At this point in my career, I have owned an apparel company, a "media" company, flipped some houses, wholesaled some deals, and kept some rental property. I've also helped build sales teams for a technology company (which was fun) and have done some light consulting. I have experienced failure, success, and the myriad of different colors of mud and blue skies in between. Now, today, I would consider myself a "full time" investor and house flipper/opportunist.

When flipping houses, I keep my criteria tight, opportunistic, and attempt to create multiple exits. How can someone create multiple exits flipping houses? When I buy these houses I have a very strict criteria and stick to it, only budging on a few things if I need a deal. For example, an ideal flip house for me is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom brick slab home that is not in a flood zone. Having a great layout helps, updated a/c and plumbing systems also helps, newer roof.. you know al the big ticket item stuff. I will buy this house if the ARV is between 175-270ish and can purchase and renovate the property to be at maximum the 1% rule. For example, if I'm flipping a house with the intention of reselling it for $260,000 I'd like to be all in 165-175 in case I need to make it a long term rental for $1,800.

Now, I get this seem like a "perfect" flip house scenario. And honestly, it really is and this market is proving that. If you're flipping houses with only one exit and interest rates triple you're stuck holding this nice and new asset but can't sell it because the market softens and prices come down. I find this time in the market so interesting because it's what Dave Ramsey always talked about as far as getting into real estate with 0 debt. Which is not what I have chosen to do but I now completely understand why he promotes that. I wanted to share this with the bigger pockets community just to share my strategy and get some feedback. I don't think I'm right and I'm open to a better way of going about this.

Hope this helps one person when they're looking for some good info on flipping houses. I'm learning there's better ways to go about this every day and am open to any pointers from anyone else in the community! My only ask: What are you doing to sell your flips once they are listed on the market in this season? Thank you! Very grateful for Bigger Pockets.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

3 Votes