My hope is that my story helps many people and especially first time home sellers see a different perspective when deciding whether to flip a house or just sell it the way it is and move on.
Many years ago I purchased a south Tulsa house to live in and fix up. Not long after I purchased it, I was presented with an offer from an investor to buy it for $185k. I was confident if I did the work myself and fixed it up I could sell it for $230-240k so I turned him down. I thought I could do this rehab myself since it was all cosmetic work. All that was needed was new floors, paint, cabinets..etc. Well I did do most of it, but it took way longer than expected. For the next year I literally worked nearly everyday on that house. Every room got some love. After much money was spent, many headaches and backaches, mold remediation, unforseen hvac replacement and uncountable hours of my time, we only made a measly $8k after we sold it.
2 Hidden Problems While Flipping my Tulsa House
The biggest unforeseen issues were a moldy shower and replacing an AC Unit. The moldy shower issue was repaired but it scared several buyers away after they saw it in the seller’s disclosure statement. This made us have to lower our price considerably. Air conditioning is expensive so that was a heartache when that had to be replaced. If those 2 things didn’t come up, I’m certain the house would have profited us an additional $20k but instead it ended up being a small measly profit for all the hard work.
My evaluation of the profit was off bigtime. We sold it for sale by owner for $215k but after covering closing costs and all the money for remodeling, the amount I profited felt like a joke. I spent at least a couple hours a night working on the house. On the weekend up to 10 hours. That’s over 600 hours I worked on top of my full-time job that year only to make $8k after selling the house. Thank God the buyer didn’t use a realtor or I would have lost money on that end of the deal and then kicked myself for not just selling to the investor.
What if I would have sold it to the investor?
Lets see…I paid $190k for the house, but had a lot of equity in it. So I could have sold it at $185k and been okay and moved on. As much as I hate not making money on a deal, when I think about how much time and headache I spent on that house, it would have been nice to have not wasted my energy on something with such low return on investment. My energy would have been better spent on my family, a hobby, or finding a better investment.
The lesson I learned is to value my time! I don’t have to hit a home run on every deal, job, purchase, or sale I do in any kind of business. I need to count the pros and cons and decide what is best for my time and energy. Then cut my losses when needed.
I hope this story has helped and can bring a new perspective if you are ever in a situation like I was in.
Remember if you know of anyone who has a house that needs some love and needs to get it off their hands, please let us know so we can help them. We buy homes quick Tulsa!
Call or text us at 918-297-6222.
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