I met with a potential client this morning who is into house flipping. The house in question is a little do-nothing, nondescript house with a small rental apartment out back. The budget--hold on to your seats--is $2500. Is this even doable?? For those of you who have done this before, what do I need to focus on?

My thought is that I obviously can't replace their lawn or redo the front landscaping (which is OK/not what I would do, but neat and taken care of), so I need to focus on UGLY and addressing that. Add container plants to entryway and by door of back apartment, patch up the side lawn, replace edging in front and put color in.

Any thoughts? The budget is so constricting, in order to do it, I'd have to have the job completed in one day with one helper.

thanks!

Jenny

If there is an irrigation system and you could put in lots of fast growing, heat tolerant annuals such as Cosmos, going over the top with lots of color and new compost/mulch could make the shrub borders pop.

We see an untapped niche, for people who are putting realty on the market, but the dollars and "sense" aren't there for landscaping because a seller is very cognisant of that economic point of diminishing returns. What do buyers look for? Nine times out of ten, just like inside a home they look for clean/neat/kept-up and potential. Unkempt spells out neglect and hidden problems and speaks volumes about what one could expect inside the house.

Not all vacant homes are flipped homes, with the mobile nature of our job markets, many are vacant with job transfers and it is very difficult to find services to keep grounds looking good, lawns mowed and especially annual beds tended. It leaves an area somewhere between lawn services and landscapers really that isn't well staffed and that would be garden maintenance. Given restricted $s, I would agree entirely with what the first poster said, clean, edged, mulched where needed, pruned, getting rid of eyesores and with some potted stock for visual interest.

the clients have another house just outside of town on the lake and their budget for that one is $4500. I think if I'm smart, this niche could be tapped. It's not big money from any one job, but it's easy and quick and the housing market right now is really hot.

thanks for your input!

Jenny

Agreed. My gardening business falls into this niche and Realtors all the time are saying "oh yeah! we need that! We forget about the outside" but people are rarely willing to pay for it. They'll mow the lawn, but how expensive is a flat of pansies?

So I agree that cleanup and tidying and generally making things look nice is the order of the day. Think about what you wouldn't want to take care of right after buying a house, or what would turn you off when you were looking at property, and get rid of those things (you mentioned crappy edging). Then throw in some annuals and mulch for that homey, finished look. Leave out splurge items (large tree, specimen plants) that would just draw attention to the fact that the landscape is bare or unfinished. Sort of the equivalent of white walls inside a new home.

However , from my POV it can't hurt to spend $200 for the bang of annuals /tropicals for initial showings and the initial listing week. It *might pay off in terms of selling the home quicker. And if not, then it's not too much $ wasted.

So..I agree with you all about going for neat first, but spending a bit on annual/tropical color is worth it too. WHo knows, maybe the flipper *would make sure things stayed watered....you don't know for sure there will not be watering happening.

I submitted a bid for the job and it sounds like I've gotten it, so we'll see how well I pull this off! I'm willing to give it a shot; it's easy work in the grand scheme of things. I'll let you know!

Jenny

What I was getting at TXJennie is I don't think there is a thing wrong with planting annuals for some bling but here, a house seldom sells at the initial open house and is likely to sit on the market a few months. Somebody has to maintain these plants and dead plants look worse than no plants at all. This is another good little niche for garden maintenance. LOL.