Chip Gaines Shares His 5 Best Home-Buying Tips

As I get ready to start my first home-buying journey, I turned to an expert I’ve been learning from for years: Chip Gaines. On a recent trip to Magnolia, I sat down with Gaines to talk about all things home buying, DIY, and home improvement. When I mentioned I was finally in the market to buy my first home after years of leisurely scrolling through Zillow, he had so many helpful tips. 

Whether you’re also shopping for a home, or just looking to do a few minor renovations to your space, this is the best advice from Chip Gaines. 

DIY—But Not Too Much

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Fixer Upper, you know Gaines is all about Demo Day. His advice is not to shy away from DIY projects—but beware of taking on too much. He suggests not buying a home that needs major structural work, and instead focusing on more attainable projects like fresh paint, new tile, and smaller renovations. “You need an expert to come in and buy a house that has severe foundation problems—you don’t want you and your husband to do that as your first DIY,” he says. 

Avoid ‘The Big Four’

When it comes to red flags in the home-buying process, there are four things Gaines always watches for. “If you can avoid the four big ones—the big tragic foundation, electrical’s not in terrible shape, plumbing is not in terrible shape, and the roof’s not in terrible shape—then it’s something fun that you and your husband could fix in a weekend,” he says. 

“You can say, ‘yeah the yard’s overgrown” or the paint’s terrible—but you guys could do some of those things yourself,” he says. 

Ignore Bad Landscaping 

Chip and Joanna Gaines buy a fair amount of homes to flip, and his biggest piece of advice is not to pass on a house because it has a bad yard. In fact, he says upgrading the landscaping is one of the easiest ways to add curb appeal to a home, and even improve the resale value. “You can get a lot of bang for your buck, and it doesn’t cost you a million dollars—but maybe you get a million dollars worth of curb appeal out of it,” he says. 

Focus on Simple Cosmetic Changes 

I mentioned to Gaines that my budget and my vision for the house we buy don’t necessarily match up: I have large, new-construction taste with the budget for a fixer-upper. His advice was to look past dated elements like old wallpaper or chipped paint, and look at each home through the lens of it’s potential. A fresh coat of paint, new flooring, and updated hardware can easily take a home from dated and run-down to fresh and modern. 

“Jo and I, when we first got married, some of the first projects that we ever did together were just paint projects,” Gaines says. “The house that we lived in at the very beginning was not much bigger than [a trailer] and so I updated the backsplashes with a cool tile—it was $200 at the big box store and a weekend worth of work.” 

He says working on these simple projects not only made them love their space, it brought them closer together, too. Something about working together on something like that really connects you two and builds a story that you guys will be talking about years from now, when you can buy whatever house you want,” he says. 

Bring in Pros to Finish That Last 10% 

“Things have just gotten expensive, so I think the trend is definitely going to be trying to figure out how you maximize what you have at the lowest common denominator,” Gaines says. He recommends learning how to do the majority of any renovation work and doing the bulk of it yourselves. Then, if you need to bring in an expert to finish that last 10% of the project, you’ll be able to hire it out for a fraction of the cost of the entire project.