subject: Secrets To Flipping Real Estate [print this page] Over the past decade many real estate pros and novices alike have made their fortune flipping real estate. During the same time period, many have ended up in total financial ruin because they had no idea how to manage the process, invest in the right properties, or get the necessary work done inside in order to get it sold quickly.
The past few years have put flipping real estate into the forefront of the real estate market. Books, seminars, TV shows and even documentaries are popping up all over showing everyone the "easy way" to make millions by flipping houses. Unfortunately, it's not easy, you won't make millions if you're new to the game, and most people fall flat on their faces before their flip is on the market.
We are actually in the perfect economy right now to consider getting involved for the first time, or continuing your efforts from a few years ago. Foreclosures are all over the place, many destroyed out of spite by their previous owners. Beautiful homes in beautiful neighborhoods, just waiting to be brought back to their original magnificence.
Many people have gotten into house flipping thinking it was easy, and tons of money would be waiting at the end of the product when the house sells. Wrong. Buying the wrong house for the wrong reason and putting in too much money is the worst move you can make, and an all too common mistake that brings many first timers to their financial death.
A good deal is to find a home that needs work. Don't buy a good home thinking you're going to just redecorate it and sell it for a profit. That's not the purpose of a flip, and that's not how you make money.
You buy low, fix what needs to be done - preferably yourself, match the updates to the neighborhood (don't add cherry hardwood floors or Italian marble in the bathrooms unless that is the norm for the homes in the neighborhood), and dump it before your first mortgage payment comes due.
There are some areas now that flipping is quite possible; other areas won't have much to offer. Buying a home that needs some serious work for $60,000 is a good deal if you add $30,000 in renovations and sell for $145,000. That's quite doable in almost any neighborhood. On the other hand, buying a home for $750,000, adding $200,000 in improvements and trying to sell it... That's a crisis just waiting to happen.
