Our First Flip

Hi!  Thanks for visiting our blog.  A little info about us:  We are twins, Cindy & Sheri,  we have been building and renovating houses for 12 years.  We have remodeled and added a second story to two homes in Venice and Mar Vista CA, and gutted and redesigned a condo in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  Now, we begin our adventure of trying to flip a home. 

It all started when we decided to add space for our grandma - we had purchased a small house to share in Venice, CA, then grandma decided she wanted to live with us.  We loved our grandma and wanted to make her last years happy, so we added on to our 1929 Spanish Revival home and our adventure in home renovation began.

In November 2014 we decided, finally, to put our experience and our love of home design and renovation to the test and try to make a business of it.  We chose a condo in Playa del Rey, CA as our first "official" flipping project.  Armed with cash from the sale of our Venice home, we went looking for a project in the Westside, beach communities.  We ultimately chose to buy in Playa del Rey because it is an up and coming beachside community, and we were able to find a condo with a lot of potential that was still in our all cash price range.  We like Playa del Rey because it is flanked by the expensive and well-developed areas of Venice, Marina del Rey, and Playa Vista. Playa Vista, a community which is working to position itself as the new Southern California Silicon Beach, is home to Google, Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube. Amazingly, Playa Del Rey, only minutes away and walking distance to the beach, is still somewhat undiscovered and affordable for first time buyers.



Map showing the location of Playa Del Rey, CA



Exterior of the Playa Del Rey condo we ultimately decided on

We decided to flip a condo, instead of a single family home, for several reasons
1.  First of all, it would eliminate any possibility of adding a second story - a time, consuming and expensive endeavor.
2.  The initial investment would cost less, allowing us to pay cash.
3.  Renovation costs would be lower
4.  The possibility of unknown structural problems would be greatly reduced
5.  We assumed we could get the project done and sold quicker - more about this assumption in our upcoming posts.

Here are some photos of the original interior. In the next post we will talk about the features  that made this condo the ultimate choice for our project.



Living Room View 1

Entry Hall

Kitchen

Dining Room

Sunroom