Thinking about rehabbing a house in Baton Rouge? Rehabbing can be a lot of fun and a great way to make money but it can also be a huge hassle and expense if you don’t know what you’re doing. In this blog post, we’re sharing the 7 basic steps to take when investing in a rehab in Baton Rouge to help you get on track and stay on track for a successful rehab!
If you are thinking about rehabbing a house, odds are you’ve also watched HGTV a time or two and think, “If they can do it, I can do it!”. According to the TV shows, it’s easy money. But what those TV shows don’t reveal is just how challenging and how much work it can be. Things can go badly if you move off your plan and budget, until it spirals out of control. It isn’t all bad though. They also tend to leave out one great benefit… it is a really good workout! To help you, here’s a checklist of 7 basic steps to take when investing in a rehab in Baton Rouge to ensure you stay on track.
7 Basic Steps To Take When Investing In A Rehab In Baton Rouge
Note: The following steps are not sequential but they tend to overlap. That means, in most cases, you’ll probably start the next step before the finish he last step.
Step #1. Find
Start by finding a great property that makes sense for you. Expect to look at many properties, to create a short-list of a several, and then to make offers on a few in order to get one. Joining our buyers list is a good way to find them, as well as talking to other investors in Baton Rouge.
Step #2. Plan
Once you’ve found a property that seems to make sense, build a plan (Scope of work, or SOW) and a budget to make sure you have the time, money, and team to help you. I like to get my contractor bids between getting the property under contract and closing.
Step #3. Acquire
Acquire the property. This can happen in a few different ways, depending on how you want to structure your deal. Ultimately you need to get the property under your control so you can go in and start to work.
Step #4. Demo
Safely demo the property by tearing out anything that you don’t want in the property. This often includes removing old carpets, damaged cabinets, and trash. You can hire debris removal companies, or if it is a small scale project just rent a U-haul and drive to the dump.
Step #5. Fix
Quickly and efficiently fix up the property. This can be a challenging step if you have a lot of teams working at the same time but the sooner you get this done, the better. Make sure to think about order. If the HVAC guy needs electricity, you need to make sure the electrician isn’t working on that the same day and needs to turn off the power. Also always paint walls before you put your flooring down so you don’t have to be as careful.
Step #6. Prep
Once the property is fixed up, you need to get ready to sell it but to help you sell it you need to get it ready. That means: give it a thorough cleaning, walk through the house to make sure everything is done (even a missing light switch can impact the sale) and don’t neglect landscaping. Flowers and plants make a huge difference making a house look like a home.
Step #7. Sell
Market the property a little bit below market value to get as many potential buyers as possible to look at your house. The more buyers walking through your property, the faster you can sell and sometimes you even can create bidding wars. Another benefit of selling fast is minimizing holding costs.
Summary
There you have it! A simple checklist of the 7 basic steps to take when investing in a rehab in Baton Rouge. There is a lot more to it than that, but those steps will help ensure that you quickly and efficiently complete your rehab and make money. The most important part is make sure you buy a deal! Overpaying is the biggest thing that prevents investors from making money on flips.