How to Flip a House By Yourself: Best Strategies

Updated On: June 19th, 2021

While it’s important to understand that no man or woman is an island.

As you will undoubtedly need some help along the way while flipping houses, you can, in fact, do much of the work yourself.

As there are actually many flippers including myself, that use this very tactic to maximize their profits and reduce their stress while flipping houses.

So to help you get started with flipping houses on your own, we wrote this article that discusses both the pros and cons of flipping houses by yourself and the best strategies for flipping houses by yourself.

Advantages of Flipping Houses by Yourself

Before we get into the best strategies for flipping houses by yourself.

It’s important to understand both the advantages and disadvantages when it comes to flipping houses on your own, so you can determine if this is the best strategy for you.

Larger Profits as a Solo Flipper

The biggest advantage of flipping houses by yourself is the potentially larger profits at the end of the flip compared to if you had farmed out all or most of the work.

This is because instead of paying subcontractors, agents, designers, etc… to flip the house, you performed all or most of the work yourself, turning costs into profits for your flip.

The larger profits don’t just come from performing the work other people would have done on a 1 to 1 ratio though.

The reason for this is because no one will care more about the bottom line, profit margins, or cost more than you.

So when you’re flipping a house by yourself, you will not only save the cost of the labor, but you will also be fully in the driver’s seat when it comes to the cost and expenditures concerning the house flip.

And by being in this position you will be able to control the costs of materials and design more, creating potential additional savings and larger profits from costs savings on materials and design.

Less Frustration and Babysitting When Flipping Houses by Yourself

While I perform most of the work on my house flips, I do occasionally have other companies or individuals perform specific tasks or work on the house, which often leads to some of my biggest frustrations and headaches.

Because while there are good subcontractors, companies, and agents out there, in my experience they tend to be in the minority.

As finding people to show up let alone do a halfway decent job can be extremely challenging.

And while I have a good list of subcontractors and companies now after many years of trial and error.

In the beginning, I had to burn through a lot of really bad subs and companies that either wouldn’t show up at all, wanted ridiculous amounts of money, or did really bad work.

Gain More Control

Another advantage of flipping a house by yourself is that it provides you better control over the process and end product as well as reduces the chance of confrontation and conflicting opinions about the flip.

While it’s not a bad thing to bring people in for specific problems or questions. Having too many people offering up opinions and advice on the flip can quickly become overwhelming and cause unnecessary complications and confusion around the flip.

By flipping the house on your own it’s much easier to stay on task and more in line with your overall vision and plan for the flip.

Disadvantages of Flipping Houses on Your Own

It’s not all goods news though if you choose to flip houses on your own as there are some drawbacks and negatives.

Everything Takes Longer When Flipping Houses by Yourself

We all know the saying “many hands make light work” referencing the concept that the more people you have working on a job or issue the less difficult the work becomes and the faster it can be completed.

So obviously the opposite is true when you’re only working with two hands. While as mentioned above you can gain some efficiencies by not having too many cooks in the kitchen. If you’re performing every aspect of the flip from acquisition to the sale and everything in between each flip you do is simply going to take longer.

This is one of the major drawbacks to flipping houses by yourself as time is money when flipping houses and speed is the name of the game in order to maximize profits and make a quick return on your investment.

Which leads us to our next con of flipping house on your own.

Flip Fewer Properties

When flipping houses on your own you will not be able to flip as many houses a year as a flipper that farms the majority of the work out on flips.

Which can be a real negative because while you might be able to hold on to more of the profits doing all the work yourself, a flipper who farms out most of the work will be able to flip twice as many houses as you or more potentially making more money overall a year.

As a flipper that does most of the work myself including finding and selling the flips as I am also a licensed real estate agent, I can attest that it definitely puts a ceiling on the number of houses you can flip in a year.

Because as a solo flipper you only have two hands and there are only so many hours in a day.

For me, the max number of houses I can flip in a year by myself is around 4 but I’m ok with this because that number of flips lines up with my income goals and how I prefer to flip houses.

So before you decide to flip houses on your own you have to be ok with house flips taking longer, performing a limited number of flips a year, and having your house flipping capital tied up for longer periods of time which all go hand in hand.

Potential for More Mistakes and Missteps

Even the most seasoned of house flippers make mistakes from time to time when flipping houses so it probably comes as no surprise that beginning house flippers will make even more.

The first thing to understand about mistakes and missteps when it comes to house flipping is that they are going to happen and there is no way to avoid them altogether.

What you can do though is work to avoid mistakes and missteps and at least minimize the damage from those mistakes.

Unfortunately for someone trying to flip houses on their own especially when first starting out, one of the best ways to avoid mistakes is using expert and pro advice and experience along the way that you simply won’t have.

So when flipping houses on your own one of the negatives is the potential to make more mistakes and miscalculations.

Harder to Stay Motivated and Hit Deadlines

One of the biggest struggles for new flippers just starting out is staying motivated, on task, and hitting deadlines especially if they are transitioning from a corporate environment where they might have had four different bosses checking up on them and monitoring their performance.

When you’re flipping houses on your own you will quickly realize that you’re the only one there to get the work done and there is no one looking over your shoulder to make sure you do.

This means as a solo house flipper you must learn to stay motivated and focused on your own or your house flip can quickly stall out leading to longer holding times and lower profits.

Best Strategies for Flipping Houses by Yourself

Now that we know some of the advantages and disadvantages of flipping houses by yourself let’s take a look at some of the best strategies and practices for flipping houses on your own to help ensure that your solo house flips are a success.

Create a Detailed Plan and Timeline

As mentioned above, it can be very easy to become distracted and get off task when working on a flip by yourself.

So it’s important to have a detailed plan and timeline to help make sure you are staying on track and on schedule with your house flip.

While it’s impossible to create a perfect plan and timeline as things will inevitably pop up and not go as planned along the way, it’s important to create as detailed of a plan as possible to give you a good working framework for the flip.

Having a detailed plan will prevent you from showing up every day and trying to figure out what to do. Instead, the detailed plan and timeline will let you know exactly what you should be working on and when the work should be completed helping you avoid a lot of wasted time.

A detailed house-flipping plan and timeline will include items such as the scope of work to be completed, who will be completing specific work, the materials, and finishes that will be used in the rehab and their associated costs, and when specific work and tasks will be completed by.

Stay Focused and Complete the Task at Hand

One of the most important skills to master when figuring out how to flip houses by yourself is learning to stay focused and on task. By staying focused and not getting distracted you will be able to avoid a lot of downtime from switching back and forth between different jobs.

One of the easiest ways to stay focused and on task while flipping houses is to break the flip into separate sections or steps to follow in chronological order.

Once the house flip has been broken down into more manageable steps it will be much less overwhelming and much easier to stay focused and on point as you go throughout the flip.

While this is not an exhaustive list and your house flipping steps might look different depending on your particular situation and flip, below are the general steps that I follow to stay on task when flipping houses.

House Flipping Steps

Research and locate potential houses to flip.
Purchase and acquire a property to flip.
Make sure the property is secure and install new locks.
Check to make sure all utilities and mechanicals are working and stable on the property.
Develop a detailed plan and budget for the flip.
Basic clean and trash out of the property.
Cut down any overgrown landscaping or grass.
Demolition
Perform carpentry and drywall work.
Install new mechanicals and systems as needed such as roofs, windows, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc…
Interior and exterior painting.
Work on fit and finish such as cabinets, countertops, plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, doorknobs, cabinets pulls, etc…
Install and freshen up landscaping.
Install flooring.
Complete final punch-out list of needed items.
Perform final and thorough cleaning.
List home for sale.
Market home until sold.
Monitor and stay on top of the closing process.
Close on the property, collect your profits, and start the process over again.

Learn How to Wear Different Hats Well

If you plan to flip houses by yourself, it’s imperative that you not only learn how to wear different hats, but you learn how to wear them well.

Meaning that you will need to act as your own real estate agent, marketer, researcher, contractor, subcontractor, designer, landscaper, etc.. and perform all of these jobs and tasks at a high level.

If you feel you are weak at even one of these different jobs you must increase your skill level for that work to an acceptable level or hire the job out, as a poor performance in any one of these house flipping jobs or skills can cause the whole house flip to suffer or fail.

Always be Learning and Improving

Even performing one job for a house flip requires a lot of skill and knowledge so if you plan to perform all functions of a house flip as a solo flipper you need to spend a lot of time working on and improving your skill level and knowledge in all the respective fields needed for a successful house flip.

By doing this you will help to ensure that you continue to have successful flips and stay up with the current housing and real estate market trends.

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help When Flipping Houses by Yourself

While this whole article has been about how to flip a house by yourself don’t be afraid to ask for help.

No one person can know everything especially about a topic as complex and everchanging as flipping houses.

So if you run into an issue or problem or don’t know how to proceed, seek out the advice and skills of a professional. While you might have to open your wallet a little bit a professional will always save you time and money in the long run.

Want more house flipping tips? Check out our article “House Flipping Tips from an Actual House Flipper“.