House Flipping Workbook: Sourcing, Budgeting, and Managing Your First Renovation

The conceptual side of house flipping is learnable in a weekend; the operational side — running a renovation on schedule, managing contractors, controlling scope creep, and hitting your sale timeline — takes deliberate practice. This workbook course simulates the full project lifecycle of a flip, giving you templates and decision frameworks to apply before you commit real capital to a real deal. By the end of this course you will be able to prepare a scope-of-work document for a residential renovation, build a project budget with line-item costs and a contingency reserve, create a contractor vetting checklist, manage a renovation timeline using a simple tracking template, and prepare a pre-listing property evaluation to maximize sale price. What you will learn: - Writing a scope of work: translating a property walkthrough into a contractor-ready document - Line-item budget construction: labor, materials, permits, and soft costs by trade - Contractor vetting: what to verify, what to ask, and what contract clauses to require - Managing a renovation timeline: identifying the critical path and handling common delays - Change-order management: how to evaluate, price, and document contractor change requests - Staging and pre-listing preparation: decisions that affect days-on-market and sale price - Closing cost estimation: buyer concessions, agent commissions, and seller-side closing costs - Post-project review: calculating actual profit versus projected profit and identifying lessons The course follows a single fictional flip — a 1970s ranch-style house requiring a kitchen update, bathroom renovation, and exterior work — through every stage from offer acceptance to closing. Each module presents the project situation, provides the relevant template or checklist, asks you to complete it with guided prompts, and then reviews the completed version with annotations explaining key decisions. The same templates are provided in blank form for use on your own projects. This course is written for aspiring house flippers completing their first deal analysis, contractors transitioning to the investor role, and real estate agents who want to understand the investor client's perspective. No prior renovation management experience is required. This course is informational and educational; it does not substitute for professional contracting advice or legal counsel on renovation contracts.