Wholetailing – The Best of All Worlds

In what is arguably one of the most bizarre real estate markets in history, finding good deals is like finding toilet paper and sanitizer during a pandemic. The good news is, if you actually land a good deal, there has never been a time in history when it has been easier to sell.

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” This statement by Abraham Maslow pretty much sums up how most newer investors look at flipping houses. HGTV has made aspiring real estate moguls think that every house must be given the Chip & Joanna treatment in order to have a successful buy/sell transaction.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you actually find and close on a good deal that needs some work, the more money you put into it, the less profit you are likely to make. This is especially true if you are a newer investor without much experience in managing a rehab. Unless you are simply doing carpet, paint and fixtures, you will likely make more profit by simply cleaning out, cleaning up and listing a property for sale, as-is. This is called wholetailing.

A wholetail is the perfect way to disposition a property in an extreme sellers’ market. Period. Less work, less holding time, less risk, and still good margins. Cosmetically distressed starter homes in good areas are the holy grail of real estate deals during housing shortages like the one we are in now. They can be sold to both investors and DIY homeowners who really want to be in a certain part of town or a specific school district. At Red Ladder Property Solutions, these types of properties are ones that we prefer over all others.

Instead of giving yourself brain damage by figuring out what wall you can move or whether you should go with quartz or granite, grab some cleaning supplies and gas up the lawn mower. That’s almost all you are going to need in order to make a good profit.

Check back with me when we fall into a recession, and I will go over how superior rehabbing is…

Paint Color Matching

Have you ever not been able to get a usable paint chip to use for color matching? If so, you are not alone. I recently discovered a cool product called ColorSnap Match from Sherwin Williams. It is a small, battery operated device that is simple to use and integrates with an app to help find your matching paint color. There are other similar products out there, but ColorSnap is the only one I have personally used.

In one of my smartest moments, I backed my truck into my garage door before it was all the way up, creasing and ruining the bottom panel of the steel garage door. I obviously needed to be able to close the door to secure the house for safety reasons, so I needed to get a replacement panel in a hurry. Of course, it was the wrong color, so I needed to paint it to match our other garage door. Obviously, getting a paint chip off of a steel door is almost impossible, so I found ColorSnap after doing some research and decided to try it.

Basically, you just charge the battery, calibrate it by pushing the button while the cap is on, download and login to the app, then you are good to go.

Just take off the cap, put the device on the color you are trying to match, and push the button. The app will then pull up the Sherwin Williams colors that are the closest match to the desired color.

Pretty cool, huh? Then you can just call SW and let them know the color and amount of paint you need and go pick it up. Pretty slick.

Sometimes there isn’t an exact match, but it will tell you that when you pull up the closest matches.

This will also be really handy for trying to find a match for old interior paint in rentals in case you need to paint one wall and not another. I know I go through this all the time when one wall has a bunch of nail holes, but the wall next to it is perfectly fine.

Hopefully this helps – it was about 60 bucks, but should pay for itself the first time you use it when you don’t have to repaint a wall.

Happy matching!