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Your new house has an awesome outdoor kitchen, or maybe you just had one installed, either way you’re all set to grill outside all summer (and maybe into the fall and winter, too). Have you stopped to consider all the things that it takes to keep an outdoor kitchen running smoothly? Remember there’s live electricity, gas lines, appliances and other things that are going to require regular effort.
Now that you’ve bought a home of your own, you might be thinking that you’re kind of good at handywork and you want to give flipping a go. It’s certainly one way to make money in today’s somewhat volatile market, provided you know what to look for in an optimally flippable property. Of course, the house that flips best in downtown Newark probably won’t be the same one that flips amazingly in Dallas, but there are some general things you can look for in a fantastically flippable house.
The sound of a sledgehammer smashing through sheetrock may get your pulse racing, but before you accidentally knock out a support wall full of wiring, take a long, deep breath and let’s ponder what can go terribly wrong with your remodel. The thing is that you can’t exactly x-ray the walls of your home to see what’s underneath -- remodels are just fraught with problems and they tend to multiply as the scope increases.
In 1986, Tom Hanks starred in a movie called “The Money Pit.” It was all about a couple’s adventures in remodeling what has to be the worst house ever. Even though it was a comedy, if you’ve ever been part of a big remodel, some of the situations the co-stars find themselves in (re: the remodel, not the rest of the story, which is clearly irrelevant) are way too familiar. Too little money, problems becoming bigger than initially assumed and chaos, chaos, chaos. But you aren’t going to jump into a money pit worthy remodeling project. Oh no. Not when there are so many awesome ways to avoid it.
You’ve lived in your home a little while and you think you sort of understand how it should flow. You’re starting to see the warts and little bits of rough that people tend to gloss over when the neighbors pop by to borrow the lawnmower. It’s not that these things make your home flawed -- all homes are flawed, they’re made from flawed materials, after all -- it’s just that your home could be better and like a skilled craftsman, you’re starting to see places where you could bring out greater potential.
You bought your house because of the beautiful yard, the unbelievable hearth in the den, the two generous bathrooms and, of course, the enormous basement. You had big plans for that basement -- it was going to be a home theater with a pool room, all very posh, but the first melt of winter had other ideas. Was that a little bit of water you saw on the floor? Maybe it was just a shadow. Or maybe it was water… are your dreams destined to be dashed to the ground?
You’re a homeowner now, you can kiss bland uniformity goodbye the moment you turn your apartment keys over to your now former landlord. The world is your canvas -- at least, that part of the world that you now are obligated to pay a monthly mortgage payment on -- and you’re the artist that’ll mold it into a shape that tantalizes and delights the senses.