It is finally here! I am finally sharing the before photos and plans for our 5th flip house!
Our flipping journey has been so much fun and we are excited to finally get another flip on our hands. One of the different things about this flip is that we have another house project going on at the same time! Our long-time renter has moved out of the lower apartment of our duplex. That apartment hasn’t been renovated in over 20 years and it was in desperate need of some work. We did our first rental makeover in the upper apartment as soon as we bought the duplex. We have been working on the lower apartment for the past few weeks and weren’t expecting to have the flip house at the same time as the apartment makeover, but we are managing it all well. The apartment is pretty close to being done, so we will be able to focus all of our attention on our 5th flip house!
The owner of this flip house is being transferred to Florida before the end of the year. He was eager to sell the house and get into an apartment for the rest of his time in Iowa. To be honest, he hated owning a home. He hated all the upkeep, the work, the maintenance, and the yard work. He was tired of it and couldn’t believe that we came along when we did. We toured the house and made an offer right before Christmas of 2019. He accepted the offer and we closed on the house on February 28, 2020.
I always take photos of our flip houses on the day we get the keys and walk through them for the first time as owners.
I also record a video tour and share it on my YouTube channel. You can see the video tour of this flip house HERE.
This house is a good one. It reminds me a lot of our last flip house. I think it has so much potential and really isn’t as bad as our previous flips. It hasn’t been a rental and the owner did make some great updates. He also tried fixing up some areas in the house, but clearly has no experience or know-how about house projects. There are some projects that he started that we are going to have to rip out or finish to make them right.
Let’s get to the tour!
The outside of the house needs some love. We are thinking about painting the white iron on the front porch, tearing up the carpet on the front porch, replacing the light over the garage, and cleaning the heck out of the house and windows. We will also clean up the landscaping and add some plants where it needs them. The gutters will get cleaned and we will have the roof checked out. The back patio will need some attention. We are thinking about having someone come out and cut half of it out and lifting the remaining concrete. There was too much snow on the patio when I took these photos so you won’t see that in this post.
As you walk into the front door, you are inside the front living room.
This room is so so good! It has a fireplace, a big picture window, hardwood floors under the carpet, a coat closet, and a fun arch inset that we will do something different with. The hardwood floors look great (we pulled some of the carpet back), so we are planning on leaving those. We will paint this room and figure out the fireplace. The front window needs to be repaired, cleaned, and painted. The front door needs cleaned and painted as well. I think this would be one of my favorite rooms to hang out in once the house is done. It wouldn’t be a room for a TV, but more a quiet room to sit by the fire and relax with a book.
As you walk through the hallway off the front living room, there are two bedrooms.
The owner completely made over his bedroom. There is brand new carpet, new windows, paint and a new door. He even left the smart TV. 🙂 The only thing we have to do in this room is clean the ceiling fan. The other bedroom is a different story.
The owner’s teenage daughter had the other bedroom. The dark purple walls will need to be primed and painted. I am hoping we can restore the hardwood floors. One of the windows has already been replaced and the other two look like they are in good condition. We need to add trim to the new window and put a new door on the bedroom. The owner had already bought the new door! He never installed it so that will save us some money in the budget. I love these doors so much that I am really thinking about getting them for our house.
As you continue around the hallway, you come to the bathroom.
Oh, the bathroom. The bathroom is a good size. The homeowner wanted to give it a facelift. He started the job and never finished it. The tile is not my style, but it is in great condition. We will be leaving all of the tile in the shower and I think we will add wainscoting to the walls around the bathroom where he didn’t finish the tile job. We will paint, replace and the toilet, mirror, and light. I haven’t made a decision about the vanity and countertop yet. The tile flooring is new, so we will leave that as well.
After the bathroom is the dining room. When he bought the house, they had already turned the third bedroom into the dining room. I love the flow it gave the house. It reminds me of our last flip house layout, where they converted a bedroom into a dining room. The dining room is a good size. We are going to take the door from the hallway into the dining room off. We are going to paint and get rid of the furniture. I am pretty sure the windows are good and won’t need to be replaced. The lace curtains and blinds will come down to bring in some more natural light. We will also add a ceiling fan.
Now, we come to the kitchen.
This is the dirtiest room in the house! SO BAD! There is food splattered all over the cabinets. I don’t think it has been cleaned in years. The appliances are new, so those will stay. The faucet is newer and he added a filtered water system. I am thinking those will stay. We will add new countertops, paint the cabinets and I am still deciding on the floor. I will have our floor guy come out and tell me if they are worth saving or even if they can be saved. There is a good-sized pantry in the kitchen that will need to be cleaned and painted. We may add some new lighting in here too.
Off the kitchen is a nice bonus room. We will paint this room and probably have to add new carpet. It has a sliding door off to the patio and great natural light with the other windows.
From the kitchen, you get to the attached garage. They added all new electrical in the garage which is great, but they didn’t clean up in the garage. We will clean it all out and make it much “prettier” in there just by removing all the drywall they broke and didn’t take down, etc.
Also off the kitchen is the basement.
This is where a lot of our work will be done. We will add a runner to the stairs, so a lot of painting and add carpet.
The basement bathroom is the room that will need to most work. We will have to take everything out. It is another scary bathroom like our last flip house, but I know that basement bathroom makeover for $216 was amazing and how it changed that bathroom, so I have a lot of hope for this bathroom.
We are taking the shower away and we will add a new toilet, sink, and small mirror.
There is a small storage room in the basement that will probably just get paint and carpet.
The homeowner just put in a new furnace and we will have the air conditioner checked out. The backroom will need to be cleaned and painted. One of my favorite things about this house is all of the storage!!! Our house doesn’t have a ton of storage so any home that has it makes me happy.
There was a lot of stuff left in the house, so we have to start by clearing it all out. The owner moved into an apartment so he left us all the ladders, lawnmowers, shovels, and other things that he didn’t want to take with him. He said he will not be doing any projects ever again so he didn’t need any of that stuff. There were so many things that we could use!
We are beyond excited to get started on our 5th flip house! We are finishing up the duplex and working at the house in between apartment projects. I can already picture how great this house will be when we get done with it. Again, a little cleaning and paint will go a long way in this one.
Make sure you are following along with me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I will be posting videos and live updates throughout the entire process of our 5th flip house on all three channels. I don’t want you to miss any of it!
PIN THIS POST!
If you liked this post about Our 5th Flip House, you will love these flip house projects:
Unfinished Wood Cabinets In The Flip House Kitchen