How To Decide if Flipping Houses is Right for You

We all love our HGTV! One of the most popular genres to watch right now are the “house flippers” who flip homes as a way of life. They show the ups and downs of turning ‘trash’ into treasure and some very brief glimpses of the business part. It looks like fun and you might be wondering if it’s something that you should get involved with. Keep in mind, that the business side to house flipping can be a lot more complex than what is shown on TV or in cute a Snapchat mini-series episode.

Team Up!

Flipping houses is going to be a pretty serious time commitment and the people who already have contractor, interior design or home improvement experience tend to get a leg up. They usually know and have the ability to get better rates from a network they’ve already done business with or have heard of in the course of their prior experience. Even if you have experience in the aforementioned areas, you still might come across issues that may be out of your skill level.

Flipping a house can often mean that you can’t handle everything that needs to be fixed or spruced up on your own. The most successful flippers have a team that they work with. They’ll have an electrician, a plumber and several other people who can professionally do whatever task is outside of their skill sets.

In addition to having the team who can do the repairs necessary, flipping a home takes time. Though it looks quick on TV, reality is different. You have to be someone who has the amount of time (and cash) that it’s going to take to dedicate to a project that might take anywhere from three months to over a year. If you’re stretched too thin right now, flipping a house may not be the right choice for you and you need to wait until you have the time.

Evaluating Costs

You have to critically look at the cost involved to know how to find a good home to invest in. A good flip home should be priced low enough so that after you repair what needs to be fixed you’ll have the chance to sell for an amount to give you a worthwhile profit.

That means you can’t pay market value for a home. One idea is to look for fixer uppers that don’t have serious issues in established or even high end neighborhoods if you can afford it, buy it, bring the condition up and then sell it.

You have to be able to buy the house and afford the costs of repairs, upkeep (such as lawn and curb appeal), as well as, making the payments on the home while you are marketing it. Which means you have to have some sort of financing ready. Financing and your limits should be determined before you fall in love with a project house.

To decide if house flipping is right for you, you want to examine your reasons for going into it. If it’s because you think it’s something that’ll make you rich fast, then that’s a wrong reason. You can make a lot of money flipping houses, but it’s not something that you can rush. It’s something that builds your income house flip after house flip. Your first flip or two is to get you started.

There will always be risk involved in real estate properties just like in any other venture, but the rewards you stand to reap can be substantial. If you have some money already on hand that you can invest in buying a flip house, you’re a hard worker and you don’t give up easily when faced with challenges, then home flipping is definitely a great risk to take with buildable rewards.