The Ultimate Guide to Budget Renovations- Flipper Hacks Revealed

Christian: [0:01] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum, with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc, and I'm here with my co-host Varun Jain of the Awesome Nossum Group, and a fellow Seattle real estate investor like myself.

Varun: [0:15] Yeah.

Christian: [0:15] Thank you for joining me today.

Varun: [0:17] Yeah. Hey, everyone. It's, uh, nice to be here. So Christian and I are both investors, and today we wanna talk about renovating your home-

Christian: [0:25] Yes … Varun: and hopefully on a budget. On a very tight budget sometimes. And that's really what this is all about. So whether you're flipping, updating a, a rental, or just transforming your own home, we're here today to share some of our tips from numerous flips and rehabs and stuff that we've done over the last 10, 20 years-

Varun: [0:44] Yeah

Christian: [0:45] where we can save you some money.

Varun: [0:46] Yeah.

Christian: [0:46] So-

Varun: [0:47] And again, there are areas where you wanna splurge, there are areas you wanna DIY, and there are areas you want to make sure you have the right people for the job, which is not you.

Christian: [0:55] Yes. Definitely.

Varun: [0:56] Uh, unless you are a pro at that particular area.

Christian: [0:59] Yeah.

Varun: [0:59] But yeah, we'll get into all of that. Let's get started.

Christian: [1:02] Cool. So let's start with the basics. The first thing is you need to set a budget and define your priorities and your timeline. Those are the big three things you need to do, and this is where a lot of times people make mistakes, is they just don't know where they wanna focus their spending. For me, it's always about getting the most bang for your buck. Yeah. Especially if you're looking for that resale value or even, like, highest rent value that you can get. If that's your goal, then you need to prioritize your kitchens and bathrooms, especially the primary bathroom, 'cause that's where buyers and renters really care about the most.

Varun: [1:33] Yeah, yeah. Good tip. A- a- and one other way kind of you can, where you can add value really quickly, and mostly with DIY, is making your home a smart home.

Christian: [1:43] Yeah.

Varun: [1:43] Today, everything's moving towards the internet age and the cloud, and making your home smart home makes it convenient. It's a nice-to-have feature with, with, with a lot of kind of, uh, buyers looking for that. Mm-hmm. Uh, make your lights, uh, audio control with your smart home speaker, or you have cameras so you can monitor your home when you're not there, or you can monitor your pets when you're not there.

Christian: [2:07] Yep.

Varun: [2:08] Very simple. You can find these, uh, on deals on Amazon, Home Depot, all these stores. Yep. And you can do them yourself. It doesn't take a lot of time either. So yeah, great way to add value without too much money or effort.

Christian: [2:21] Yeah. Big bang for your buck right there. One of my favorite parts is making things look expensive without actually spending luxury prices.

Varun: [2:29] Yes.

Christian: [2:29] And this is what we love to do on our flips especially, and a trick that I'm going to share that is probably gonna save you a lot of money. If you find a high-end item that you just love and you're like, "We have to do it. I'm willing to spend the money," before you buy it, do a Google image search.

Varun: [2:45] Yes.

Christian: [2:46] Take that, drag it into the Google image search, and find a similar version online, a dupe basically. You'd be surprised how often you can find something that's way cheaper that almost looks identical to that.

Varun: [2:59] Yeah. And, uh, stores like Amazon- on Wayfair, Home Depot, all of them have the high-end version, but they also sel- sell similar looking, slightly different fixtures that you can buy for half, sometimes even less the, less of the cost of the high-end version. Mm-hmm. And that's a great way to add value. But one place you wanna make sure, you can do that with light fixtures, right? Like instead of- Yeah … 10 spokes of light, you have four or six, it still looks the same. Yep. Great. One place where you don't wanna skimp out is plumbing fixtures.

Christian: [3:30] Yeah.

Varun: [3:31] You wanna go with name brands, you wanna go with, uh, high-quality products because those, one, get used a lot.

Christian: [3:37] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [3:37] And if those fail, there is a lot more, uh- At stake there's a bigger… Yeah, there's a lot more at stake- Yeah … a bigger repercu- repercussion, and then you have more problems to deal

Christian: [3:47] with. Yeah. Yeah, we, we always go name brand, well-known brands for all of our plumbing fixtures- Yes … even on a flip. We won't do that for lighting, 'cause there's not as many issues with

Varun: [3:56] that. Yeah, and lighting is interchangeable. Like, again-

Christian: [3:58] Yeah … Varun: I have done DIY light changes for my island pendants. Same. Yeah.

Varun: [4:02] It's easy, and people can swap those out easily, but no one's swapping out your faucets because- Mm-mm … they are not your DIY-friendly options.

Christian: [4:11] Yeah. Nice thing, too, is you can find these name brand faucets not just at the big box stores, but also on Amazon, and if you're working with a GC, your GC often has contractor pricing- Right at some of the plumbing outlets. Mm-hmm. So definitely ask them about that.

Varun: [4:29] Yeah.

Christian: [4:29] What about wallpaper? Have you ever used that?

Varun: [4:31] I haven't used wallpaper, but I've seen people use wallpaper, uh, really well. And again, this is not your 60, 70s old- … grandma, grandpa wallpaper. Nowadays, you get luxury, nice-looking wallpaper, and changes the complete, uh, structure of the room and how you feel about it.

Christian: [4:49] Yeah. On a budget. Like-

Varun: [4:51] On a budget … Speaker: doing, doing wallpaper- DIY … yeah. We did wallpaper on the… So we were on a house-flipping show. We were one episode on it, and- That's cool … Speaker: we did… In the kitchen, there was, like, this whole pantry area that was part of the kitchen. We did this wall of wallpaper, and it changed the whole entire feel, and it was maybe a eight by eight space. Yeah. Like, it was not a massive area. So the adding this luxury wallpaper was not expensive, but it changed it and made it feel so much more luxurious. Yeah. Uh, it, it makes small areas pop really well. And again, nowadays wallpapers have changed a lot. Yeah. So keep an open mind, and instead of spending too much on expensive paint or something crazy, think of, uh, DIY wallpaper options. Mm-hmm. I've seen that used in a small half bath- Yep … really effectively.

Christian: [5:41] Huge,

Varun: [5:42] huge. Makes it look- Huge … so much more, like, luxurious.

Christian: [5:45] Yep.

Varun: [5:45] Yeah.

Christian: [5:46] And there's a lot of, like, peel and stick, too. Yeah. Like, you don't have to do the old, like, multiple step- … and all that stuff. Like-

Varun: [5:52] Yeah … Speaker: it's, it's a lot easier. And even if you mess up, you just unpeel it, stick it back- Right straighten it out. Like, it's not as hard as it used to be. It's not that hard. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and one, one thing I would add is the other p- the thing that I've seen a friend of mine do really well is add accent walls.

Christian: [6:06] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [6:07] Just take a couple of pieces of wood and paint, and create an accent pattern on a wall- Or even with painter's tape. And th- there are a bunch of these DIY videos on- Yeah … how to create these accent walls on Instagram, TikTok, uh, and you can do that yourself.

Christian: [6:20] Yep. Let's talk about cabinets and tile because these can be a massive budget buster- Yeah … if you don't do it right.

Varun: [6:28] Okay.

Christian: [6:28] Um, cabinets are often the biggest expense in a kitchen remodel, but there are ways to keep down costs without sacrificing that style. Personally, we use Pius Cabinets in Soto a lot. They're budget friendly, they look custom sometimes, and they have slow clos- close features. You know, you can't slam it. It always, like, goes and then it slowly closes. Yeah. Has those features as well, which everybody loves.

Varun: [6:51] Yeah. Same. Like we've, we've… I've used cabinets on a few of my projects as well. Uh, Pius Cabinets, uh, I mean, but, uh, they're reliable but cost effective. Yep. You… Cabinets can easily kill your budget, and a high likelihood of being an overrun if you don't keep the cost down on cabinets. So that is one area where you wanna make sure you have good quality product, but cost effective. One other place where you can get good cabinets is IKEA. Mm-hmm. They have solid cabinets.

Christian: [7:18] Yeah. And- It used to have a bad rep because it was kinda crappy materials before. They have changed that entirely, and there's actually some good quality stuff down

Varun: [7:26] there now. There are some good quality cabinets. Yeah. I've seen people use just the box of the cabinet- Mm-hmm and put a different door on it.

Christian: [7:32] Yep.

Varun: [7:33] And so, again, IKEA's done a lot on that front as well. So there are ways to save on that particular line item, which ends up being a huge part of your budget. Yeah. So again, thinking about these smart ways to save can go a long way.

Christian: [7:45] And there's actually companies out there that all they do is they make new fronts for IKEA cabinets. Right. So you'll get the box, which is an expensive part, but at IKEA, not as expensive, and then you just get these more custom, um, fronts, which that's the part you look at.

Varun: [8:00] Yeah. And that's the luxury look- Exactly … piece- Exactly … on a budget.

Christian: [8:05] Let's talk about tile. So a little tile in a high impact area, like a backsplash or a shower niche, niche, uh, can make a big, big statement without breaking the bank. Yeah. If you're set on using, like, a super high-end tile 'cause it looks amazing, just use it sparingly and keep- to keep the cost down. This is where we have done this numerous times, where we'll add a really nice, maybe more expensive than we wanna spend tile, but just do it in a very small area-

Varun: [8:35] Right … Speaker: and it gives the same feel, but it's such a small area that it didn't break the budget. Right.

Christian: [8:41] We do the same thing with countertops as well.

Varun: [8:44] Yeah. A- a- and for tile, just like we recommended Pius as one of the options for cabinets- Mm-hmm … for tile, um, there's a place called Floor & Decor. Yep. And they have a really great discount section. So if you know how much tile you need, you go to the discount section, and you find the right type of tile and the enough of it, just buy it there. Yeah. It is very cheap, and it's not- Truly bad quality, they put things in discount because they probably are just refreshing their selection. Mm-hmm. It's a great way to kind of find a deal on it. Try to keep the cost at around $6 a square foot for tile. It might be as high as $11. But again, as Christian mentioned, smaller areas, uh, with a high-end tile still works, still brings that pop to your design- Yep and your home without kind of breaking the budget.

Christian: [9:32] Yeah.

Varun: [9:33] And then when it comes from bathroom vanities, uh, there are so many options nowadays. Yes. Wayfair, Amazon, Home Depot. Even Costco sells really nice vanities, which comes with everything. Mm-hmm. The countertop, the cabinets- The sinks … the fixtures, sinks, everything. Just buy it from a… Like, it's a all… The cabinet in a… Or a vanity in a box. Buy it, install it, and you're done.

Christian: [9:55] One tip that I'll add to that is if you are going through Home Depot, I would say always ship to store, not to your house. And the reason why is 'cause I've had issues where I bought Home Depot vanities. Interesting. They came to the house, we open the box, and it's broken.

Varun: [10:11] Oh, yeah.

Christian: [10:11] And it happened on one project two or three times in a row, and so we were like, "Screw this. Don't send it to us," 'cause they use a different shipping carrier- Yeah … than the Home Depot people. And we had it shipped to the store. We open it up at the store. If it's messed up, we don't have to worry about transporting it back- Back and forth … and forth. Yeah, that's good. And they can just deal with shipping it right from there. A much bigger, much easier return, uh, policy that way. Great tip. Yeah. Great tip. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about to DIY or not. So- We all love saving money, but not everything is worth doing yourself. And personally, I think demo and painting are two of the areas where you can easily do that on your own.

Varun: [10:51] Yeah.

Christian: [10:51] They're simple enough to do. You don't need a lot of skill to do it- Sure … especially demo. But things like plumbing, electrical, tile, that's a huge one where people think they can do it, and you screw up tile, and now you just wasted all that tile you bought. That's not cool. Hiring a pro is usually much, a much better return on your investment than trying to do those things on your own. Electrical, maybe I'll swap out a light, but I'm not running wires and stuff- Yeah … 'cause that's way too scary in my opinion. Same with plumbing. I tried to do plumbing once. Within, like, two months it failed, and I had a bigger expense of trying to repair the mess-up that I created by trying to save the money. So just hire someone for that stuff. Totally agree. Hire a pro.

Varun: [11:31] Totally agree.

Christian: [11:32] Yeah.

Varun: [11:32] Uh, that's a good point. Uh, another area is structural engineers, where you wanna make sure your house is structurally sound. Mm-hmm. You have the l- right load-bearing and, uh, beams and posts where they need to be so that you don't have any issues in the future. And then with plumbing and electrical, as Christian mentioned, right, if you DIY it, make sure it's the smaller stuff because if it goes wrong, it creates a snowball effect. Badly done tile can cause a leak, and if it's upstairs, it leaks through the ceiling of the bottom floor. It creates a whole set of issues. Mm-hmm. Now you have issues with mold and leaky roofs, and now you have to bring other contractors to remediate it. It gets costly very fast. So use- professionals where, uh, it makes sense, but there are simpler things that c- you can DIY.

Christian: [12:22] Yeah. Some of those simple things you can do is, like, smart tech, like you were talking about- Yeah … before. That's all pretty simple to do.

Varun: [12:28] That is very simple, yes.

Christian: [12:29] It's literally, like, plugging in or swapping out a light or-

Varun: [12:31] And they've really got, like, s- most of the smart techs that are DIY, they come with really nice instructions, videos. Yeah. And so you c- they walk you through it.

Christian: [12:39] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [12:39] But yeah, don't run a new wire or an electrical circuit- No … out there. It, it can get pretty-

Christian: [12:46] Dicey … Varun: scary and- Yeah, out of hand very fast. Don't do it. Yeah. Don't.

Varun: [12:49] Don't get electrocuted by, by- Yeah … trying to fix it all.

Christian: [12:51] Yeah.

Varun: [12:51] Yeah.

Christian: [12:52] Not worth it. So when talking about hiring, labor is, especially the GC, is usually the biggest expense. Um, but there are ways to cut down on GC costs. What are, what are your thoughts on that?

Varun: [13:04] Yeah. G- GC is a great add to your project, right? GC is a person who handles everything for you. They'll do design, they'll do permits. Uh, they typically are expensive- Mm-hmm … but they, again, provide you, uh, essentially it's a way for you to buy your time back- Yeah uh, and hire someone else to do this. But if you are comfortable being more hands-on or if you wanna be involved in the process a lot more, then don't hire a GC, and then you can manage all of these parts of the project yourself. Just be careful that that also means you're investing a lot more of your time and energy into the project. And if you can, again, hire just a freelance designer to design it for you and you run just the construction piece of it, that also works. There are ways to save money on that aspect- Mm-hmm … as well.

Christian: [13:47] Yep.

Varun: [13:47] But you'll need a architect to make sure you have permits and all of that done correctly, and obviously structural engineers if you need to kind of structurally change your house.

Christian: [13:56] Yeah. I mean, I've seen videos of people tearing down walls that they didn't know if they were load-bearing or not-

Varun: [14:02] Yeah … Speaker: and come, came back the next day and the entire s- like, roof structure just caved in- Yeah … 'cause they tore down a load-bearing wall. Load-bearing wall. Like, yeah, you're an idiot. You shouldn't have done that. Like, be smart about it, so don't be an idiot like that. Yeah.

Christian: [14:17] Here's a rule that I always follow when we're hiring GCs or any contractor, for that mat- uh, matter. We always get at least three bids.

Varun: [14:25] Yep.

Christian: [14:25] For one project where we were doing a big flip, we actually interviewed 16 different general contractors.

Varun: [14:30] Wow. Yeah. ' Speaker: Cause we needed to find one that was good, on budget, had good communication, and we felt, based on their previous projects, were actually gonna be able to do what we needed them to do. Um, it took a lot of our time, but in the long run it was definitely worth it. But at least get three bids, and it gives you a sense of what the market is- Yeah out there for the cost. You just get one, you have no clue. Right.

Christian: [14:53] Um, we were just talking to someone right before we started filming this, and they were talking about how they got a bid for $250,000 to raise their house and add a new basement floor, basically. Yeah. And we were like, "Well, one bid? That's it?" And they were like, "Yeah." I went, "Well." That's probably gonna be about 20% higher- Yes … 'cause you don't have any clue if that's market rate or not. Right. So always do that.

Varun: [15:19] Agreed.

Christian: [15:19] Um, another tip is always make sure that every single change order, so a change order is when you say, "Hey, let's, let's expand this area," or, "Let's put this different tub in," or let's do whatever change from the original plan, always get that in writing-

Varun: [15:34] Exactly,

Christian: [15:34] yes with that cost in there upfront in writing so that when you pay that final bill, you're not shocked by all these change orders that added up and added up and added up.

Varun: [15:45] Yeah, yeah. You wanna make sure everything's in writing. Yeah. To add to that, there's, when you are hiring a GC and you're bringing external parties in, make sure you are signing contracts with them.

Christian: [15:54] Yes.

Varun: [15:54] Do not go on a verbal handshake agreement. No. You wanna make sure you're insulating and protecting yourself legally if things were to go sideways. Mm-hmm. So make sure you have contracts, and in the contracts then you can lay out these incentives of finishing early or penalties of finishing late. Exactly. That way everyone's on the same, in the same boat before starting the project.

Christian: [16:13] Yep.

Varun: [16:14] And you don't have arguments later on, and if you do have arguments, you have the contract to fall back on.

Christian: [16:18] Yep, and that keeps everyone motivated and in the right direction. You're all in the same boat, but you're also rowing in the same direction- In the same direction, yes versus just, you know, "Hey, we gotta get this project done," which then- Agreed … yeah, that's when I've seen people and heard the horror stories of contractors screwing people over.

Varun: [16:33] Yeah. Um, I'm guilty of hiring someone at my previous primary without a contract. Thankfully things didn't go wrong. Yep. But if things were to go wrong, then I did not have a fallback.

Christian: [16:43] Yeah, yeah. Have that in writing always. Finally, let's talk about networking. So when you have the right referrals everything becomes so much easier. And if you're working with a real estate agent-

Varun: [16:53] Maybe us

Christian: [16:54] Yeah I don't know, maybe us. Maybe we have some of these referrals. Ask them for referrals. Yes. Because many agents have good referrals that are trusted, like we do. So if you are working with us, we are happy to share our referrals. We have lots of them in basically every category you could think, because we've done pretty much everything at this point.

Varun: [17:11] Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, ask for referrals and share your contacts too, right?

Christian: [17:15] Mm-hmm

Varun: [17:16] Like network, network, network. Yes. The more you share, the more your network grows, the better prepared you will be, uh, to handle these projects. And again, if you're tackling multiple projects, it's good to kind of ask for multiple referrals, get more bids. So once you are able to find reliable help, that's kind of the hardest part of the renovation. Yeah. Once you have solid referrals, then you can keep using them in the future projects as well.

Christian: [17:38] Yep. All right, well that's it for today's episode. Renovating on a budget does not mean that you have to sacrifice quality or style. With some smart planning, maybe a little bit of DIY, and some good referrals, you can definitely get amazing results without breaking the bank.

Varun: [17:53] Exactly. Renovations, again, do not need to be expensive. It's figuring out how to stretch your dollar farthest- Yep … and getting the most bang for your buck. So yeah, I hope this helped you kind of figure out your next home renovation and helped you in your next project.

Christian: [18:09] Yeah, and don't forget to subscribe and definitely leave us a review if you found a lot of value from today's episode. That helps us get in front of new eyeballs and gets more people out there to- interested in us, which we'd really appreciate. Yeah. So that's it for today's episode of The Awesome in Seattle podcast. We'll see you next time. See ya.

Varun: [18:26] See ya.