House Flipping

House flipping is the practice of purchasing a home and then selling the home in a short period of time, in an attempt to make a quick profit.

Be sure you have a good financial plan in place when investing and flipping properties. Many would be investors fail every year due to lack of planning.

Many times people that flip houses buy the homes out of foreclosure, from sheriff's auctions, or bank owned homes for a value that is considerably less than market value. They then go into the home after they have purchased the home and do some minor cosmetic type improvements (such as paint, carpet, landscaping, etc...) and then re-list the home for actual market value and generally they make a pretty good profit.

Prior to purchasing the property make sure you can afford to keep the property. I know the "idea" is to flip the property. However some properties dont flip as easy as others.

When working with various contractors for a property to flip, keep in mind that if you find a very cheap contractor that can only work on weekends or evenings that the timeframe to finish your house will be very long. You should interview contractors that are reliable and work during the day so your project finishes faster. The longer you take, the more mortgage payments you will make.

Be careful about the financing you obtain for flipping properties. Most lenders like to loan money to people who will hold on to the loan for a long time. If you get into a loan and then pay it off within a few months, it will actually cost the lender money. If you do this often, and it shows up on your credit report, you will have a more difficult time getting mortgages, even for your primary residence, because the lenders will see that you have a history of property flipping. They will make the assumption that you are going to cost them money.