Easy Problems to Fix to Boost Your Real Estate Returns
If you're in the real estate flipping industry, your biggest
concern is trying to find a quick way to improve a house. The
easiest way to do this is find problems that are relatively
cheap to fix. A problem house is your friend - problems that
look bad, but don't take that much work to get rid of are what
you want.
Here are a couple of the most common - First, look for termites.
Often the structural damage isn't really that bad, or is limited
to only part of the house. It's relatively easy to kill them off
- you just have to be good at assessing how bad the damage
really is. Second, paint everything. A new coat of paint goes
surprisingly far in making a house look new, and is extremely
cheap. Third, improve the yard. This is often one of the easiest
way to boost real estate value - cut the grass, trim the hedges,
etc. Fourth, replace the flooring or carpet. If it's pretty
nasty, you can usually get a cheap new carpet or tile that will
get rid of one of the big problems without really costing you
all that much. Fifth, add the little things - trees in the yard,
a fence, a mailbox - all these things simply make the place look
nice. That's often one of the biggest factors in how much people
will pay. Remember, most people will just go to a house and
decide if they like the "feel." Your job is to make sure that
they do.