House Flipping

Recycle all your metals and useful fixtures. Not only is it good for the environment, but even better, it pays.

I’m writing this posts just after coming back from the recycling plant. I took a truck load of old window frames, copper plumbing parts, stainless sinks, and old wiring. I cashed in on $600 worth of junk. It just makes may day every time I vist that place and they hand over a wod of cash for scrap that would have other wise been thrown away.

I flip at least one house a month and I save everything. I have a large back yard where I just empty out the back of my truck into a pile off in the corner. When the pile gets to be too big or the wife starts to complain, then I know it’s time to go cash in.  I know most flippers don’t have the space I have to store junk, if you n’tI highly recommend renting some old storage yard or warehouse.

Recycling your flips doesn’t just mean recycling metals. It is a good practice to recycle and save good sinks, vanities, appliances, unused flooring, spare materials, light fixures, etc. Having a place to store your recyclbles is very important. No flip is the same and not all flips are going to be in the nicest neighbor hoods or need to be top notch.  Some flips you may do a 100% remodel and want all new everthing, where others may only need to just replace a broken ceiling fan or slide in a working stove. There’s just not a big budget for every flip. Saving money at thift stores is great, but getting resources free from a previous flip is better.

I save everything. I’m a sort of pack rat. However sometimes you got to know when to throw something away. You need to be realistic. Some items you may save with good intentions, but the truth is you’ll never use them. Doors for example. I have a pile of doors that I’ll never uses. Most of the time the hings or the doors handle holes won’t line up leaving them useless. Thats not to say you will never, but once you have a couple in storage, you don’t need many more.

As myhouse flipping remodels or moving along, I constantly comb the site for scrape metal. Copper tubing, alluminum shower surounds, electrical wiring, etc. Here’s a really good tip for those who are really willing to recycle.

If you hire a company to replace the old alluminum exterior windows and slider doors, they will charge you to disgard the the old. This is a scam. They are charging you to get rid of the old aluminum frames and then saving them to only recycle them themselves.

I allways tell them to remove the charge and I will disgard the frames myself. Not only will I save $100 bucks for disposal fee, I will cash in on about $5 each. After a few house flips this will start to ad up.

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