If the idea of flipping furniture interests you, but you don’t have the time to devote to refinishing, check this out. I’m sharing all the details on how I bought 3 antique dressers for $250 and sold them collectively for $900, all without refinishing anything. Learning how to make extra cash flipping furniture without refinishing anything is easier than you might think. Let’s get started!
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A few months ago, I stumbled upon 3 antique dressers on Facebook Marketplace that were all listed by the same seller. They appeared to be in really good shape and I checked with the seller to make sure all of the drawers were functioning. I reached out to the seller to see if he would sell all 3 to me for a discounted price, and he said yes. We settled on $250 for all 3. What a steal! My hope was that, once I staged them, I could sell them “as is” collectively for $900. That’s exactly what I did! Below are my tips on how to make extra cash flipping furniture without refinishing anything.
How to Find Furniture to Flip (that will also sell well)
The first step is knowing what to buy, what will sell well, and what you might be able to sell it for. I tend to stick with dressers, as they’ve always sold really well for me. A matching set of nightstands is also typically a good choice. With the right staging, I think pretty anything will sell eventually… some more unique items might just take longer. Next on my list to purchase might be an antique desk, side tables, a solid coffee table. I once bought a vintage rattan coat rack and sold it.
To give you a better idea of pricing… I purchased these dressers for about $80 each. My goal was to sell them each for $325. I didn’t quite hit that, but close. One of them sat for a while and I had to drop the price, delete and repost a few times, while the other 2 sold quickly. Take note, as these are helpful things to know moving forward.
Don’t Buy Broken Furniture
Unless you’re a craftsman by trade, I highly recommend staying away from broken furniture. There have been times where I’ve purchased furniture with a broken drawer or something similar and it just sits, because fixing it requires skills I don’t have, or it just feels overwhelming to get started.
I like to make sure everything is working well and that the finish is in good shape (or can be easily oiled or refreshed). My goal is to purchase, dust, stage/photograph, list and sell. That’s it. I don’t want to be fixing anything or refinishing. If you trust yourself to make fixes quickly, that’s a different story. I have just found that it slows me down majorly.
Staging is Everything
Staging is literally where I’m making most of the money here. I’m either purchasing items from the thrift store or FB Marketplace, where most likely their potential is not obvious to most. By simply cleaning up the piece, making sure everything is functioning well and showing people what they could look like by staging them and by taking quality photos of them, they’re automatically going to sell for more.
How to Price Items
Pricing items can be tricky. Sometimes I list something and it sells right away, which makes me think that I priced it too low. And other times it sits for a long time, which makes me think it’s listed too high. I find it so tricky, but the key is to do a little research first. Look at items that are styled well and what they’re listed at. It also depends on your area. In a bigger city, someone might be willing to pay more, versus a smaller town they might not be willing to pay as much. This is an area that might be a little bit of trial and error. Just jump in and you’ll figure it out. As long as you didn’t lose money, I’d call it a win.
For context, I sold these 3 smaller dressers for $250-$325 each. The more unique one with the marble top took much longer to sell than the other 2. I assume just because it’s, as I said before, more unique. That one sold for less at $250. However, since I bought it for $80 and put no refinishing work into it, I was still happy.
Tips for Photographing
Ideally you have a nicer camera, but a phone camera will work (especially newer ones). My iPhone is old and my camera is not super nice like the new ones, so I typically bring out my real camera to get better photos and be able to control the lighting more.
You want to start with a solid background. I love to take my photos against some sort of wall detail, like the board and batten in my pictures above. A shiplap or paneled wall would work, otherwise just a solid, plain wall is great.
You want to style it. I typically go look at Pinterest for whatever I’m about to style. I’ll search something like “Styling a long dresser” or something similar and then I attempt to replicate it. Styling is probably the most important part in flipping furniture without refinishing.
Make Small Adjustments
This dresser below was missing a handle. I tried to find a matching handle using Google Image Search, and couldn’t. So instead, I ordered these handles that looked like the right style for this dresser. The set of handles was $20 and really modernized the piece, which I think helped it sell so quickly.
A quick swap like switching handles or knobs is an easy, and typically cheap, way to “flip” something. Keep that in mind when you’re looking for something to flip.
New Handles and Styling
I personally like the piece significantly better with the new handles. It definitely updated it. This piece sold quickly, and I would say because of the handles and the styling. It helps people see the potential.
Thanks for reading about how to make extra cash flipping furniture without refinishing anything.
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