3 Reasons I Would Never — Ever — Buy a Flipped House

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I don’t want to buy someone else’s hastily “fixed” problems. 

I’m hoping to transition from renter to homeowner again in the near future, and when it comes to finding a house, I have a list of must-haves as well as must-avoids. Flipped houses are on my must-avoid list. A flipped house is one that’s been purchased by a real estate investor (referred to as a flipper), fixed up, then and resold. While this isn’t bad in principle, the problem is that house flippers are incentivized to buy homes and remodel them for cheap, so they can make the largest profits possible on reselling them. This can lead to a world of problems for the unfortunate home buyer who ends up with a mortgage loan on an improperly remodeled house.

My current city, where I am intending to buy, has a lot of cheap older homes ripe for rehabilitation, and in fact, I have friends here who bought a flipped house a few years ago. While the home itself looks pretty nice (and even has new windows), my friends have contended with major repair costs for issues with their furnace and plumbing. Meanwhile, they live with annoyances like no bathroom ventilation fan, confusing wiring, and kitchen appliances purchased for cheap at the scratch-and-ding outlet. Here’s why I’ll be avoiding flipped houses when I’m ready to buy.

1. For flippers, it’s usually looks that matter

It’s a sad fact that flippers are often less concerned with the functionality of a home’s vital systems (like HVAC, plumbing, and so on) than they are with making a house look nice and new. This means that flippers sometimes strive to mask problems with fresh paint, new appliances (which isn’t to say expensive appliances; remember, they’re trying to turn the home around cheaply), and whatever cabinetry or bathroom fixtures they can get a good deal on. Why fix that ceiling leak when you can paint over it and pretend it no longer exists? Flippers are often counting on offers from potential buyers who see only shiny new kitchen cabinets and don’t think to ask about the age of the water heater or the condition of the roof. Ditto the state of the plumbing or safety of electrical wiring.

When buying a flipped home, you could wind up needing to tap your bank account to purchase new fixtures anyway, because you’ll be at the mercy of the flipper’s taste (or, more likely, what they could get for cheap). My friends’ home came with the ugliest lighting fixtures I’ve ever seen. When they tried to sell them (or even give them away), they had no takers and ended up tossing them out. What a waste!

2. House flippers didn’t actually live in the home

In the course of buying a home, your in-person conversations with the seller may be minimal (unless it’s a for-sale-by-owner situation), but you will at least be able to ask questions via your real estate agent. If the seller has lived in the house, the information they have about its history could be invaluable to you as the buyer.

They can offer details about when the basement was finished, when the roof was replaced, and whether the backyard has effective drainage during rainstorms. And from a purely emotional standpoint, there’s something appealing to me about buying a beloved family home from its former residents.

3. A flipped house can be expensive and time-consuming to inspect and research

Finally, the last reason flipped houses are on my must-avoid list is that I’d like to keep my home-buying expenses as low as possible. I will not be going cheap on a home inspection (or, worse, waiving the inspection contingency altogether), and I know I’d have to spend more to get a flipped house well and truly inspected. This could even mean hiring (and paying) individual professionals to come in and have a look if the home inspector is unsure about certain features or potential problems.

I’d also be taking the time to pull building permits to ensure the flipper had all the right paperwork and the projects were completed to the standards laid out in the permits. All of this equals more money and more time — and likely, more stress.

While I expect stress in the course of buying a home, I’d like to give myself the best chance of success in finding the right house for me at the right price. And that will be one that doesn’t come with a heap of problems that have been hastily painted over or hidden with new cabinets or flooring. For me, that means avoiding flipped houses.

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