What steps can i take to be successful in house flipping?

[Devin Ebanks]

Im looking for guidance on how to network and learn from people who have succeeded with house flipping and rehabbing. ANY advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. 

[Daniel Sisto]

As J Scott said, first you will have to get educated on the basics. How the process works, formulas, different departments, construction process and such. Forums, blogs, bp, networking, REI clubs.

Then choose and analyse a market that you are interested in to make sure that the model is working where you are interested. 

Put together a team (realtors, contractors, attorney, accountant, bird dogs etc) 

Put together a marketing plan as to how you will acquire the product (direct mail, bandit signs, cold calling, door knocking, leveraging bird dogs - agents, PPC, SEO, Facebook ads etc) 

Put together a CRM or tracking mechanism to be able to track the lead flow and response from mediums so you can create a follow up system. 

Implement the marketing plan and begin receiving/ reviewing leads

Set appointments with as many sellers as possible to view the properties, build relationships, get a feel for the market/product. While on appointment take photos and video for further analysis. 

Run you analysis on as many properties as possible - utilize your team to assist you with rehab costs. Determine your Maximum Purchase Price and submit offers. 

This is basically high level on how to acquire product off market at a discount, in our current environment, you will have to be able to successfully do this in order to find product that works. 

In my opinion flipping houses is all about creating a great team, having a systematic approach and having a organized plan going into the project. This means you will have to develop a scope, material lists, create a budget and create a schedule. Utilize your scope of work to to bid out specific tasks to receive estimates on the project. Initially, if just starting out, best to find a reliable, honest, GC who does quality work at a fair price to take on the majority of the project (find out what tasks he is not comfortable with and sub those tasks out). 

Just make sure you have a cost tracking systems in place so you a pulse on your current outlay at any given time on a project. 

If you plan heavy on the front end, your projects will run much much smoother throughout. 

Hope this helps. @Devin Ebanks