LIVE FREE - THE ART OF THE TWO-YEAR HOME FLIP


Chapter 3




IMPROVING THE HOME


Assuming you now own the perfect house for a
two-year investment, you need to build some addi-
tional equity into the home. This is done by making
material improvements in specific places that will re-
turn the most value possible. Anyone who has watched
television over the last few years has heard someone
say that kitchens and bathrooms are the best places
to make improvements to your home, if you hope to
get a return on your investment. For the most part,
this is true. However, if you have a decent master
bathroom and a bedroom with a sinkhole in the floor,
you might want to start with the bedroom.

The kitchen is the heart of the home.
When remodeling your kitchen, the best return
on your investment will come from appliances, counter
tops, cabinets and lighting. Updating flooring and

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LIVE FREE - THE ART OF THE TWO-YEAR HOME FLIP


back-splashes are affordable and usually necessary as
well. Here are a few tricks.

• Angle your back splash tile at 45 degrees as
opposed to perfect squares. It provides con-
trast to your cabinets and counters.

• Use complementing colors for your tile grout –
never use dark tile with white grout. It will
be filthy long before the two-year mark.

• Try to refinish or antique older cabinets before
throwing in the towel and buying new. There
is a fantastic charm to painted and distressed
cabinets that will save you big time.

• Kitchen floors do not have to be exquisite, but
they do have to be attractive. Some ceramic
tiles have great slate, travertine and other
natural stone looks, and sell for very affordable
prices. In a typical first time home-buyer
market, nice linoleum is often acceptable.


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