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Profit margins on home flipping have fallen lately, with the average return on investment hovering around 25 percent. While not every home flipping trend looks so negative, those lower margins make it important to get every advantage you can.

If you’re new to the process of flipping a house, you’ll need a hand. The process has some complications you won’t see on television, and getting the most out of a flip takes time and effort.

Keep reading to learn some of our best tips for flipping houses. We’ve consulted some of the best house-flipping contractors out there to build a list of strong strategies.

1. Inspect, Inspect, Inspect

If you think you’ve taken a close enough look at the house, you probably haven’t taken a close enough look at the house. Inspections don’t do as much damage to your wallet as unexpected repairs.

Get a professional to look the house over before you buy it. Get a professional to look the house over after the work is done. Get a professional to…

… well, you get the idea. Getting an inspection before the purchase will be essential in setting your budget and expectations for a flip.

Any house-flipping contractors you hire over the course of the project will adhere to the maxim, “measure twice, cut once.” You should think that way, too.

2. Know Your Location

What types of people live in the area your prospective house occupies? What attracts people to the neighborhood? What downsides does the neighborhood have?

If the housing market looks stagnant in the area, with homes sitting unsold for months, look at why. Has the neighborhood become less safe? Did a major employer move offices to another region?

If you can’t answer questions like those, you can’t sell the house to others. If you want to flip a home for profits, you need to think like a salesperson. Do your market research before embarking on a flip.

3. Set Reasonable Expectations

As the cost of building materials rises and the housing market shifts, turning a profit on a flipped house gets harder. Some houses sell at a loss, and sitting on the market for a long time increases the chance of such a result.

Your first flip won’t be a wild success that doubles your money. The typical result comes in at more like 25%. Don’t hesitate to dream, but keep your dreams reasonable or they’ll swallow you whole.

An ill-thought-out house flipping can turn into a long, expensive misadventure. Once you have that information on your location and the house, make sure your expectations match that data.

4. Never Overpay

Once you have all that information and a sense of what kind of timeline and investment will bear fruit, make sure you stick to it. Avoid overpaying for a house.

If you get the house at a reasonable price, a lot of other things can take unexpected turns and still work out. If you overpay by 10 percent, on the other hand, your margins will end up razor-thin.

Would you take on unnecessary risks or pay too much for a home you wanted to live in? Would you leap at a job opportunity that seemed sketchy to you? House flipping as a business has some similarities to both, so don’t take those risks while flipping either.

5. Connect With Others

If you don’t enjoy talking to other people, house flipping won’t work out for you. Not only do you need to spend time talking to contractors, but you also need to start networking with buyers, financers, real estate agents, and other stakeholders. The process of flipping a house involves a lot of people with competing needs and desires.

Knowing a potential buyer can speed up the flipping process. If you keep track of people who would be interested in your house, you can sometimes sell as soon as you complete renovations.

Other house flippers can also help you get familiar with the process. Offering a potential mentor a cut from your first successful sale can help with their motivation.

6. Know Your Limits

Knowing your limits will help you in any endeavor, but when it comes to house flipping, you need to know what you can and can’t accomplish with your DIY skills. A shoddy DIY job will lower the value of your project on the market and can even end up costing you more if you end up hiring a contractor anyway. 

If you are considering starting a repair job without the help of trained professionals, ask yourself whether you would do the job for a neighbor. If you don’t have that level of confidence in your skills, pick up a phone and not a hammer.

Overconfidence can turn any project into a money sink. Don’t forget that sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and a job that looks easy can spiral out into a long slog if you do haphazard work.

7. Don’t Make Too Many Improvements

When dealing with a house that feels like a blank slate, you’ll often feel the temptation to invest in trendy light fixtures or high-end window treatments. If the house is in an area where that’s within expectations for the market, that’s fine, but try to avoid over-improving the house.

The people who buy the house will likely have their own preferences and sense of style. When they see your overdesigned kitchen setup, they’ll think about how much that must be driving the price up. Remember that when you’re flipping a house, you’ve chosen to connect someone else with a property.

Stick to functional improvements unless something looks hideous. If you do need to make significant improvements to get the house to the point where it’ll sell, try to keep them understated and as cheap as the local market will tolerate. If your buyer wants something outlandish, let the buyer handle that.

Do your best to remember who you worked with for those improvements, though. If buyers want to make their own renovations, telling them who performed the kitchen remodel during the flip will build goodwill among all involved.

8. Improve Curb Appeal

Working on the home’s interior can take over the whole project, but remember that a buyer’s first impression of the home goes a long way. A 2020 study indicated that an attractive exterior increased the sale price of a home by 7% or more. If you’re flipping a house, that’s a lot of return on investment for simple improvements.

The slower the real estate market moves in an area, the more curb appeal affects the sale price of the home. If market trends in your area show signs of slow, irregular sales patterns, consider spending that time making improvements to the exterior of the house instead of the interior if you have to make a choice.

Common, simple improvements to curb appeal include fixing cracks and irregularities in pavement, lawn-keeping, and landscaping. These improvements can also speed up the process of finding a buyer, so don’t neglect them.

9. Shore Up Site Security

This slips a lot of house flippers’ minds, especially on their first few projects. Depending on your process, you may leave valuable tools or personal items in the house. Even if insurance covers your tools, you’ll still lose time and effort if a break-in occurs.

Change the locks when you start the process. Make sure to lock both doors and windows when you leave each night. In some neighborhoods, a doorbell camera might help as well.

During some processes, such as wall removal, you may not have the chance to secure the site. If that’s the case, make sure not to leave any valuables behind.

10. Read More Tips For Flipping Houses

This might sound like a circular conversation, but the best thing you can do for yourself if you want to flip a home is to keep an open mind. Don’t assume that you know everything. These tips will serve as a great start, but if you stay hungry for new knowledge, you’ll do better in the long run.

House flipping mistakes can happen at any time, and sometimes things that used to work well stop working. If you don’t use any of the other tips on this list, remember to stick to this one. Developing your knowledge over time will help more than treating this article like a one-and-done reading.

Catch You on the Flip Side

Keep our tips for flipping houses in mind the next time you start on a project. With the current state of the housing market and the cost of building materials, you need to keep tips like these in mind if you want to get the most out of your investment.

If you need services like a kitchen remodel or wall removal as part of your flip, give us a call. We can give you a rough estimate within 48 hours.

If you are like typical American families, you probably spend the majority of your time (400 hours a year) in the kitchen rather than in any other room in the house. Not only are you cooking in there, but also eating meals as a family, spending quality time together, or having guests over. 

This means that your kitchen should be up to par for all this socialization. You don’t want to feel embarrassed by your kitchen space and be anxious about inviting people over.

Don’t have much money to spend on kitchen upgrades? Here are 11 of them that are easy to undertake and will leave your wallet feeling happy. 

1. Update Your Lighting Fixtures

This is one of the easiest ways to bring more light into your kitchen and make it look more modern. Too many older kitchens look like they could be the setting for a horror movie, with a dark and dank atmosphere. 

Nowadays, there are lots of lighting options available for cheap that you could install yourself without much problem. If you aren’t sure about doing electrical work, then hire a professional electrician to help you with the task. 

2. Add Some Open Shelving

If you have empty wall space for this, adding open shelving is a great way to add more storage capacity to your kitchen and reduce the clutter. One of the main reasons why a kitchen looks old or ugly is because there’s just too much stuff sitting around the counters distracting the eye.

Sometimes it’s easier to declutter if you have the storage space to place items on. And with open shelving, it’s easy to see exactly what your kitchen has and it makes it more likely you will use all your kitchen implements to the max. 

3. Boost the Greenery in Your Kitchen

Another easy way to perform a cheap kitchen remodel and give it a more modern look is to add some plants. Pick some plants that speak to your soul and place them throughout your kitchen, picking spots that are out of the way so you don’t trip on them every time you walk past.

Also, if you do a lot of cooking and use herbs in your cooking frequently, then consider adding a herb wall to your kitchen. These are a great addition because you can use them to add fresh herbs to your meals making them healthy and delicious, and they don’t take up any space at all.

4. Modernize Your Backsplash

When was the last time you updated your backsplash? If you can’t remember or you have been using the same backsplash that the house came with, it’s time to replace it. 

There are many cool and funky designs for backsplashes available for you to take advantage of. Look around and find something that goes with the rest of your kitchen’s ambiance. 

If you want something easy to install, there are stick-on backsplash tiles that you could buy as well. 

5. Add a Wooden Counter

A fantastic way to conduct kitchen updates is by transforming your kitchen counter. You probably use your kitchen counter every single day for a variety of tasks, so it could probably do with some upgrading.

There are many ways to do that. You could add a butcher block wooden countertop. These are cheap and easy to install.

Another option is to look for salvaged granite or stone remnants to use on your countertop. Again, these are much cheaper than buying new granite or stone countertops. 

You could also use a countertop painting kit and upgrade your countertop for cheap in that manner. 

There are even kits you could use to make your countertop look like it’s concrete, which is a great look for a warehouse-style kitchen that some folks are loving nowadays. No one will ever know the difference. 

6. Find an Antique Faucet

A great way to jazz up your kitchen is to add a new faucet to your kitchen sink. If you are using just a typical stainless steel faucet, then consider upgrading to something antique. Go around to the antique stores and find something that appeals to your sensibilities. 

Not interested in going antiquing? Then visit the nearest hardware store and buy a tall modern faucet to add to your kitchen sink.

Many modern faucets also come with additional functionality, which is nice to have when you are rushing around to clean the kitchen and get to bed sooner. 

7. Paint the Walls

Who doesn’t love a painting party? If you haven’t refreshed the paint on your kitchen or bedroom walls in a while, then why not take the chance to do that this upcoming year? 

You can make a family event out of it by bringing in friends and family and ordering pizza after to celebrate. 

There are so many gorgeous paint colors to pick from as well, so you might run into difficulty choosing. Get the whole family involved and find a color that everyone would like on your kitchen walls.

Or if you have a particular color theme in the rest of your home’s decor, then follow that. 

8. Add Some New Hardware

Your young ones might bang the kitchen drawers shut every single day several times a day. This might result in a lot more wear and tear on these poor items than you would like.

An easy way to make your cabinets and drawers look fresh again is by adding some new hardware to them. This is probably one of the most inexpensive kitchen renovation tactics because you can find cheap knobs and pulls for cabinets easily.

You could either go searching for them in antique stores or a thrift or salvage shop. Can’t find all the same kind? Then mix and match to create a more interesting setting.

Sometimes you can find customized hardware on a store like Etsy, which means you support local small businesses. This is always a positive. 

Or you could paint the hardware if you don’t want to bother buying new ones.

But new ones shouldn’t run you more than $200, so it’s a cheap but worthy investment to make in your kitchen. 

9. Refresh Your Cabinets

Don’t like your old dingy cabinets anymore? Were they white at some point, but have yellowed over the years because of all the smoke and exhaust from cooking and other kitchen activities? 

Freshen them up by painting them in a brilliant new color. Something like maroon or dark blue would give your kitchen an entirely new face. Or you could stay true to the modern minimalist style and paint them stark white or cream white. 

Make sure to match the ambiance and color scheme of the rest of your kitchen when you paint them. 

If you have wooden cabinets, you can update them by sanding and refinishing them which is an easy and cheap fix. 

10. Hang a Sliding Pantry Door

This one isn’t something most people think of when updating their kitchen, but is again a very affordable way to add a rustic feel to your kitchen. 

It’s easy to buy old doors from salvage shops or get a custom door made by your nearby carpenters. Then have these doors slide to cover your open pantry shelving, so you can hide all your goodies when guests are around or when you are not using them. 

This is also a great way to save space since a normal door would always be in the way and if you have a small kitchen, it might not be a viable option. 

If you are the handy type, then you could make a weekend project out of this one, searching for a door, sanding and finishing it, and hanging it up on your kitchen wall. It could be fun and could end up teaching you a lot about DIY jobs. 

11. Remove a Load-Bearing Wall

If you have a tiny kitchen and you would like to increase the space available, then you could get a contractor to remove a load-bearing wall and open up your kitchen space a bit. 

It’s a bigger job than the other ones mentioned above, but it’s still a cheap and effective way of revamping your kitchen space and making it look more modern. Never undertake this job yourself, since it’s quite complicated and requires an expert’s touch.

You can learn more about it here.

Kitchen Upgrades That Will Make You a Happy Cook

Spending hours in the kitchen and not enjoying it is such a sad proposition. Once you complete some of the cheap affordable kitchen upgrades mentioned above, you will be a happy camper indeed. 

Don’t forget to contact us if you have any questions about removing a load-bearing wall or any other wall removal issues.

You’re a homeowner who takes pride in the quality of your property. You’re willing to invest time and resources into its care and maintenance. 

Perhaps you’ve recently decided that it’s time to upgrade your kitchen. It’s a smaller kitchen space than you’d like, so you’re curious about how you might make it seem larger. 

Well, you’ve come to just the right place to get started. Outlined below are five key ways to optimize your small kitchen remodel. 

It’s worth noting that you’re not alone in investing in your home improvement project. Consider this statistic about the home improvement industry throughout the United States. In 2021 alone, it was valued at over $538 billion in revenue. 

In other words, it’s worthwhile to spend resources upgrading your home. Keep reading for today’s top small kitchen remodel ideas. 

1. Declutter and Reorganize

One important way to maximize the space in a small kitchen is to get rid of any unnecessary items and store only what you need. This means going through your cabinets and drawers and getting rid of anything you no longer use or need.

By doing this, you will have more space to store the things you do need and use. This makes it easier to find what you are looking for.

For example, perhaps you have a lot of dishes that you never use. If so, consider donating them to a charity or storing them in a separate area of the house. This will make it easier to find the dishes you use on a regular basis and free up valuable cabinet space in your small kitchen.

Another way to maximize space is to use drawer dividers and organizers to keep items organized. Drawer dividers help to keep utensils, knives, and other small items from getting jumbled up in a drawer.

Organizers can be used to store larger items such as pots and pans or baking sheets. By using organizers, you can store these items more efficiently and free up valuable cabinet space.

2. Optimize Storage

If you have a small kitchen, you may be struggling to find enough storage space for all of your cooking supplies and ingredients. One thing to do is install cabinets that go up to the ceiling. By doing this, you create additional storage space for items that you don’t use every day, such as holiday dishes or specialty cooking equipment.

Cabinets that go up to the ceiling are also a great way to keep your kitchen organized and clutter-free. That way, you can store all of your items in one place.

Pull-out shelves and cabinets could be convenient, too. These types of shelves and cabinets allow you to access the items stored in the back of your cabinets without having to dig through everything in the front. This can be especially helpful for lower cabinets, where it can be difficult to see and reach items in the back.

We can help with your kitchen remodeling planning, too. We hope you learn more about what we do to help homeowners like you. 

3. Choose Smaller Appliances

When planning a kitchen remodel, it’s important to consider the size of your appliances. This is of particular value if you have a small kitchen.  

Smaller refrigerators take up less space than traditional models. Plus, they can still provide plenty of storage space for your food and drinks. Built-in refrigerators are also a great option as they can be designed to fit seamlessly into your cabinetry and can save valuable floor space.

This can create a more streamlined and efficient look for your kitchen while still providing you with all the functionality you need. Remember, even leading industry experts recognize the value of intentional interior design. 

Another way to maximize space in a small kitchen is to use a compact dishwasher or a countertop dishwasher instead of a full-sized one. Compact dishwashers are designed to fit in smaller spaces, so they take up less room in your kitchen. They are also more energy-efficient and use less water than full-sized dishwashers, which can help to save on your utility bills.  

4. Utilize Vertical Space

Another way to optimize your small kitchen remodel cost is to install shelves or racks on your walls to keep items off the counter. This not only frees up valuable counter space, but it can also be a stylish way to display your kitchenware. You can install shelves or racks to store items such as spices, cookbooks, or dishes.

This design trick has gained popularity in recent years. This might be worth knowing if your intention with your kitchen remodeling project is to sell the house soon. For further guidance, check out this article about the benefits of house flipping. 

You might also consider hanging a magnetic knife strip. This allows you to store your knives in a safe and accessible way while freeing up space. A magnetic knife strip can be installed on a wall or on the side of a cabinet, and it can be used to store other metal kitchen tools as well.

Lastly, using a rolling cart can be a great option for a small kitchen. A rolling cart can be used to store handy items. It can also be used as a portable workspace, too, giving you additional counter space when you need it. 

5. Create Illusions of Space

When remodeling a small kitchen, it’s important to use design techniques that make the space feel larger and more open. One way to do this is to use light colors and natural light. Light colors, such as white or light gray, can make a space feel larger by reflecting light and creating the illusion of more space.

Additionally, allowing natural light into the space can also make it feel larger and more open, which would be ideal when remodeling a kitchen. This can be achieved by adding windows or by using sheer window treatments that allow natural light to filter into the space. Overall, using light colors and natural light can be a simple yet effective way to make your small kitchen feel more spacious and welcoming.

It might also help to choose reflective surfaces. Reflective surfaces, such as glossy cabinets or a mirrored backsplash, can help to bounce light around the space and make it feel larger. Remember, we can ensure the stability of your kitchen no matter what your plans are. 

Optimize Your Small Kitchen Remodel Project

Now that you have some valuable interior design ideas, it’s time to move forward. Your small kitchen remodel is worth investing in. 

That’s where our team of experts can help. We encourage you to reach out and learn more about our kitchen remodel services available to you now. 

Studies show that homes with a sagging roof are 3.9 times more likely to experience roach sightings in their living space. The structural elements of your property are essential for keeping pests out of your home. They also prevent your building from having roof damage. 

For instance, a loading bearing wall can be removed to provide better structural walls. But you must be careful, as one wrong move could damage your property. 

So, how do you know if a wall is load-bearing?

Here are a few ways to tell if a wall is load-bearing depending on the different types of walls and their design. 

What Is a Load Bearing Wall?

Most people come across load-bearing walls when they are remodeling or flipping homes, as this is when you want to create more space, free up living room areas, and implement new design features. But how do you know if a wall is load-bearing compared to other walls? 

Unlike other walls, a load-bearing wall is a crucial part of your home structure as it carries the weight of a floor or roof. In contrast, a partition wall can often stand independently and doesn’t carry the weight of other structural elements. So, if you want to remove a load-bearing wall, you need to identify it and hire a professional to complete the job. 

A professional construction company will be able to assess the situation in your home and find ways to transfer the load to another structural element without harming your property. 

How Do You Know if a Wall Is Load-Bearing?

The first place to determine where your load-bearing walls are located is to look at the blueprints of your home. This is an easy way of understanding the design of your home without ripping out walls or making holes in your flooring. Typically, most homes will have a blueprint available, so it will only take a few minutes to discover load-bearing walls in the design. 

What to Look For on the Blueprints

You don’t need a qualification in construction to see load-bearing walls on a blueprint. Usually, they are marked with an “S” to make it clear from the rest of the home. But, even if you can identify the load-bearing wall by yourself, you shouldn’t attempt to remove them without professional help. 

Another way to tell if a wall is load-bearing on a blueprint is to watch for wall beams that go into the property’s foundation. For the most part, exterior walls are load-bearing, making it easier to spot them on the blueprint. 

Floor joists also indicate load-bearing walls as these elements support the floor. If you remove these walls without the proper methods, it could destroy the floor structure, so you need to double-check the placement of floor joists. 

The most prominent part of the home where you can find a load bearing wall is the center of the space. Think of houses like a body; a heart in the center holds the whole property together. So, the center is where you need to balance out the different loads from other home areas. 

Sometimes, walls with large ends and columns are also load-bearing. 

Look at the Header and Beam

Looking for a header and beam can be tricky if you’ve never worked with these structures before, but if there’s a large support beam, there is probably a load-bearing wall nearby. You can see timber support beams where load-bearing walls are located, as it is a durable, sturdy material that can take a lot of weight. 

Timber is a popular choice for engineers as it is an effective addition to your load-bearing wall and can last for a long time with the correct maintenance. 

Load-bearing beams can be found in the ceiling so you can spot them quickly with a professional inspection. 

Is It Safe to Remove a Load-Bearing Wall?

Now that we’ve covered how essential load-bearing walls are to the overall structure of your home, it can be daunting thinking about removing these elements from the property. There’s no denying that removing load-bearing walls is a complex job, but with the right team, it can be done seamlessly without any long-term damage. 

Removing a load-bearing wall can enhance your living areas with more light and space. So, investing in a professional service is worthwhile to complete the removal. If you want to increase the amount of natural light in your living space, getting rid of load-bearing walls gives your more opportunities to experiment with light design.

Your space will also feel more significant when you remove load-bearing walls as it allows you to minimize the walls and creates a feeling of more floor space. This is great if you plan to sell the property and increase its value.  

A simple trick of removing a load-bearing wall can be an effective and easy solution to making your home more desirable.

Things to Know About Load Bearing Wall Removals

Like any home remodeling, such as placing a new kitchen countertop, you need to be prepared for the amount of dust and debris that a load-bearing wall removal job creates in your space. That’s why it’s essential to plan ahead and cover your important pieces of furniture to protect them during the removal. 

You can consider repainting when the load-bearing walls have been removed to give your skirting boards and wall a fresh look. A professional construction company will bring its dust screens to help prevent the mess, so you won’t need to worry about days of cleaning afterward.

Hire the Best Team to Remove Load-Bearing Walls

Finding the right team to remove your load-bearing walls can be challenging when there are so many companies online selling services. Now you know the answer to the question, “how do you know if a wall is load-bearing?” you need to find a professional construction company with years of experience and knowledge. 

Our team has 21 years of combined skills in removing load-bearing walls, so we know how to tackle any structural issues and maintain the quality of your home. 

Contact us to book a consultation today, and let us give your home a makeover this year. 

Statistics show that around 1 in 4 homeowners have some kind of replacement or construction project going. This shows how many homeowners plan to make adjustments to their homes.

One type of project that homeowners may want to tackle is load-bearing wall removal. Although this is a project that is quite large and requires certain steps to be taken.

Load-bearing walls are very important in a home and must be carefully replaced. You do not want to just go around messing with load-bearing walls without a plan.

Keep reading to find out more about load-bearing wall removal and what you need to do for this project.

Load-Bearing Wall Removal Guide

If you are a homeowner or you are house flipping in Houston, you may want to remove a load-bearing wall. If this is the case, there are certain steps that you need to take.

Load-bearing walls are very important for the structure of a building and hold everything up. You cannot simply go around pulling these walls down without doing it the correct way.

Wall moving in general is quite a large project to tackle in a home. This is something that requires forethought and some knowledge when it comes to how to approach this project.

If your current project is removing a load-bearing wall, there are a few things you need to do. As long as you follow the steps, you should be able to remove a load-bearing wall without any issues.

Get Permits

Before you begin to remove a load-bearing wall, you may need to get permits. This is not always required, but you do need to look into it before starting this project.

Permitting authorities regulate different kinds of home projects you can do. Removing load-bearing walls is a project that falls under projects that may need permits.

You may need to report what you are doing and show that you will replace that wall. In some instances, you may even need an engineer’s approval before starting this project.

This is important because these types of walls are part of the overall structure of the building. It is also very likely that they contain outlets and wires that are necessary for the home.

You never want to take on a project like this before making sure you are doing it the legal way. It is better to be safe than sorry by checking to make sure you have the permits required.

Build Support

Once you are sure that you can legally remove this wall, you need to build support. This supporting wall should be similar to the structure of the original load-bearing wall.

Load-bearing wall removal before and after requires you to have a temporary support wall. This is not going to be long-term but will help to support the joists until the wall is replaced.

The support should be able to fit into the section where the wall went to support the structure. You should plan on having the support and setting it up the same day that you remove the wall.

You may be able to build this ahead of time, or you will have to build it once the wall is removed. Either way, the most important thing is that you get it set up the same day that the wall is removed.

The temporary structure will help to keep everything in place until the load-bearing wall is replaced. You do not want to leave this area as is since it is under a lot of pressure.

Remove the Wall

When you are ready to start removing the load-bearing wall, there are a few things you need to do. The first thing you should always do is shut off the power at the electrical panel.

It is also a good idea to lay down plastic sheeting to protect the rest of the house. You may also want to gear yourself with masks and goggles to protect your eyes and nose.

You will need to start by removing baseboards, vent covers, and anything else from the wall. Remove the drywall from both sides of the wall and knock out the wall studs.

You will also need to remove the plates from the floor and ceiling and any nails sticking out from the framing. Be careful when you are doing this, and watch to make sure the surrounding structure is intact.

Add Load Bearing Beam

The most important thing to do once you have removed a load-bearing wall is to add support. You will need to add permanent support that is going to help this area now that the wall is gone.

People usually do this with a load-bearing A-beam that is installed at the top of the opening. Although, there are many load-bearing wall ideas that you can use.

You can also use a structural beam or a structural beam and post to hold up this section. You should choose depending on the area of the home and how much the wall was bearing.

Can You Remove a Load Bearing Wall Yourself?

You can remove a load-bearing wall yourself, but it isn’t always recommended. Most people recommend hiring a load-bearing wall removal contractor instead.

A professional is going to have experience and know exactly what they are doing. When you choose this option, the project will be safer and will go more smoothly.

Only those with some construction experience should attempt to take on this project by themselves.

How to Remove a Load-Bearing Wall

If your home has a wall that you want to remove, you may want to know about load-bearing wall removal. This is a type of wall that you can remove, but you need to do it the correct way.

Is there a load-bearing wall that you want to be removed? Contact us today at Load Bearing Wall Pros for an estimate.

More than 5.6 million houses were sold in 2020 in the United States alone. Many more houses have sold since then and a lot of them are houses that have been flipped. House flipping usually entails buying a house for cheap, fixing it up, and then selling it for a higher price to gain a profit. 

While flipping a house can be complicated at first, it can also be very beneficial once you figure it out. But what should you know about house flipping and how does it work? How can you know that you’re making the right decisions to make a profit on the houses that you’re investing in?

Keep reading and learn more about the benefits of house flipping below. 

The Perfect Part-time Job

If you feel that you’re in a dead-end job and that you’re not making the money that you hoped you’d be making, learning how to flip a house may be the perfect part-time job for you. Many people think that flipping houses will take up all of their time, but this isn’t true. Flipping houses is actually quite a passive job and you can easily pace your work with your real estate investments throughout the week. 

Many people use house flipping as an additional job on top of their regular full-time job. This, of course, can come with a variety of different benefits. Quitting your full-time job can be scary and flipping houses may not be a good idea for a full-time job right away. 

Rather, it is the type of job that you need to work on for a prolonged period of time until you can start to make a lot of money. For that reason, it is a good idea to keep your main job but do house flipping on the side. That way, not only do you get your regular salary from your job but you can make some extra money on the side with house flipping.

Another great thing about house flipping is that you can pretty much do it whenever you feel like it. You can choose a few days out of the week to scout out a good house to flip and you can choose a few days to work on that house before selling it. You can completely create your own schedule so that house flipping won’t get in the way of your regular job. 

The Details

After all, there is no time limit on flipping a house. As long as you buy a house for a cheap price, fix it up, and sell it at a higher price, you’ll make a profit. Of course, the exact profit you make will depend on a variety of factors such as the housing market, how many houses you flip, and so on. 

Whatever the case, flipping houses is a great thing to do if you want to explore options that go beyond your regular everyday job. If you really like house flipping and happen to be good at it, you might even be able to turn it into a full-time job. However, this is usually the case when you finally start to make a lot of money at house flipping and if you are flipping several houses at one time. 

Once you start doing that, tens of thousands of dollars will start turning into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once you’re making that much money, you can quit your regular job in favor of house flipping if you like the process so much. This is not to mention that when you flip houses, you are your boss, so you can set the rules and flip houses exactly how you want. 

Low Startup Costs

A lot of businesses require a lot of money to start. For example, if you wanted to open up a shop, you would need to go through the trouble of getting all the right licenses, permits, and so on. You would also need to buy the inventory to pack your store and maybe even pay for advertising so that people will go and visit your store. 

Of course, all of this adds up to many thousands of dollars that you may not be willing to part with. Fortunately, with house flipping, you won’t need to worry about any of this. This is because house flipping is a very straightforward business. 

You won’t be selling any inventory, you won’t need any licenses, and you won’t need to waste money on frivolous things just to get your business started. Instead, the only thing you will be selling is the house you decide to buy and flip. 

This is what makes house flipping so simple. All you need to do is focus on the house that you plan on flipping. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can sit back and relax all the time when you’re flipping houses. 

You will still need to do some work to make sure that your house is going to sell at the price you want. Many people like to buy houses that are practically in shambles because they can buy them for very low prices. After fixing up the house until it is just like any other house, if not better, you can then sell that house for many thousands of dollars more than what you bought it for. 

What You Need to Know

Of course, fixing up a house will take some work, especially if the house is in very bad condition.

You may need to replace the floors, paint the walls, replace the roof, get new countertops, and so on. You can do this yourself or decide to hire professionals to help you. 

Of course, doing it, yourself is the cheaper choice. However, if you don’t have enough time to do this or if you are not very good at repairing and renovating things, hiring professionals would be the better option, even though it will cost you a bit more money. Professionals can do just about anything you want from tearing your own walls, putting up new walls, fixing the floors, the roofs, and so on. 

Even if you do hire professionals, the entire process will still be quite a bit more accessible and affordable than starting a traditional business with inventory, licenses, and so on. You also have the freedom to go at your own pace with house flipping, so you can decide whether you want to take it slow or flip as many houses as fast as you can. 

Of course, if you sell houses at a faster rate, you will make money faster, but if you are not in a hurry to make money, then this may not be important to you. 

Make Money

Many people go into the house flipping business for the money. This is because you can make quite a lot of money with house flipping, but only if you know what you’re doing. If you are careless and don’t calculate how much money you are investing into the house, you may not make as much money as you’d like. 

Besides that, selling your house at the right time is also important. If you keep a close eye on the housing market, you can start to detect patterns in the prices of houses. For example, if house prices are only continuing to go up and up, this is a good sign that you will make a big profit on your house. 

On the other hand, if the housing market is unstable or if house prices are crashing, this would obviously be a bad time to flip a house since you might even lose money on it. But if you sell your house at the right time, you can easily make several tens of thousands if not even hundreds of thousands of dollars just by flipping a house. 

You can make even more money by flipping several houses. This is something that professional house flippers like to do. However, it is not recommended for those who are just starting out in the realm of house flipping. 

Instead, you should start with just one house and figure out all the details of how to flip it properly.

What to Know

For example, you’ll need to figure out what you need to repair or renovate so that the house will sell for a lot of money. At the same time, you shouldn’t invest too much money into the house because you might end up not getting a lot of money in return or you might only end up breaking even. 

You should only move on to flipping more than one house once you get the hang of flipping one house at a time. This is because flipping more than one house can be quite a challenge to manage. After all, you need to keep track of several different things to make sure all of those houses get the renovations they need and make sure that they sell at good prices. 

But once you master the art of doing this, you can certainly move on to flipping two, three, or even four or more houses at a time. Once you start doing that, you can easily start making hundreds of thousands of dollars just by flipping houses. At that point, it should be no problem to quit your regular job and instead spend most of your time flipping houses and making money. 

This is also quite a reliable way of making money. After all, people will always need homes to live in. By fixing up houses that no one wants to live in and making them perfectly inhabitable, you are in a way, giving back to the community and making money at the same time. 

Personal Development and Growth

What a lot of people don’t realize is that they can go through a lot of personal growth and development when flipping houses. This is because flipping houses forces you to learn things that might not have even occurred to you before. Each time you flip a house, you will learn something new about houses and how to improve them. 

For example, when you first start flipping houses, you might not know where to start. Should you start with the floors or the walls or the roof or something else? However, once you get used to flipping houses, all of this will come to you in a more natural manner. 

You will also be able to improve some of the skills you already have. For example, you may already be somewhat skilled at time management, but flipping houses will only improve this skill. This is because you can set your own pace and decide how fast you want to flip a house, especially if you want to keep up with the housing market. 

You will also learn more about how to delegate tasks. This is not to mention that you can learn how to fix and repair all sorts of things like water-damaged floors, chipped walls, broken sinks, and so on. Once you get the hang of house flipping, you’ll become a more capable and skilled person overall. 

All About House Flipping

House flipping doesn’t have to be as intimidating as you might expect. Instead, house flipping is a great way to make some extra money on the side and, if you really want, you can even turn it into your full-time job and make quite a lot of money at it. 

This is not to mention that it is a great way to develop yourself as a person. And, of course, hiring professionals to help is always a good idea. Contact us here to learn more. 

Have you been staring at the wall between your dining room and your kitchen, just wanting to rip it out? Does it seem bulky and necessary? Is it in the way when you try to bring trays of food out to the table? Well, you can most likely rip it out and get rid of it! But you are going to want a wall removal specialist to do it for you so that you don’t make any mistakes during the process. The last thing you want is to tear down a load-bearing wall by mistake. Not only do you not want to make any mistakes, but there are many other benefits when you hire a wall removal contractor to remove a load-bearing wall for you rather than doing it yourself.

For starters, they’ll make sure you don’t make a rash decision to tear down a wall that is helping to hold up your home!

Read on to find out more about this process and other benefits.

Accurately Identify Load-Bearing Walls

The last thing you want to do when remodeling or renovating your home is to remove a wall without realizing it is a load-bearing wall. However, there are many of those, and you may not be able to tell if you don’t have the right specialty knowledge.

Luckily, a demolition contractor will know which walls are load-bearing and which are not. This ensures that you and anyone else who lives in your house are safe since identifying is not always straightforward. 

Working with a professional can help you keep your family safe by accurately identifying load-bearing walls.

Offer Advice About Wall Removal 

You may not always want advice on wall removal, especially if it is a wall that you really want out of your house. However, a removal specialist can determine if the situation is safe to do so or if it is a no-go. They can evaluate the situation based on their knowledge of walls.

If a contractor does tell you it is not a safe option, it is best to listen since they know what they are talking about. From there, you can always ask about other options for what to do with that wall since you may not be able to fully remove it.

They may also be able to tell you how much everything will cost if you decide to remove the load-bearing wall as well, as this can sometimes be an expensive venture.

Additionally, they may also be able to explain to you the risks that you take if you do go through with removing a load-bearing wall. There could be other effects on your home by removing the wall that you may not know about. A contractor can explain this in detail.  

They Have Knowledge About Permits

Did you know that most wall removal projects need permits? You may not have known that! And that is why hiring a specialist is so crucial during the renovation process if you want to remove a wall.

A specialist will know if you need a permit to remove a wall or not, as well as what exactly they need to get. They also know how to get it, so this can save you a lot of research and time spent researching answers. 

In addition, specialists know how the permits need to be displayed in your home before starting the construction process to make sure that they are doing everything to code and legally.

They Know What Precautions to Take

As a homeowner, if you want to remove a wall, you may think that all you need to do is just that – remove the wall. However, that’s not the case.

Most of the time, you need temporary support structures to be installed before you can remove a load-bearing wall. This will help support the structure of the home and hold it up, ultimately keeping your home as safe as possible. 

A contractor will know the exact kind of support to use, where to put it, how much support is needed to support the structure and anything else that is necessary during the process. This is why taking it upon yourself to remove a load-bearing wall or any wall for that matter, can be dangerous. 

Correct and Easy Disposal of Materials

When you go through a construction process, there is a process you have to follow legally to correctly dispose of any materials you use during the process.

If you do it yourself, you will most likely need to arrange for a dumpster to be brought to your site. This not only takes time to figure out, but you will also have to pay for the rental for however long the job will take as well.

A specialist will take care of this if you hire them instead. They can dispose of the materials properly without you needing to lift a finger to figure out where or actually dispose of them!  

Fix the Area in the Home

After a wall in your home is removed, the area around where the wall once stood is probably not going to be in the best shape. There are going to be marks, dings, scratches, dents, and more around the area.

That’s not something you want to stare at forever and just leave in the area. But instead of you need to fix it, the contractors will be able to make sure the area looks as good as new when they are done with it.

It will look like there was never a wall there in the first place!  

Save You the Hassle

When you try to DIY a project, it may seem like a good idea at the start. However, it is not always easy. It can be quite the hassle, you’ll run into issues along the way, and you’ll be spending a lot of time on the project instead of other things in your life.

Not only that, but you may also end up spending more money on doing the project yourself if you buy the wrong materials, break something, or come across issues along the way. Hiring a professional service will actually most likely save you money since they know what they are doing and can give you an upfront cost.

So when you hire a contractor, you are saving time with research to figure out how to remove the wall yourself. You are saving time with the actual project that you could be spending doing something else, like hanging out with your family or working on your day job. Not only that, but you will save money as well.

Safe Renovation 

Imagine taking down a wall yourself. Do you know how to do it? Or do you imagine the wall crashing down once you destroy it?

It can be quite a dangerous venture to bring down a wall on your own without the right tools or safety precautions. It can also be destructive to your house to allow the wall to come crashing down since it can hit other walls and other structures in your home. 

Since you don’t want to destroy any part of your home that isn’t necessary, a wall contractor will ensure that minimal damage is done to the rest of your home. This will include making sure there is no damage to your property itself, any personal property like furniture in your home, electronic appliances, plumbing and wiring that goes through the walls, and other parts of your home you may not think about when bringing down a wall.

In addition, they will also have the right safety gear to do it in the right way.

Hire a Wall Removal Contractor

When it comes to removing a wall in your home, you may feel that you are able to do it yourself. It can’t be that hard to knock down a wall, right?

While you may be able to do it yourself, there are many benefits to hiring a wall removal contractor to do it for you.

For starters, it’s safer to have a professional do it. But it can also save you money, save you time on research, and so much more! 

At Load Bearing Wall Pros, we have the knowledge you need to make sure you are making the right choice with a wall removal. If you are ready to get started to get rid of that wall that annoys you every time you look at it, reach out to us today!