to fix or not to fix

Closing on a fix and flip property in about two weeks.

Property advertisement said “needs roof”.

Inspection states the roof is OK and probably has a couple of years left. New roof will be about 5K.

Is it more attractive to a potential buyer that it has a new roof, or do I let that go for now and become a negotiating factor when selling?

Any opinions helpful!

You will not get your 5K back in the sale price. What deos “inspection of the roof was OK”?? Did someone actually get on the roof?? While visual inspection from the ground is a good start you can miss a ton of things.

Also, a lot of times people think it needs a new roof when
if fact just some shingles are damaged and probably needs a new ridge cap and seal the flashings ($500 worth of work).

More importantly is go in the attaic and look for signs of leaks

definitly dont put a new roof on it if your going to flip it, unless it absolutley needs it, because you definitly wont get your money back out of it…it does make it comfortable to the buyer to know that it has a new roof and that they wont have to deal with it and may attract more offers quicker, but i wouldnt worry about it

As mentioned earlier, if there is no obvious roof damage then do not worry about it. As long as an appraiser does not comment on the roof being bad.

I had a client that purchased a home @ sheriff’s auction. He did not do his homework and his bid was accepted. There is a hole in the roof which has caused some damage to the ceiling in the bedroom. The appraiser commented on this and my client can not get the conforming financing that he wanted.

We had difficulty even finding a hard money lender as the property is in one of the less desirable areas.

With that said… just make sure that it is not obvious as it may blow your deal due to financing issues. :wink:

Good Luck!

I would think that it would also depend on who your typical buyer is going to be once it’s ready to sell. Is it a starter home? Will a buyer be trying to get an FHA loan for it? If the FHA inspector can’t say for sure that the roof has at least 2 years left, you may have a problem.

If there are no leaks and your buyers will most likely be getting conventional financing, then you may be fine.