What is your definition of "flipping" and "rehabbing"?

[Kevin Barnett]

I was at a recent REIA meeting and someone asked what I did. I told him that I was currently rehabbing a house. I try to avoid using the term "flipping", especially with so-called investors savvy types, because it seems to mean different things to different people. A woman overheard me say that I was a rehabber and then asked, "So you're a contractor?" I said, no I was a rehabber. She then looked extremely puzzled and asked "What's the difference?" I told her the difference is that I own the property and I am the one taking the risk. We went back and forth a bit before I gave up and said I needed to use the restroom.

To me "flipping" means acquiring property and then selling it at a profit. This could mean turning around and selling it two days later as a wholesale deal, pre-habbing, or a full blown rehab. A flipper always has the option of doing any of these things and might choose to do so for whatever his reasons. The term "rehabber" seems pretty straightforward to me. I can see similarities between what a rehabber does and what a general contractor does but I would think a GC would say he was a GC if asked what he did. It's also possible that someone could call himself a Flipper and he is correct, although it would be more precise if he said he was a Wholesaler.

Am I off base here? How do you define and distinguish between those terms?