Finding Value in the Market

People sometimes ask me how I know what decisions to make while remodeling.  The answer I always tell them is that you've got to go with your instincts.  If I have a feeling that one thing is going to look a lot better than another and that it will add more to a home's value, I have to go for it because if I don't, I'll never know what the result would have been.  If my instincts tell me that one path is better than another, then I win big.

When you remodel a house, there are a lot of different activities going on all at once and there are many different ways of executing tasks.  The trick is to figure out how to make the cost of the project or repair lower than what the actual market value will be.  For example, if you can produce something for ten bucks and sell it for forty bucks, that's a win.  It's things like this that I look for when I'm remodeling properties and when I'm looking for homes to buy or sell.

Finding these deals isn't always easy and it doesn't always come naturally on the first try.  It's going to take time and energy; you're going to have to do endless material runs to and from the property, get the right laborers out there, hire architects and designers, and manage all of the coordinating and planning on the project.  But if you can look for the value in the market, that's the key, and it will be worth it all in the end.