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The
building materials you is for improvements is important. Not
only does cost matter so does appearance & practicality.
What fixtures, flooring, paint, tile, windows, doors, roofing,
siding, hardware & landscaping you use all effect your
finished product. Some thought should be put into everything
you are going to use to complete your improvements. Where you
get your materials is also going to play a role. What tools
you use makes a difference too.
A
good source for building materials is not just your local Home
Depot. Look for outlets that carry closeouts. Near us we have
a Sears outlet that has new appliances that were store returns
or got a ding in them during shipping. This store saw us on
almost every flip. There are also flooring outlets, and even
some big flooring stores have leftovers of particular dye lots
and remnants that they let go for a fraction of their original
cost. We have 4 different shingle color codes on our own
house. No one knows where other than me and now you but even
knowing I doubt you could even point it out.
There
are also many stores that sell second hand items that can be
used for rehabbing a house. Things like light fixtures,
cabinets, sinks, faucets and much much more can be found in
second hand stores. Some of those stores also benefit a
particular charity. We have one near us that benefits Habitat
for Humanity, an organization that helps put lower income
families in a home of their own.
When
you think things through, remember how practical something will
be. A couple hundred dollar chandelier might be what you would
want, but someone else may look at it and think it is hideous.
In reality, a $40 plain fixture might better fit and save you
$160 in the process. If the buyer wants something special in
their front entrance way, they are going to put it there no
matter what you already have there. If you are doing a million
dollar rehab than you might want the $200 chandelier. It is
important that what you do put in a house fits that location.
Kitchen
appliances are a big one. If there is already a fridge there,
put it in the basement or garage, and get a matching new one
with the rest of the newer appliances you put in. A second
fridge for the man cave is a good selling point. If they are
new, leave the tags on them, not the price tag but the tags
that have the features, efficiencies and what not. This helps
remind the potential buyer that they are new, visually
reinforcing the one line blurb on the sales flier from the
real-estate agent that says in fine print “new
appliances”.
We
went over paint colors in the improvements section, but it is
also important to use a good quality paint. Not that you care
if it is going to peel in a few years, but you don't want to
have to do extra coats. That wastes time and still ends up
costing the same as buying the good paint to begin with. I
like Behr paint but find something you are comfortable with and
is available near you. The paint we had the most trouble with,
was Dutchboy, and in our opinion it is on of the worst paints
made.
In
properties where we were replacing the windows and doors, we
would use a sprayer. Get all the walls and ceilings ready, mask
off anything else and get 2 coats on the whole house in a
matter of hours. Get any on the windows, who cares, they are
getting replaced. When we couldn't spray we used the roller
attachment for the sprayer. This is the type of sprayer that
sits in the 5 gallon pail, not those little hand held things
that you spend more time filling the little jar attached to it.
Wagner makes some good sprayers more industrial than their
little power painters aimed at the homeowner market.
Something
that is reasonably inexpensive is oak trim. If you buy it bare
and finish it with a natural stain with a little color to it,
it becomes quite attractive. To retrim a house is not real
complicated takes little time, and it adds such a nice finished
touch to the house. If you aren't real handy with a miter saw
and a trim nailer, this might not be for you. Painted trim has
it's place too, usually in older Victorian style houses but
have seen it in many more contemporary houses too.
When
you do your kitchen and baths & entry way floors I strongly
recommend ceramic tile. Remember that smaller tiles make the
room look bigger, but they are also a lot more time to lay and
a lot more grout. For grout color, always use a shade of gray.
This hides the dirt and it is neutral, goes with any tile. A
textured tile is also nice where traction is a concern. The
thing about ceramic is make sure your sub-floor is sound, if it
creaks or moves when you walk across it your grout is going to
crack. In this case either shore up the floor or pick a
different flooring.
Here
are links to the big box home improvement stores Home
Depot and Lowes.
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