The Ticket House: Staging Pics
Here are some STAGING pictures of The Ticket House:
Front of House
Living Room
More Living Room
Living Room to Stairs/Dining Room
Kitchen
Kitchen to Dining/Living Rooms
Dining Room
Master Bedroom
Master Bathroom
Master Bath Tub
One of the Secondary Bedrooms
Shared Bathroom
Hey J:
Place looks great.
What is that color you use on the walls?
Thanks!
looks amazing. just one suggestion. the master bath would look better if the picture was taken at a lower angle.
looks amazing though.
Thanks for the photos. House looks great! Did you change from Realist Beige or is it just the flash on the camera. The color looks totally different. Also, I love the sheet goods in the kitchen and remember seeing it in one your other houses. Any chance I could get the name of product?
Looks amazing!!
I was looking over the budget on this one and it doesn’t look like there was much to do. Are you picking these types (minor cosmetic work) of properties up pretty easily? I would think you would be competing with not only other investors but also OO’s? Also, is your contractor breaking the costs out in such detail or is this you estimating the costs for each item? Do you ever include a contingency factor in your estimates? I’m amazed at how detailed your budgets are and how you manage to come on budget just about every time.
Congrats to you and Carol, house looks great, as usual.
Hey Justin –
Most of the properties we buy would not pass an FHA inspection, so even the ones that are in pretty good shape don’t have much competition from owner occupants. We certainly see competition from other investors (especially for these properties in good shape), but we have great relationships with some of the bigger REO agents in our area, and that helps.
In terms of budget breakdowns, many of the renovation tasks are done by our main contracting crew, and the guy who runs that crew always breaks things down to this level. The numbers you see on the final analysis posts are always our actual costs based on the breakdowns the contractors provide.
We’re able to consistently come in on budget for two reasons:
1. We’ve worked with the same contractors over and over and over and we’ve gotten to know exactly what they charge for pretty much everything they might do;
2. We generally purchase the same types of houses, built in the same time period and in the same condition, so we know what to expect in terms of renovation issues, material needs, etc.
Occasionally we’ll run into surprises — for example, if you read through my last 8 sold houses or so, you’ll noticed that in about 5 of them we had unexpected plumbing issues — but we’re pretty conservative in our numbers, and always round up. So, there’s generally 5% or so contingency already built into our preliminary budgets. If we ever run into anything big, we will make adjustments along the way — for example, we may choose to not put in hardwoods if we’re over budget or we may choose to keep some bathroom vanities that we’d otherwise replace.
So, just because we hit our budgets doesn’t necessarily mean we didn’t run into surprises!
Hi Kristine –
Still using Realist Beige (for about 25 houses now)…if it doesn’t look that way, it’s just from the camera flash or from using Photoshop to improve the quality of the image.
Btw, I’m not sure what “sheet goods” are! If you can explain, I’m sure my wife will be happy to tell you where she got it… 🙂
Hi Brian –
We use Sherwin Williams “Realist Beige” (SW6078) for all our interiors.
Hi J. Sheet goods must be a regional thing. It refers to vinyl flooring….the kind that is sold by by the square yard and installed with adhesive, usually in 12′ or 15′ widths. As opposed to vinyl planking or vinyl peel and stick squares.
To be honest I find most vinyl sheet goods to be low end rehab materials, even though the cost doesn’t always reflect that. I speak from both rehab experience and because I have vinyl sheeting it in my own home. Konecto, Armstrong and other companies make better, harder, thicker vinyl planking flooring products and it looks way better. Vinyl planking is a floating floor with adhesive side tabs. The cheapest version is sold at Home Depot and called Allure. Some of the better vinyl planking has very realistic wood colors and grain is truly amazing when installed.
So, whenever I see vinyl sheeting, which I know to be at least half the cost of the more durable products AND that looks attractive, I’m gonna want to know what it is! Thanks, Kristine
Hi J,
The house looks great, as usual. It looks like you went with new cabinet colors for this one… One question I’ve been meaning to ask you: Why do you not install backsplashes? I’ve noticed on almost all of your houses that you don’t do this (I think you may have on your first couple). Is this because of costs? Or do you think that it’s just something that doesn’t matter enough to the buyer to spend money on?
I’m very interested to hear your response. Keep up the great work!
CM
J,
Sorry to spam your board here, but I meant to ask one other question. What are your feelings toward popcorn ceilings? I can never tell if your houses have them or not in the pre-staging photos. Have you not had to deal with this? If you have, do you leave it, paint it, or remove it?
Thanks again!
CM
Hey Chad –
The cabinets for this one are original — we just painted them instead of replacing them. That’s why they look different than the one we normally install ourselves.
As for backsplashes, we just don’t believe they make any difference in our ability to sell or at what price. So, any money spent on a backsplash would just be wasted (and I don’t believe our buyers really care). We used to do them early on, but our experience with this level of house/buyer has indicated to us that it’s just not necessary.
As for popcorn ceilings, we come across them every once in a while (probably 3-5 times so far). We generally will scrape the ceilings to remove them, especially if they are in the main living areas. They just look horrible and I’d hate to live in a house that had them… 🙂
Hi Kristine –
Yes, we use vinyl flooring in most of our bathrooms and kitchens (the only time we don’t use it is when we install hardwoods in a kitchen or if there is original tile in a bathroom that is in good shape). The stuff we use is 11 mm (good quality), and because we live about an hour from Dalton, GA (known as the “carpet capital of the world”), we buy direct from the manufacturer and get material at about 40% of retail price. So, the value is fantastic.
The vinyl we use looks a lot like tile and we really like it. While I would use it in any house that wasn’t geared towards first-time homebuyers, in our entry-level houses, our buyers have no issue with it, and it looks great.
J: 11 mm is good quality and it would definitely work for most of the homes I deal with. Any chance I could get the name of the product?
Chad re popcorn ceilings: I think we all agree that we hate them, but popcorn ceilings to me is what back splashes are to J. Where I am, the customer really doesn’t mind. But I do! I rehabbed a 1979 house with popcorn ceilings in January. All 1600 square feet of it, except bathrooms, closets and the galley part of the kitchen were not only spray textured, but painted over with light BROWN paint. SEMI GLOSS paint. One room was special. It was painted dark olive green. The whole interior was poop colored semi-gloss. The former owner had rented a sprayer….well, the rest is history.
You can’t remove popcorn texture very easily if it’s painted over with something that is water resistant. We would have had to use paint stripper. Can you imagine? I debated whether or not to cover it with sheetrock or perhaps luan. In the end, I had the painters spray it white. Texture takes a lot of spray work to cover dark colors. No one who looked at the house cared a fig about the texture. They liked the white ceilings and trim and loved the tan walls. Go figure. 🙂
J,
I’m surprised to hear that about about the backsplashes, but it’s very good information. However, I couldn’t agree more about the popcorn ceilings. I know I wouldn’t buy a house to live in that had them. Also, I would have never thought that was vinyl in your bathrooms!
Thank you (and Kristine) for the information! I learn something new everyday… (or at least every time I come to 123flip.com!)
CM
J,
Which of the four groups (buying, rehab, holding, selling) would you recommend I categorize staging costs if I’m paying a fee for staging?
Thanks!
Hey Josh –
Staging expenses are part of Selling Costs for me…
Hi J. Are the kitchen cabinets painted with actual paint? Or is it some kind of wood stain product(s)? The wood grain seems to be coming through nicely. Are cabinets something your paint crew does well?
Hey Kristine,
For that house, the cabinets are painted (with paint). They were first sanded and primed.
Personally, I’m not thrilled with how painted cabinets look — and I’m not a fan of restaining either. I much prefer new cabinets in all our flips, but sometimes I’m overruled by my better half, who has a better handle on what is needed to resell at market value… 🙂
It’s a long thread so sorry if I missed it but I think it’s important to mention that vynil in the baths and kitchen works at this price point of a house. You would not be able to get away with it at higher prices, say $150k and up…IMHO
when you sell the house do you keep the staging props? or you sell it to the new home buyer? noob question.. haha
Hey David –
Good question. Sometimes, the buyers will want some/all of the furniture, in which case we’ll either negotiate it into the deal or sell it separately to them. When they don’t ask for furniture, we just pack it up and move it to the next house.
Looks great J! Your rehabs always do!
I am very enjoyed to see that about STAGING pictures. You might be talked about below picture are very nice.I am waiting for your another great post thanks..,..:)