If you watch a sufficient number of ‘house-flipping’ programs on television, you eventually say to yourself; “Hey. I could do that”. You’re right. You probably could. Trust us – and the Sydney property stylists we know – it’s not as easy as you might imagine.

Flipping a house can be a big gamble. If you do your homework and study the costs of repairs and renovations, if you don’t over invest in the property, and if the real estate market cooperates, you can make a bundle. On the other hand, you can lose your shirt.
The good news is you can get a ‘flip-fix’ by simply practicing on your own home. Before you list your home for sale, you can indulge your fixer-upper fixation and get a few great lessons on how to make investments that pay off in the end.

The key to doing the maths correctly is getting the comparable properties correct. Valuers, bankers, and real estate agents all use comparison properties to determine what price a house will bring on today’s market. They do this by finding similar, recently sold, properties and comparing them to the house in question. This can be very tricky.
It isn’t as simple as just comparing the price tags of four three-bedroom homes. If you were to proceed this way, you’d be missing the point. In order to come up with a good comparison, one must consider things such as square metreage, the number of bathrooms, the age of roof, and whether or not the property has a fenced yard all come into play in comparing one house to the next.
Each of these amenities has a value that must be factored in. If house A has a garage and yours doesn’t, the valuer will subtract value from your house. If yours has a brand-new air-conditioning unit, your house will gain value.

Just because the house next door sold for $1.5m doesn’t mean that yours will.
With a bit of study and a lot of good advice, you can make alterations to your home that will bring the value up. We talk about such projects here every week. Adding a bonus room to your attic or adding an outdoor entertaining area can do amazing things for the value of your home. However, doing these things in a neighborhood that is notorious for poorly rated schools and low home values will probably not do you any good. As a matter of fact, you might end up losing money if you over-invest.

This is one of the excellent reasons to work closely with both your selling agent and the Sydney property stylists you have chosen. It’s critical that you get the price right in the first place and resist the temptation to invest in a really big way. Big, expensive renovations can be dangerous. Start small is our best advice.
There are certain things that almost always pay you back for the upgrades you make. Your home stylist will tell you what these are. If your walls are dinged up and scuffed because the kids enjoy riding their bikes down the hallway, your stylist will advise you to repair them before you paint. Bringing your property up to snuff is one way to be sure you get everything you should out of it at closing of the sale. Installing newer kitchen appliances will help you get better offers. Sprucing up the deck will also gain points for you as far as value goes since it increases the square metreage and living area of the house.

In the end, you need a team that knows the ropes. You also need to have a great deal of confidence in your team. An experienced real estate agent and excellent home stagers are worth their weight in gold when it comes to knowing which renovations and upgrades will work best in your case. If you choose correctly, your team will be familiar with the neighbourhood and the overall market so that you don’t price your house right out of the market.

At Urban Chic Property Styling, we have decades of experience in making good homes great. Before we started styling properties, we sold properties. We have the expertise. We have the style. Before you try the Big Flip, partner with us on this little one – styling and selling your own house. Then, when you’re ready to take the house flipping plunge, call in our Sydney property stylists to help. You’ll be glad you did.