Pros and Cons of the Flipping your House

CON: You could break the bank.

This "slow flip" idea I talked about last week does have its risks. For instance, we have made 23.6% progress toward paying off our home. Because we decided to buy a home that needed updating, we had to reserve cash for renovations, thrifty decorating and all of our other DIY projects to get this house in selling condition. This means initially we were not able to put as much money down on the house. Visually this is hard because we know the money is there but we will not "see" it and be able to count it towards our home payoff progress until we sell this home (or pay it off).

PRO: Money Honey

Obviously making money is considered a PRO for many reasons, but for us it would bring us one step closer to our larger goal of home ownership. Whether or not we profit from this home is somewhat of a mute point though. We have learned SO MUCH about painting, tiling, grouting, decorating, craiglisting, yard work.... the list goes on and on. We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn all of these things.

PRO/CON: 

Living in Your Project

While is it great to be in a place that is in need of rehab -- our minds are ALWAYS brimming with ideas and projects because we are so inspired by the place we do life in -- it is sometimes hard to relax in it. We especially found this to be true during the great Tile Incident of 2013. This winter Ty was working long hours, and I was knee deep in grout and working part time at the hospital. We needed home to be a place to relax and rejuvenate, but with our house in the transitional project phase this was hard to come by. Ty and I are also "project people." If you give us the option of resting or doing a project, we are going to choose the work. This made it even more difficult for us to slow down when we were at home because there seems to always be one more project to do!

                                           PRO: The Home Itself

Although even a "slow flip" is risky, we got to move from a condo into a home MUCH sooner than expected. We have loved having a yard, garage, and beautiful creek to admire each day.

PRO: Living the Dream

Renovating a home has been a dream of mine (Caroline, here) for a long time. I had no idea that I would get to do it so early on in our marriage. It has ignited my already growing passion for decorating, organizing and designing. It empowers and encourages me to be thrifty and to find easier, better ways to do home projects. It has also allowed us to start dreaming of our next home adventure....even though we still have a ways to go on this one!

So there you have it, the good, the bad, the ugly. Making a PRO/CON list helps me to zoom out and focus on the bigger long term picture. What does your PRO/CON list look like?