Sample Chapter

Chapter 14
Giving Your Property a Quick Makeover

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In This Chapter
* Grooming the landscape around your house
* Touching up the front of the house with a little makeup
* Beautifying the interior of the house with a little elbow grease

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You stumbled upon a great house at a great price that’s just plain ugly. The foundation is solid, the roof is only a few years old, the floor plan works, and all the big-ticket items appear to be in working condition. Fortunately for you, the previous owners trashed the place. Perhaps they were too busy to maintain the property themselves and too financially strapped to hire out the maintenance. Maybe they just didn’t care. They paid the price of their neglect by having to sell the property to you at a discount.

You now have a house that looks much worse than it really is. It requires few or no major repairs and its features cater to the demands of most house hunters in the area. The house simply needs a good scrubbing, a proper grooming, and a little makeup to improve its appearance and draw prospective buyers inside.

In this chapter, I show you how to do a quick flip, a cosmetic job, or a makeup job, as seasoned house flippers like to call it. Here you discover how to quickly transform an ill-kempt home into a crowd pleaser for the cost of a few thousand dollars and several lost weekends. You can then quickly place the property back on the market and sell it for several thousands more than you invested in it . . . assuming, of course, that you purchased it at the right price. (If you followed my advice on negotiating a price in Chapter 11, then you did!)

Tip
Home Improvement For Dummies, by Gene Hamilton and Katie Hamilton, provides complete, illustrated instructions on how to perform most of the more complicated tasks described in this chapter.

Sprucing Up the Yard

The front, back, and side yards provide two ways to improve your property’s curb appeal—the appearance of the yard itself and how the yard contributes to the appearance of the house. Some houses are so overgrown with trees and shrubs that you can barely see the house from the street. If the house is gut-retching ugly, that could be a good thing, but in most cases, you want the landscape to accent the house, not hide it.

Remember
To spruce up the yard, start from the top and work down, focusing on the following:

Warning
Before you start digging or pulling shrubs out from around the house, call the utility companies and have them mark the locations of gas and water lines and buried electrical cables. If you don ’t know where the utilities are buried, your archeological site may turn up something that’s quite shocking and leads to costly repairs. Hacking into a gas line or buried electrical cable can also be dangerous.

Tip
Don ’t forget the backyard! Even though it’s not visible from the street, the backyard is still an important selling point of your house and can be cleaned up in a snap. Now that you have the front yard looking like a gardener’s paradise, you want the back yard to match; otherwise, the shock could sink a potential sale.

Tip
For great tips on sprucing up any yard, check out Landscaping For Dummies by Phillip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim, and the editors of the National Gardening Association (Wiley).

Digging up more bills

A customer of mine decided to install a chain link fence to keep his family’s new puppy from running off. After calling around for quotes and talking with a neighbor who was eager to help, the homeowner decided to tackle the job himself. The only real challenge was digging the post holes. The homeowner and his neighbor spent the entire day and well into the evening digging holes.
The project proceeded without incident until they reached the final hole. As they jammed the post-hole digger down to the proper depth, they heard a blast that sounded like someone had just set off a cherry bomb. “Oh no!” said the helpful neighbor, “I forgot to tell you to locate the underground pipes!”
The homeowner had to call the gas company. Fortunately, the gas company came out immediately and billed the owner only for time and repairs. Unfortunately, because the incident occurred on a Sunday, the company billed double for overtime.
The moral of the story? Don’t dig blind. Call the utility companies before breaking ground.

Freshening the Façade

Remember
When you purchase a quick-flip property, the shell of the house should be in good repair. The shell includes the roof; gutters; and brick, vinyl siding, or wood siding that covers the house. “Good repair,” however, doesn’t always mean “pretty.” Even a house that’s in good shape can use a quick power-wash and some touching up. Here are some tips for shining the shell:

Tip
Take a photo of your house and the neighboring houses to your local paint store and ask for recommendations on which colors to use. You want your house to stand out without clashing with neighboring homes. A medium grade paint should be good enough. Paint the garage and fence while you’re at it.

For details on making more extensive repairs to the outside shell of a house, head to Chapter 15.

Touching Up the Interior

A home’s exterior draws buyers in, but the appearance of the interior ultimately sells the home. For a quick flip, you’re not doing any major remodeling. The goal here is to make the interior appear clean and properly maintained. In the following sections, I walk you through the process of preparing the interior of the house for prospective buyers. I begin with repairs and renovations that apply throughout the house and then lead you from room to room to ensure that you don’t overlook any important areas.

Renovating from room to room

Some repairs and renovations apply exclusively to certain rooms in the house. When you’re looking at the countertops, for instance, you’re in the kitchen or the bathroom.

Other repairs and renovations apply to just about all the rooms in a house. In the following sections, I show you what my crew and I typically do on a quick flip to every room in the house.

De-junk and scrub the house

Every house I’ve flipped is like a storage shed full of junk and debris. Call a rubbish company, ask the company to deliver a roll-off container, and pitch the debris. Tear out the carpet, clean out the garage and attic, and toss any trash that stands in the way of your work. You can also pitch your landscaping trimmings left over from earlier in this chapter.

Remember
After you eliminate the junk, gather your vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies and scrub the house from top to bottom. More specifically, attend to the following tasks:

Tip
Inspect the house and make sure that it’s immaculate before every showing. Everyday cleaning is okay to keep the house from appearing pitted out, but your final cleaning before a showing should pass the white-glove test. If you don’t have a passion for cleaning, hire someone who does. Check out Chapter 20 for more tips on staging a successful showing.

Apply a fresh coat of paint

Remember
The best way to make the interior house look like new is to apply a fresh coat of paint. When painting, adhere to the following guidelines:

Install new window blinds

In a high-end market, shop for quality window blinds. In a low-end market, paper blinds will do. Again, don’t go wild with color—white or cream is best. If necessary, trim the blinds to fit. Keep the blinds closed about a quarter of the way to let in plenty of sunlight but prevent the house from appearing vacant.

Check and repair all doors and doorknobs

Remember
If a prospective buyer or agent has to wrestle with a sliding glass door, fiddle around with a lock, or yank on a door to get it to shut, his frustration becomes the focus of attention. Make sure that the doors look good and open and close effortlessly:

Update or add lighting

Properties you buy on the cheap often one or both of the following lighting problems: insufficient lighting or dated light fixtures. In either case, replace the old light fixtures with newer models designed to better illuminate the rooms. For example, if a room has a fixture that takes a single bulb, install a new fixture that has room for two or three bulbs. Follow these three guiding principles: Make it new, make it bright, and make them match.

Warning
Just because you love ceiling fans doesn’t mean that everyone does. I once had a very tall man walk through a house I owned. He bumped his head on the ceiling fan, and his toupee flew off. When replacing light fixtures, play it safe and choose the standard, ceiling-hugging fixtures.

Install new light switch and outlet faceplates

Old light switch and outlet faceplates look nasty against a freshly painted wall. Replace all of them with white or cream colored faceplates so they match. If the light switches or outlets themselves look bad or don’t work properly, replace them as well.

Swap out the register covers

Heat registers gather dust, dirt, grime, and usually several layers of paint when the owners simply paint over the registers instead of removing them during the painting. Identify all register covers in the house, measure them, and then head out to your local hardware store to purchase new ones. Some register covers, especially those that sit in the floor, lift right out. Others simply require the removal of a few screws.

Warning
While you have the register covers off, use a Shop-Vac to vacuum as far into the ductwork as the hose can reach. The dust nearest the register cover is the dust that’s most likely to be spewed throughout the house when the furnace kicks in.

Clean exhaust fan covers and replace the fans (if necessary)

Many kitchens and baths have exhaust fans that draw the dirty, greasy, often damp air out of the room. Build-up on the fan covers and on the fans themselves is often difficult to remove and may eventually affect the operation of the fan. At the very least, clean the fan cover and fan blades thoroughly by spraying them with a strong grease cutter and wiping off the grease and dirt. If a fan isn’t working, replace it.

Warning
Before you start messing with a fan, make sure that the power is turned off. Some fans are automatic and may turn on when they sense humidity.

Install new smoke detectors

Buyers, agents, and inspectors often look at and test the smoke detectors, so you can avoid problems by installing new ones. At the very least, change the batteries and test every detector to make sure it works.

Replace the thermostat and doorbell

An old thermostat or doorbell can make even a new house look old. Replace them. You can pick up a wireless doorbell at your local hardware store and install it without having to mess with any wiring, and they sound nice, too. Replacing a thermostat can be a little tricky, so consider hiring a heating and air conditioning specialist to do the job.

Re-carpet, refinish, or replace damaged or worn flooring

Remember
When you’re done with the rest of your repairs, turn your focus to the floors. In almost every house I flip, I tear out the old carpeting and install new carpeting in its place (assuming those rooms don’t have hardwood floors that I can refinish).  In low- to mid-range housing, you can usually get by with lower-grade carpeting and a higher-grade or top-grade pad. In a mid- to upper-end market, upgrade the carpet and use a top-grade pad.
Install the same carpeting throughout the house. Carpet salespeople often try to talk you into putting different colors in the bedroom, so they can unload their remnants. Insist on using the same design and colors in every room. Remember to use a neutral color (don’t fall for the current trend).

Tip
If you plan on flipping several houses, consider buying carpet in bulk—by the roll—to save money. My carpet company allows me to buy in bulk and then stores the carpet for me in its warehouse.

SanityCheck
Don’t cover those hardwood floors! For years, people looked down on hardwood floors—and not because the floors were under their feet. They tended to make a house look dated. Nowadays, they add class and value to a home. Unless the wood is severely damaged, have the floors professionally sanded and refinished. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can seriously damage a wood floor.

Unlike wood floors, old vinyl or tiled flooring can make a house look dated and generally shows the wear of several years of traffic. If a good scrubbing doesn’t make the floors look like new, then install new vinyl or tile flooring. Your choice depends on your market and your pocketbook.

See Chapter 17 for more details about redoing your hardwood, vinyl, or tile flooring.

Updating the kitchen

Remember
You don’t have to remodel a kitchen to make it look new. For pocket change and a moderate amount of labor, you can accessorize the kitchen to give it a whole new look. Consider the following affordable updates:

SanityCheck
New kitchen appliances can greatly enhance the appearance of the kitchen, but now you’re talking some big bucks. In most cases, if your profit margin is strong enough and the house is without major kitchen appliances (dishwasher, refrigerator, and range) or the existing appliances are ugly or in disrepair, you should buy new ones. First time home buyers often don’t have enough cash to purchase these appliances after purchasing the house and therefore need a house that comes fully equipped. If the house has ugly, smelly appliances or the appliances don’t work and you don’t have the profit margin to cover the expense, then do without—no appliances are better than broken down appliances.

For a more extensive discussion of kitchen renovations, including options for appliances, see Chapter 16.

Spending some quality time in the bathrooms

Remember
A bathroom can be the scene of some pretty nasty business, yet everyone expects the bathroom to look sparkling new. Fortunately, as long as the sink, tub, shower, and flooring are in pretty good shape, you can rejuvenate a bathroom with a reasonable amount of cash and in a reasonable amount of time. Following are some bathroom essentials:

Tip
In a tiled bathroom, the grout between the tiles can begin to crack or wear away. Using a grout saw, you can grind the grout out between the tiles. You can then apply new grout and seal it when it sets to make the tile look sparkling new. Better yet, call a grout doctor in your area to do it for you. An affordable grout doctor can save you enough on tools and manicures to pay for the service.

See Chapter 16 for full details on redoing the bathrooms in your flip.

Modernizing the bedrooms

A bedroom is pretty much a box with lights and outlets, so if you already painted the room, installed new light fixtures, replaced the faceplates, cleaned or replaced the window dressings, and re-carpeted, you’re pretty much done. (See the section “Renovating from room to room,” earlier in this chapter, for details on all these tasks.)

The only item you may have missed is the closet. Check out the closet to make sure that it looks clean inside. If it has sliding doors, make sure that they stay on the tracks. Check the hanger bar to see whether it’s sturdy, and if it’s not, fix it. If the closet doors have removable handles or other hardware, you can often make them look like new by simply and affordably swapping out the hardware.

Now, if you want to boost the storage space in the closet without knocking out any walls, install a closet organizer. A closet organizer can nearly double the amount of clothing and shoes you can shove in a standard closet.

SanityCheck
I don’t recommend spending much more than $100 per closet. Don’t shell out the big bucks for designer closets; your local hardware store has more affordable options. In that price range, you can buy a kit that contains everything you need along with complete instructions. With a hacksaw, screwdriver, measuring tape, and the all-important hammer, you should be able to handle the job yourself in two to three hours.

Making the basement look livable

Remember
A finished basement can be anything from a simple, open, multi-use area to an entirely separate flat complete with a bedroom, living room, bath, and kitchen. To quickly update it, follow the instructions provided earlier in this chapter.

If the house has an unfinished basement, on the other hand, it can be anything from a clean, dry storage area to a dank, mud floor cave. However, an unfinished basement doesn’t have to look like a dungeon. With some deep cleaning, a little paint, and fresh insulation, it can look more like a very sanitary morgue. Consider the following affordable basement enhancements:

Tip
Painting the basement not only makes it look neat and clean, but also adds a fresh-painted smell to a room that may otherwise smell a little musty. Another great way to keep the basement smelling fresh is to run a de-humidifier around the clock. (Be sure to eliminate the source of the moisture first and remove the de-humidifier before showing the house.)

Attending to the furnace and hot water heater

Tip
You can’t do much to make pipes or electrical wiring look more attractive, but you can enhance the appearance of two mechanicals in the home—the furnace and the hot water heater:

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