Always best to open a new thread when the purpose was advice seeking. Now, a debate thread? Go ahead and have fun reopening. Same with a general discussion. But leave advice threads alone.
Who cares what the seller paid for it? It's all about the market value of the house. Maybe he paid $43k in a neighborhood selling for $250k. If the house is currently in the condition that matches the other houses at $250k, the value is $250k, and offer what you're willing to pay for the value.
Actually it is silly in most cases.
OP was asking for advice. I highly doubt he is still looking and that the house in question is still on the market. Advice is irrelevent now.
Also, markets change. What was good advice or a rule of thumb 5 years ago (which is now how old the thread is since you bumped it) may no longer apply.
Always best to open a new thread when the purpose was advice seeking. Now, a debate thread? Go ahead and have fun reopening. Same with a general discussion. But leave advice threads alone.
I agree, but the policy on this forum has always been to promote old post bumping. It's something I kind of disagree with and think they should auto lock thread after a year but it's not my call. The improper grammar (to instead of too) alone should be enough to get the thread closed.
As for what to pay, you pay what you think the local market would price the home at and whatever someone else is willing to pay. How much profit they get really shouldn't be of anyone's concern... to make money in a transaction means a person is savvy that way... like picking a stock. Buying these old homes is not without risk, after all.
If a investor purchased a home for $43,000 and completely gutted and renovated it with new electrical, plumbing, cabinets, granite countertops, appliances, new roof, paint, and so on...they most likely put in more $$ then they paid for the home. They typically look for good deals on homes that are bank owned foreclosures and pay all cash. That is how they are able to sell newly renovated homes at market value and make a profit. I think they average about $20,000 per flip. Sometimes they make more or less. On some occasions they only break even or lose money in a flip. That is usually why they do more than one at a time and tend to pick the same kind of houses to flip. It's less risk for them.
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