‘I quit my office job to flip houses’

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Three years ago, Carolien quit her job as a credit analyst to become a house flipper. She borrowed money from family to buy her first property.

Carolien (34) lives with Frank (35) and together they have a daughter, Louise (3).

“When I tell people at parties that I’m a house flipper, I usually get the response that it’s a damn handy form of investing. Somehow I understand that reaction, because I earn money in the relatively short term with my house purchase, but I don’t see it as investing myself.

For me, house flipping is not an investment, it’s work, because a lot has to happen before I can realize the increase in value – or cash in, as my friend puts it. By the way, the tax authorities agree with me that this is work and not an investment, because my flip profit is about halved.

Office job

About three years ago I quit my regular job. As a credit analyst at a trucking company I earned a good salary, 3400 euros gross per month for a 32-hour working week, but especially after the birth of our daughter Louise I felt more and more resistance to working in an office day in and day out.

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I had tasted more ‘freedom’ during my leave: once back on the shop floor, I prepared financing applications for clients as usual and during such an average working day I only left my desk for a lunch in the company canteen. It made me simple. Wanted more freedom and more work with my hands. Because I really liked the latter, I had discovered a year earlier.

Refurbishment house

My friend and I had bought a renovation house near Amersfoort. With our daughter on the way, our apartment had become too small and our budget was not exactly sufficient to afford a ready-to-move-in house. Now my friend is quite handy – he has been working as an interior designer for years – and I found it a challenge to completely strip that renovation house and to provide it with new wall coverings, floors, kitchen and bathroom.

“It was especially hard physically, but mentally it felt really good to be up to my ears in DIY work”

With the help of a handyman for the things we really couldn’t do ourselves, such as installing electricity and converting the sewer system, we renovated the entire house. Quite heavy, it completely swallowed up our free time. We worked all evenings and weekends. When I think back, that was tough. But especially physically, because mentally it felt really good to be up to my ears in the odd job. I thoroughly enjoyed that physical work. It was completely different from my regular nine-to-five job and I found it nice and satisfying to see things get better and better before my very eyes.

House flipping

In that period the need arose to expand the DIY work and to do it as a normal job, I think. Because once we lived in that beautiful, renovated house and I went back to my employer every Monday to Thursday, I missed being busy with DIY materials. I joked about it: ‘I miss my hammer and circular saw, who would have thought.’ My boyfriend listened in and became more and more serious in his response that I should consider a career change.

I love the Instagram account @fundamakeovers. Photos are posted on it of houses in fairly poor condition, which are sold for much more after a rigorous renovation and often within a year. Houses that are bought for two hundred thousand euros, for example, go on sale with two thousand euros extra after a major renovation round. Bizarre right? My friend came up with a concrete plan to do the same.

“I lay awake with worries. What did we not think”

Our savings account had a large amount saved – partly due to a few very generous gifts from his parents – and my father also wanted to assist us financially in the purchase of our first fixer-upper to flip. Thanks to the great luck of dear family who helped us, we were able to buy our first flip house for 210,000 euros. By then I had quit my job and was terrified of all those big new steps. I lay awake with worries. What did we get ourselves into? What did we think, were we really suddenly going to be the smart house flipper?

Read also – Buying a house becomes a thriller: ‘We offered 40,000 above the asking price. Nerve-racking’ >

The first handyman house

We have been working on our first DIY house for almost eight months. Blood Sweat and tears. My friend part time, me as often as possible. In the meantime Louise was of course in our lives and I also enjoyed her pure and alone for whole days. Because of that, but also because I still had a lot to learn, it took quite a long time before the house could go back on the market. So I don’t seem patient with stucco. Super stupid, because you can still see every minimal mistake on such a tightly plastered wall. If something is really messy, then it has to be completely over.

“A profit of 167,500 euros seems like a lot, but there are still renovation costs and we have to pay income tax on the remainder”

When our first DIY house was sold for 377,500 euros, we popped the champagne. Such a profit of 167,500 euros seems a lot, by the way, but about 80,000 euros is deducted from renovation costs and we have to pay income tax on the remainder. Although of course it will continue to earn good money in eight months.

Not long after, we put the profit, with some extra savings, into the purchase of the next DIY apartment, which cost 155,000 euros. When we bought it it was not to be seen. That’s perfect, I now know, because the housing market is hysterical and if something is in very bad condition, then the necessary buyers have already dropped out.

On your own

I remember being asked by one of the teachers at the day-care center in Louise what job I did. She always saw me come in in tough work clothes. It was the first time I said out loud that I was a house flipper and that felt cool.

On my own, by copying from my friend and spending hours on YouTube, I learned a lot. Except for electricity, I really don’t dare. I did learn to paint, plaster, tile, lay floors and install a shower wall and sink by myself. I have learned to plan and budget and can already look at a messed-up space with more insight into construction.

“I have learned to paint, plaster, lay tiles, I can lay floors and install a shower wall and sink by myself”

During the renovation I take into account what is good for sales: a herringbone floor, for example, is popular. Just like a black kitchen, preferably with a gold tap, steel-look doors and a courtyard or garden with a custom-made wooden lounge corner. I already feel like making the carpented lounge sofa in our DIY house Pinterest-worthy for the sales photos by hanging a barbed cable full of lights above it. It will surely become a bestseller.”

This article appears in Kek Mama 10-2022.

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