Hurt feelings aside, let's stick to the topic. Flipping is a risky business. If you do it in a furious upturn, you run the risk of getting caught holding inventory when the market goes in the wrong direction. When you do it in a market like this (I would use the term wallowing), you run the risk of having the slightest increase in inventory negatively affect your comps.
In any market, you run the risk of a resentful appraiser taking umbrage with your profit. The market does what the market does. Predicting the future is always a dangerous game. Due diligence to the point of undue diligence is the best course of action.
For those complaining about low income borrowers being priced out of the market by flippers, please take note that the FNMA Homepath program is the greatest example of taking advantage of low income borrowers in today's marketplace. They put the property on the market at a value 10-15% above retail, then offer the home to owner-occupant exclusively for the first ten days with low down financing and no appraisal requirement. Freddy does the same thing with Homesteps!
Think about that for a minute...a GSE (Government Sponsored Entity) offering what amounts to sub-prime loans on their own assets without the same appraisal requirements that they apply to outside lenders. If anyone thinks that flippers are dirty profit hounds, they need only look at the good folks in Washington to see the true crooks operate with government mandates.
