Investor vs flipper

[Arthur V Bernestine III]

What is the difference ? I see far to many posts that tell you to erase your debt if you want to be an investor…would you have to erase all your debt to start flipping homes ?. 

[Dominic Pizzi]

Flippers are investors. They are investing their time and effort into making a property into what they believe it is worth to sell it at a profit and keep the net proceeds to start all over again. Investors can buy turn key, or properties that need a little TLC. They are almost synonymous with each other. 

You do not need to erase your debt to become an investor. For many loans that calculate by DSCR, they qualify a property based on its cash flows and not the prospective investor's DTI. Is it a good idea to erase debt? Sure, having things you can pay off in the short term will help boost your credit score and give you more money to leverage out, but to erase all of your debt? Not needed.