Flippin’ Amazing!

If you’ve ever spent any time watching shows on HGTV you’ll know all about the property flipping business. If you haven’t, well basically what happens is entrepreneurial people find properties going for sale cheaply in good neighbourhoods where there is scope to improve the value of the home and not over capitalise on the improvements that you make. For instance, if you find a house that needs a bit of TLC selling for (say) R1,6m in an area where the average selling price is R2,4m for a similar property, there is an opportunity to spend a bit on improvements and then make some money.

HGTV shows make it look easy and if you believe them it seems like easy money, but the reality is often quite different. It’s not always easy to find these sorts of properties and sometimes you can bite off more than you can chew, especially if the property ends up having major unexpected problems. But every now and then opportunity does come around and it can pay off if you do your homework properly and you have the resources to do the required work at a reasonable price.

Recently we were called in to photograph a familiar property, one that we had shot towards the end of 2024. At the time I recall saying to the agent that this particular house was a prime example of a good flip waiting to happen. That’s exactly what did happen because last month we got to shoot it again and saw first hand what a good but simple transformation can do to the appeal of a residential property.

The person who bought and transformed this house did it really well, with the main transformation being the kitchen and bathrooms. He knocked out a wall where there was once a kitchen scullery / laundry and turned that into the dining area. The overall structure of the house remained the same. He tiled it in a neutral grey throughout and gave it a modern Scandinavian vibe. It was so nicely done that we spent a lot of extra time on producing the media. It is the kind of house that you just want to spend time in.

Here are some of the before and after shots from similar angles.