The $3675 Total Kitchen Remodel with before and after pictures!!!!

[fdjake]

Here's my latest flip.  A standard 3 bed/1 bath ranch.  THOUSANDS of these homes were built in the 60's and 70's. I LOVE remodeling them.  SIMPLE, QUICK, and PROFITABLE!!!

Here's a quick break down of the costs involved in this kitchen rehab. First let me start by saying I almost NEVER rip out the old kitchen cabinets.  Most of these homes have "built in place" birch plywood kitchen cabinets.  These things are built like TANKS.  I simply remove the old doors, order new MDF raised panel doors from www.lakesidemoulding.com, then paint everything a creamy white, install new pulls and hinges.....DONE!! Granite and tile contractors do the rest!!

Here's the cost break down.

Tile......                                             $1500 installed (includes materials)

Granite counter top w/ under
mount sink......                                  $ 800 installed

Appliances (Stainless)                       $1000 (includes Frig and stove)
Whenever I can get
them CHEAP,  I buy and STORE
them for later use. 

Cabinets doors, hardware, paint       $375


TOTAL................................................$3675  Done in 2 weeks!     

Here's the before and after pics....

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn148/petemfa/Remodel009.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn148/petemfa/Remodel016.jpg


In this market really KILLING the remodel of these kitchens SELLS THESE HOMES!!!  Granite, Stainless, and Tile in a starter priced home means a quick sale!!  Make them BETTER than anything else on the market and it WILL SELL!!!!!!! 

A couple of things to note in the pictures....First....hood fan has been replaced with stainless (used on craigslist $45)  Second...take a look at the brick back splash.  this was VERY 1970's.  Fake brick glued to the formica back splash.  This stuff is a PAIN IN THE @SS to get off, so DON'T REMOVE IT!!!  I just painted right over it, people LOVE it!!  Also note the light switches....heres a GREAT tip for you guy's.  In these homes it's about DETAIL...Before the painters come in I remove all the switch plates through out the house.  I then get 1 can of plastic spray paint (Home depot)  Then I spray each and every recepticle and switch white.  It takes about 10 minutes and two coats.  Once the painters are finished I buy new WHITE covers for those switches and BOOM!!!  It looks like you replaced EVERY switch and recepticle in the home!!  The switches in this kitchen were TAN and Black (mismatched)  Total cost $4.97 for a can of spray paint!!!   

[hthompson001]

I love it!!! I looks really good.  Where do you find the cabinet doors at?   

[Dave T]

The old appliances look like they may have been in fairly good condition.  What did you do with them? 

Craig's list -- $350 for the pair?

[fdjake]

Yep.  Good ole Craigslist. 

Sold on day one for $300 to a LANDLORD!! 

It AMAZES me how much value people put on NEW Stainless Steel appliances!! (and you were right, NOTHING wrong with the old appliances)   Typical American mentality I guess...It's all for show.  I use granite and stainless in ALL my rehabs now.  It literally eliminates 95% of my competition.  Remember....these are cookie cutter houses, ANYTHING you do to make them DIFFERENT really stands out to the buyer.

I love watching people come in to the home for the first time.  It's like clock work.  "OH WOW!!  I LOVE the kitchen!!"

[joker]

You didnt change the thing above the stove to be stainless, might want to check that out.

[jfpen]

You didnt change the thing above the stove to be stainless, might want to check that out.

Joker,
        In his original post he states that he changed the hood to stainless. Obviously, this was after the pic was taken.

JP

[Liquidity]

What kind of tile did you put in ceramic or porcelin ?? $1500 seems like alot for a kitchen that size from the pic. how many sq ft was it ??

the cabinets and appliances look great I cant wait to start working on mine. closed tuesday on it still havent got the keys yet.


I cant seem to find as good of deals on stainless yet. maybe i havent been looking in the right spots plus ive been busy. I plan on doing all the tile work myself, i actually enjoy tiling and it saves alot of $$ DIY.

Ill make sure to take pics for everyone to see. thanks for sharing the pics it helps us newbies with the visual learning.

[p1nn4cl3]

Kitchen looks great man, like something right out of HGTV   

Just out of curiosity though, have you ever tried using like a light stain on the cabinets rather than the paint? Just curious how much more work that would be for the benefit.

[wallacehobbs]

FdJake Nice Job, I like the way you think!

Could you share the rest of the details with us all.

- Location?

- Price Paid?

- How you found the deal?

- Total rehab cost and total time?

- What else you did to the rest of the house? (pics)

- Your Exit Strategy (Did you sell or rent it and the numbers?)

- Total profit or expected profit?

Thanks   

[j1dias]

fdjake - great work. Thank you for sharing. I copied your post to a Word file for future reference. Overtime I am building a nice word document with a lot of good tips/references... :O)

THANK YOU.

Quick question - it seems you did not install a dishwasher. I noticed that there was none in either picture. I came across a couple of houses that did not have dishwashers and my wife and I thought we would need to install one. In one of the houses we would need to be very creative in finding a place for it (small kitchen). I thought dishwasher was a MUST. Do you have any thoughts on that?

And one last question - we also saw some houses where the cabinets looked solid from the outside, but when we opened them there were significant stain and water damage inside. Not sure if it would make sense to try to save them or it would be better to start from scratch... Any thoughts?

Thank you again for sharing.

[fdjake]

Here's goes....

First off....I NEVER stain cabinets.  You can NEVER match 35 years worth of patina on the boxes, and stripping them is too much effort.  Remember, your trying to save TIME and MONEY here.  Your not making the kitchen what YOU like, your making it BETTER inorder to SELL the home.  Take a look at any current magazine devoted to Kitchens.  The RAGE right now is PAINTED CABINETS.  Don't take my word for it,  LOOK!!

Second,  that "thing" above the stove is called a Range Hood.  They cost $200+ in stainless.  I found one on Craigslist AFTER the picture was taken for $45.

As far as tile goes I never spend more than $2.50/ sq. ft. for tile and my tile guy charges me $3.50/ sq. ft. to install it.  The days of me breaking my b@lls to save money installing tile are OVER!!!!!  I could get a better price but my guy is as reliable as a wrist watch.  I call, he comes, 2 days later tile is installed and PERFECT everytime.  This house had 250 sq. ft. of tile work including the hallway.

Dishwashers.....I seriously doubt any buyer is going to pass on this home because it doesn't have a dish washer.  Take a look at the lay out.  Putting a dishwasher in a kitchen so small would have added days and lot's of dough to this job.  You can't take space away under neath the cabinets (there's hardly any now)  adding the dishwasher to the end of the counter increases your granite costs AND then you MUST ADD a custom built wall cabinet so you have balance between wall and floor cabinets.

Water stains.........EASY.....use KILZ primer then just paint the same as the outside of the cabinets.  they'll look brand new for about $10.  I have NEVER seen a stain KILZ won't cover. 

Details....

Blue collar city, nice neighborhood, starter home area, good schools.
But very close to the airport. Outside of home was very nice.  Nothing to do there.  The inside was from the 1970's.  Just needed cosmetic updates.

Purchased for $110K put a total of $8000 into it. which included re-glazing the bathroom sink, and tub.  New cabinet doors on bathroom vanity.  4 rooms with hardwood floors were all refinished to like new condition for $1000.  Interior paint was $2000 and EVERY surface got painted.  Like I said total cost was $8000.  All done in exactly 4 weeks!!  and that includes cleanout.

Just hit the market today for $199,900.  As of today I'm into if for $123,000.

I buy and sell.  CAN'T STAND dealing with moron renters.  Been there, done that.  I do about 4 to 5 of these a year.  Great money, just repeat over and over.  It ain't rocket science.

[p1nn4cl3]

Thanks for the replies fdjake. If you wouldn't mind clearing one last thing up, you mentioned spray-painting the wall receptacles. This seems like a money saver, but what do you do to prevent the paint from going into the outlets? Do you tape them, or plug them somehow?

Anyways, thanks again for the pics. Nice job.

[justin0419]

You can also get cheap new outlets and light switches at a home improvement store.  The last ones I bought cost 37 cents for each outlet or switch and about 10 cents each for the new cover plate.  It's a very small cost, but looks very good to have all of them white.

[phlemboy]

fdjake. Nice job on that kitchen! How long are your flips on the market? Also, does the tax man consider you a "dealer"? I've heard they can really nail you when they do that.

[gigo]

Agreed, kitchen looks great!  To go along with phlemboy's question, do you do your flips in an s-corp?  From what I've read/heard, it is typically better to do flips in an s-corp and buy&holds in an LLC.