basic flipping question, reposted

[William MacBride]

I thought maybe this was too general or basic for the marketing and nobody answered it so I re-posted it here. It may seem general but if somebody could just say a word or two about the topic to give me a better orientation I'd appreciate it.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
I really need to get something fundamentally clear here. It seems like most of these posts talk about getting some property "under contract" and then finding a buyer from your buyers list. you then sell it to them in various scenarios at a higher price and make profit.
It seems to me this is essentially whats known as a "flip." I just go done reading an article that said basically that the idea of a flip is the idea of a "no money down" type deal, where you double close and all that, using the money from the resale to buy the house you're selling. It was saying that in the real world this is hard to do and can even get you in legal trouble for acting in one way or another as an agent. I myself am just having trouble seeing how or why there should be a "middle man" in the equation. so: DOES THIS OR DOESN"T THIS WORK IN THE REAL WORLD? How common is it? Why does there need to be a middle man and how easy is it to get a house "under contract" with the entire thing financed (by either a bank or some private lender)?
A case in point: My girlfriend just got hold of some guy in a town a fair distance away trying to sell his house. It's a nice looking victorian but for some reason he hasn't been able to sell it. She said he said he'd "give her 3% if she found a buyer." That definitely sounds like it'd be that illegal brokering concept. So we figured, ok just sign a purchase agreement, then get a buyer to buy it for more, and profit. This just sounds too easy somehow. this is a hosue she found on craigslist. Why does a buyer even need to go through her, having marked it up?
It seems like when people are putting together "buyer's lists" they're mainly talking about lists of investors, not end buyers, falies, etc. Why would an investor want your property when they can just find properties without a middle man? It seems they'd be the savvy ones, wanting to cut costs as much as possible.
I hope you can just get the general idea what I'm asking here. This whole type of deal just doesn't make enough sense to me in a certain way. WHY THE MIDDLE MAN?
Any replies that can elucidate this appreciated.

Will