Crash course on flipping

This Saturday night (April 28) at 10 p.m. on the DIY network, local homeowners Katie Marie and David Hughes will enjoy the spotlight as they and their renovated 1,700-square-foot, three-bedroom home at 2619 Webber Street are featured in an episode of Buyers Bootcamp, starring Scott McGillivray. He’s the Canadian TV host and investor who first came into prominence with the enormously popular show called Income Property. Buyers Bootcamp goes a step farther in following homeowners who purchase a property with the intention of remodeling and selling.

McGillivray guides them through the process, helping them avoid costly mistakes while concentrating on updates and improvements that buyers need and want. Tip from the expert: The big and glamorous center island in the kitchen is still prized by house hunters. This one is a white quartz-clad beauty that measures 12 feet long and 5 feet wide. Better yet it offers a multitude of storage options.

The seven-week whole-house renovation resulted in an awkwardly configured 1956 ranch being transformed into a sleek and contemporary family home with a generous fenced back yard and curb appeal meant to stop potential buyers who are out scouting a new place to live. The Hughes couple paid $200,000 for the property. It is now on the market for $369,000 through Kingston Realty. McGillivray himself is an investor in the project, controlled the renovation budget, and worked on the design of the new/old house. He will realize part of the profit when the house sells.

So far in his career, this property specialist has renovated more than 300 houses with the intent of maximizing income potential. McGillivray started in Canada while he was still in college when he bought and renovated a house and then took in roommates to help pay for the property and to help fund his education.

“I originally thought about $60,000 would do it for this Webber Street property,” said McGillivray, “but we ended up spending closer to $80,000. The house is well built and sound so the money was mostly spent on improvements that current buyers expect in a house at this price point. For instance, we stole a little space from the garage and created a spacious indoor laundry room/mud room. No one wants to do laundry in the garage any more, so this upgrade was essential. And this one is really cool. People will be talking about it on the way out of the house, I guarantee.”

In that spacious laundry room, McGillivray’s creative interior design team also added a shower — for pets or humans coming in from doing yard work. Locally, McGillivray collaborated with designers from Mark Dalton’s Chic on The Cheap firm — Jill Geisdorf (project manager), Joe Clark, Jessica Napoli and Tori Wansley. They helped him source materials locally and worked with homeowner Katie Marie Hughes, who is an interior designer herself. They collaborated on the floor plan, color palette, flooring, etc. iStage did the styling of the home and Chasen Galleries provided all the framed art. Rugs as Art was the source for area carpets.

Other improvements at the top of the McGillivray list included adding a circular driveway because the house fronts on a busy street. The team replaced the roof with a new shingle one and replaced the front windows and front door. Front landscaping was done by homeowner David Hughes, who is more than handy.

It’s one reason that the Hughes couple and their home was picked for TV when the couple applied last October. They have owned rental property in the past and have the skills to do maintenance projects. But this is the first time they have bought a home to flip. They did not live in the home during the extensive renovation, but stayed in their own home which is only a few doors down on Webber. Both Katie Marie and David Hughes are licensed Realtors.

One of the things that attracted Scott McGillivray to this Sarasota project was that he felt the couple did not overpay for the house they wanted to remodel. “Novices often make a huge mistake in paying too much,” said McGillivray. “If you overpay at the front of the project it is very doubtful you can ever make the kind of profit you need to ensure that this kind of work is a real business. David and Katie Marie were smart about their purchase. They bought a good house at a good price in a convenient part of town. I knew this could be a winning situation. Plus they were easy to work with, had creative ideas, pitched right in and stuck to a tight schedule. They were fast learners because they intend to do this again.”

While the homeowners, construction and design crews (12 people in all) were tearing down walls and ripping up floors, an eight-member production crew was aiming lights and cameras at them.

On the inside of the home, the teams replaced all the original flooring with wide-plank luxury vinyl and repainted the entire house. They kept the original fireplace in the living room and added built-ins on either side. Walls came down in the central part of the house to create an open floor plan and a kitchen open to the living and dining areas as well as to views of the private back yard. Kitchen counters are quartz and cabinets are white. Appliances are stainless steel, still the most appealing to buyers.

The team was able to make one of the three bedrooms bigger and they installed a new LED light system throughout. Both bathrooms were gutted, reconfigured and modernized. They also opened up the back of the house to the outside with big windows and sliders. Only the lanai didn’t need any work. The design team added some fun string lighting, cleaned the stone floor, painted and brought in appropriate furniture.

In most of McGillivray’s Canada projects for Income Property, he dealt in basement renovations making black holes into practical and pretty rentals. But, recently he moved his production company to Fort Myers, where he and his family live part of the year. With Buyers Bootcamp he’s exploring Florida cities for places to showcase remodeling techniques that turn old houses into new profits. He’ll be saying goodbye to basements and figuring out what to do with lanais and patios that have income potential.

As for Katie Marie and David Hughes, they are ready to start renovating the home they are living in with expectations of putting it on the market soon. Then they’ll start looking for another house that needs help. By then they’ll be successful alums of Buyers Bootcamp.