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Let me first say, I like doing handy work. If you don't, then this issue should be a no-brainer but I would like to speak to those of us who gain a certain pleasure/pride whatever you want to call it in doing things ourselves. Also, a little history: We have 'flipped' one house a couple of years ago and made a profit, in the process we did about 70% of the work ourselves (we didn't do the painting and carpet on this one). The result of this was a savings of a little money, but also we made a ton of trips to Home Depot and the house every day (almost) getting work done.
At the same time I had my day job... I'm ashamed to say that I stole time from work to get the house done. I have since repented and asked God for forgiveness for that and I don't want to put myself in that position again of balancing a rehab and my day job. Another unexpected drawback to doing the work ourselves is that we couldn't deduct the value of our own labor off of our taxes. The house took longer to sell because it took us longer to get it ready... so in all actuality if I sat down with a calculator, it probably cost us *more* to do it ourselves in the long run.
So, what did we gain from doing the work ourselves? The satisfaction of having done a good job? Well, after it was over I was so sick of seeing that house and burned out. So much so that I didn't even want to think of doing another flip (which is probably a good thing considering this real estate market). We probably lost more money in the long run than we saved, missed out on the tax deduction and we had no time for anything else.
I think the time issue is the biggest one of all, lets say we spent that time out looking for more deals. That's where our money is made, not swinging a hammer! Plus (for us at least), looking for homes is the fun part.
Having said all of that, I do enjoy doing some work on houses. So I have come to the conclusion that I will limit my DIYing to our personal residence. I can take my time and do the work when I want to and take longer to do it so I will do a better job. I learn the skills of the trade so I can better manage the people who are doing the work on our investment houses. Plus if I find that I have some down time and want something to do, I can pick an item off the list and go tackle it. When you want to tackle a DIY project at your personal residence, all you have to do is pick up the tools and start working whereas on one of your investment properties you have to make a trip out there to get the work done. These trips to and from your property and to Home Depot/Lowes for parts is the most cumbersome part of working on your investment houses.
So, with good people doing the work for us, I can more confidently go out and buy other houses and not stress out over whether this room will get painted on that house, or this other house needs a sink etc etc. I can go through a house once, make my list and done - go play with the kids in the backyard. We told ourselves once that if real estate took over our lives, it wouldn't be worth it no matter how much we made through it. There are a lot more important things in life than just the money.
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