House Flipping Project: The Outdated Cary Colonial
The Outdated Cary Colonial was a house flipping project that came to us as a result of our direct mail campaign; amazing location and a blue color scheme straight outta the 80s. The previous owner loved gardening, which consisted of collecting small plants and rocks and placing them spontaneously throughout the yard. She also felt spray foam was the glue that holds houses together and used it in whatever crevice she could find. Let me tell ya – that was fun to remedy.
Upon purchase, the windows were mostly in good condition, but it needed new siding, and a new roof. Aside from landscaping, the front elevation fell flat: it needed something else. (See what we did below). The Cary Colonial also required a new deck and all new exterior doors.
Inside, this house had a few layout issues. The “formal living” remained completely disconnected from the den. And the den was closed off from the kitchen.
The entrance to the house also felt super tight and the dining room was tiny.
Upstairs, there was also a layout issue. In order to access the upstairs bonus room, you had to walk through a bedroom! Not ideal.
The Solution for the Outdated Colonial-Style House
As with many Colonials, where four square rooms surround the staircase in the center of the home, the problem was the choppy layout. The solution was clear: remove the walls between the formal living and den. We also removed the wall between the kitchen and den, because it’s ideal when entertaining.
Doing this allowed us to relocate the dining room to create a home office in its place.
As you can see, this was a heavy lift house flipping project with a budget of around $80,000.
But here was the result:
We were fortunate to work with the following vendors for this project:
- Giles Flythe Structural Engineering
- Home Depot
- CNC Cabinets
3 Lessons Learned from this House Flipping Project
- Ikea cabinets don’t necessarily provide cost savings – the plumbing upon install can be a bit more complicated.
- Manage subcontractors closely and address problems early to avoid delays from work that needs to be re-done
- Order and have on hand all materials needed for the job before deploying the sub.
BONUS: Cost Saving Tip for your Next House Flipping Project
Always look for value-add opportunities: actual or perceived. In rental property, this may be the addition of a storage shed where you can charge an additional fee for its use. For a flip, an idea is to change the layout a bit to create a space to stage as a home office, as we did here at the Outdated Cary Colonial.
We don’t do this any more, but one cost saving option with siding is to simply wrap the existing siding in vinyl. This prevents further deterioration of existing siding and eliminates associated demo costs with removal.
For more house flipping project inspiration, check out our flips page.
