Let me be honest: I love the Zombie House Flipping show!
It’s one of my favorite house flipping shows. Why?
There’s entertainment and there’s drama. But above all that, there’s interesting lessons that I’ve learned as I’ve watch real estate investors buy, sell, and flip zombie properties.
And they’re the kind of lessons that you can’t learn anywhere else.
If you haven’t watched Zombie house Flipping, you may be wondering what a zombie property even is.
No, it’s not something out of an apocalyptic movie. A zombie property is vacant and undergoing the foreclosure process, but because the bank has yet to take possession of it, it’s in limbo (neither occupied nor on the market), hence the term “zombie”.
Here’s a few of my favorite moments from the show, and, more importantly, what I learned from it.
“Biggest Zombie Flips”
How much can you make flipping zombie properties?
This is one of the big questions I had, because while I’ve flipped quite a few properties in my day, they weren’t zombie properties.
I was shocked when I learned from the Zombie House Flipping show the following case studies:
- A completely abandoned house that was bought using the short shale method quickly received an offer of more than $100k in profit.
- One flipper purchased a house for $68,000, invested $20,000 into it, and then sold it for $150,000 in just 3 weeks.
The bottom line: there’s money to be made in the zombie house flipping business.
Accidental Open Floor Plan
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: When I watched Keith tearing down a wall with a sledgehammer, I didn’t expect the rest of the Zombie House Flipping crew to come in screaming.
I’ve never had this happen before — a miscommunication leading to one team member tearing down a wall when that wasn’t the plan — and I don’t ever want it to happen!
While it made for good TV, the big takeaway here is for everyone on your team to be on the same page. If not, you can lose a lot of money — or even relationships — in the process.
Working as a Team
There are many advantages of working with a team when it comes to house flipping, including more manpower, more experience and more help. The downside is that these relationships can make or break your deal.
What I love most about the Zombie House Flipping team is that yes, they have arguments, and yes, they may be dysfunctional, but they respect each other and hear one another out.
It makes not only for a successful zombie house flipping business, but a fun one too.
Justin and Keith’s Treasure Hunt
When Justin and Keith found an old safe in one of their zombie houses, they decided to throw it off the roof to crack it, ruining some of the house flipping supplies in the process.
To be honest, there’s not a huge takeaway here — other than don’t be an idiot — but I had to include this one because it had me actually LOLing (laughing out loud)!
How to Sell a Renovated House
Once the renovation is done for a zombie property, how do you sell it?
According to Justin, “make the house mac-daddy beautiful”.
And that’s the big takeaway: sometimes you don’t need to tell a potential buyer of a house’s potential. Instead, you need to show it, and that’s where staging comes in.
Yes, staging can be extra work if it’s your own furniture you’re using, and yes, it can be an extra expense in your house flipping business plan, but from my personal experience, and something that the Zombie House Flippers agree on, it’s worth every penny once you sell the house.
The Bottom Line: Zombie House Flipping
There you have it: these are some of my favorite moments from the Zombie House Flipping show and what I learned.
There’s no doubt about it: it’s one of the best house flipping shows past and present.
Did I miss any of your favorite moments from the show?
If so, let me know in the comments!
