Hi Kirsten,

Question. A house that has nice colors and nice furniture (pretty much nicely decorated) makes a big difference. To decorate a house appropiately to sell, it could cost anywhere from $10k to $40k. How do they do it? Do they buy new furniture/decoration for every house? (that takes a good chunk of your budget) and try to sell it with the house? Are there furniture places where you can rent furniture (monthly?) that you can out in your house while it is on sale until it sales?

What do you suggest is the best approach to decorate the house correctly without spending too much money?

Thanks for the tip

It's called staging. There are now people out there that you pay to come in and they will use some of your furniture if appropriate, they will have you remove some stuff (ie. no family pictures and stuff that makes a house looked cluttered), and they have their own furniture and decoritive items that they use. Cost is anywhere from ~$500 up to a couple thousand depending on exactly what you have them do.

jcg61

Also I should add that this is one of those "soft" cost that this show never takes into account. So don't be fooled by their gross profit numbers at the end of the show.

The list of "soft" costs that aren't ever discussed are buying closing costs, loan closing costs/points, selling closing costs, staging costs, insurance, property taxes, real estate agent cost @ 6% of selling price (a couple shows recently have taken this into account). In these days of a buyer market many buyers are asking sellers for credits at closing or having them pay the buyers closing costs which can be thousands of dollars.

They do account for holding costs, but it seems like only up to the offer acceptance date. It usually takes another 45 days to close and the seller is responsible for the mortgage during that time too, so that's another month and a half of mortgage payments.

Take all this into account and some of these flippers aren't making any money and may even lose money, but they never tell you that. Maybe it doesn't make for good TV or something.

jcg61

Thanks a lot for the info.

RENT it. There are lots of furniture rental places out there. CORT is, I think, one of Warren Buffet's outfits that originally did office furnture but now does other kinds. They even rent pictures, etc. etc. Also check on office service companies that provide plants for interiors, etc. etc. The ONE cost I think IS inevitable (but can be done inexpensively if you shop right) is window treatments. Some of these "flip" houses I've seen on TV where they've furnished but NOT done windows seem kind of barren looking. I've found some VERY good inexpensive blind outfits online that work fast and won't dent your bottomline too much (I did a whole house---living room, den, and two bedrooms and a kitchen window---for about $700 including delivery and the mounting hardware and installed them all in a few hours.