Please help with advice on our flip house :)

[MomW773]

We recently bought a house to flip (remodel and sell to make money) with my dad. He is the financial backing to this project, and my husband Keith will be doing the majority of the remodeling. The house is 1600 sq ft- 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, family room, living room, laundry room, den/office, kitchen pantry, deck off the master bedroom, walk-out basement, in-ground pool, concrete patio, and shed. We are going to totally gut the house and put in all new flooring, paint, interior doors, all new energy efficient windows, trim, light fixtures, maple kitchen cabinets, redo both bathrooms, new carpet, pergo, tile, all new kitchen appliances (side by side frig, over stove microwave, dishwasher, and stove), and finish the laundry room, complete with a new washer & dryer. You name it, we're probably going to do it! We are going to remodel the exterior as well and do landscaping. The shell of the house will be 1961, but the rest of it will be 2010! Plus, it is in a great family neighborhood that is very hilly and has lots of large trees. It is in a suburban area and is close to shopping and restaurants.  It is also in a good school district.

The house has a carport. My dad wants to convert that into a garage, but the estimates for that are extremely high and would eat up a lot of our budget. Plus, we are spending a lot on the new windows, which Keith and I feel are a must (the current windows are original to the house, and in horrible shape, so they have to go). We know that a garage is a great selling feature, but for this particular house, and since it is a flip and it is an investment, Keith and I feel doing a garage is just too costly and would not help us to come out ahead in the end, profit-wise. In our opinion, all new windows are a great selling point, as windows are very expensive and just really add to the look of the house.

My question--- knowing that the house will be 100% remodeled, will be totally updated and move-in ready, and has a carport, but no garage-- would you still be interested in buying it if you were a potential homebuyer? Or would you be turned off because it doesn't have a garage?  Please note-- it has off the street parking and the driveway can fit 3 cars (length-wise).

Thanks for your input, we appreciate it! :)

[MSugarKane]

Feb. 18, 2010 at 9:25 AM

I have bought homes for investments.  I have not had to or wanted to put that much time and energy in those homes and they all sold well with no problems.   Your doing a lot of remodeling now so I wouldn't add on a garage, but as a selling point I might state since it already has a car port , a garage would be easily built on.

[MomW773]

Feb. 18, 2010 at 9:42 AM

Thanks for your comment!  I agree with you 100%!  If we do not end up doing the garage (at this point, we're not sure yet), then letting potential buyers know that is an option for them, is a great idea.  Since the carport is already there, it doesn't involve as much work as if it would to build a garage from scratch.

(Original Poster)

[roseisrose]

Feb. 19, 2010 at 7:12 PM

I'd still be interested - for me thats not the most important thing-- all the other stuff you talked about is!