The Best Way to Start Flipping

[flip_it_fast]

There was this question on a website, "Whats the best way to get started flipping houses for a profit"?

Some of the responses were interesting.

Erin:

Buy a house…a very cheap house. Easy to do right now…Fix…and sell

e_businessolutions:

Hi Mommy2be,
I am a Professional Real Estate Investor and I have to tell you that it is not as easy as they show on TV. There are a lot of things to learn so you don’t get hurt doing business out there and even the pro’s make mistakes sometimes just more educated ones.
A small mistake can cost you 10’s of thousands of dollars if you do not now what you’re doing. If I were to start telling you how and where to start without giving you the know how, I would be doing you an injustice to you and possibly setting you up for a costly mistake

Brad F:

No matter what people say, you need money up front. Find a house with some equity in it to live in (preferably a double). Make it habitable (if it already isnt) and use your leftover equity to help purchase and flip one house. Once you are sucessful with one house, it will give you the capital necessary to do more. Good luck!

Robert H:

If you have a local REA (Real estate Investor association) it would be a good idea to join. The cost to join is usually very low and you can attend meetings and their training programs and talk to investors that are new and people that have been investors for 20 or 30 years. Usually you will get good advice and will get an idea as to what works and what does not work.
Caution, there are lots of so called Guru’s out there that charge thousands of dollars for their course’s and mentoring programs. Most of these programs have good ideas but are designed to sell you their next seminar or program that is guaranteed to make you rich.
There are a lot of good books at the local book store that can get you started. If you will approach Real Estate like you would a college education you will do OK. First dedicate yourself to learning the business, Make some contacts that are in the business who are willing to help you and do not just want to sell you property or their real estate course, and then go for it.
In today’s market buying, rehabbing and selling is more and more difficult. There are a lot of properties that are selling for below market prices so you must be able to buy very low, probably do a lot of the work yourself, and then be able to sell quickly at a profit. Good Luck.

They made some very valid points there I think. First of know that it isn't an easy thing to do and no, it cannot be a hobby. Once you start you have to see it through to the sale.

[House on the Prairie]

Thank you for posting this! What solid information!

[realestatehound]

You must educate yourself. Learn all the conponents of a home, study the market until you know what homes are selling for in the area, spend a lot of time in home improvement stores. Then practice, go to distressed home sales and look at the properties and try to learn how much it will cost to remodle the home and then watch and see what it sells for. Start looking for contractors and be very, very careful and research them. You must get your financing in place also. I cannot express how much educating yourself will help you. If you practice and watch distressed homes sale you will eventually become confident in what you are doing. You must buy cheap and sell below market value to get quick sales. Please don't waste your money on these get rich real estate programs. Do not try to flip a home until you can get within a few thousand dollars of what the homes you have been watching is selling for. This is not a business for the faint of heart and if you are not a self motivated then don't even start, it will ruin you financially if you do. I would be happy to answer questions for you if you'd like.

[flip_it_fast]

Awesome information Realestatehound! Thanks!

I, like you cannot stress enough the importance of educating yourself before trying to doing it!!!

I have heard I don't know how many times in the past few years that house flipping is a dead end mistake. But then you go and ask those people about their experience, their education on financing, remodeling, etc and they have none!

People who put down house flipping just don't know what they are doing. I truely believe that. They haven't done the prep work ahead of time. They jump into it head first and before they know it they have a concussion. They have a house they can't fix and they can't sell. They don't have a support network... nothing.

EDUCATE YOURSELF!!!! You cannot be a success without the knowlege!

[realestatehound]

People don't understand how much work goes into just buying a property, much less what needs to be done to get it ready to sale. For instance, master commissioner sale. They are published in the local newspaper, I take all these ads and pick out the ones that I'm interested in and then go look at each one. I decide how much it will cost me to get it ready to sale. Then I go back to the office and find homes that have sold that are comprable to the home I'm looking at and decide how much it will sell for when finished. According to how the taxes are written in the ad I have to go to the tax office and pull the taxes back to when they bought it. Just this will take up to 3 days, because a lot of them the buyer has to pay the taxes. Then when you go to the sale you may not get a house the banks may bid them in so high you can't make any money, but you have to do it any way. Then some days you may buy 2 or 3. I usually consider myself lucky if I get one. I always set a price and I won't pay one penny more for it. Thats just my rule, because if you let it get personal you will end up paying way to much. Sometimes I have as much as 30 to 60 hours in before I buy 1 home. Once bought the real work begins. I do most of the work on my homes myself as I love to take a trashed out house and make it beautiful again. I don't buy anything that I don't think I can finish in 30 days or less. Once finished I put it on the markets and do everything possible to get it sold. I may have a strange way of looking at it, but I don't know many jobs that you can make from $15,000 to $35,000 in a month of work. Flipping has become my passion over the last several years and I would rather quit selling real estate than to quit flipping. But it certainly is not a business for the faint of heart. It takes nerves of steel.