I have made my clients many millions of dollars flipping houses (doing the architectural work for them).

You need to have a good deal of cash to do so, however. You really dont want to get stuck not being able to sell a house and have to pay back the bank loans..this is what has been happening lately. The market is too saturated with people trying to sell shit that people arent buying anymore (and banks arent lending like they used to)

I agree with mdler the house flipping market seems to be slowing. A few years ago my partner did one and it turned out to not really be a significant money-maker as taxes take a huge chunk.

Oh, and what price for your soul?????

kidding

that is another thing that you encounter...capital gains taxes. My clients who flip houses are constantly having to buy the next house in order to not have to pay these taxes.

Right now seems like the wrong time to invest a huge amount of money in anything. The housing market is slowing, the lending industry is tanking, people are foreclosing, the stock market is doing terribly well (which is somewhat bizzar, imo), gas is too damn expensive, we are fighting two wars, etc...

There seems to be many mixed signs when it comes to the state of the economy. I would hold onto my $$$ for the time being

i was thinking about it...since i have my builders license and can do all the work myself...... i was thinking of build open plan houses in detroit.... then when a customer buys the house then they can figure the layout of certain walls....

i have tooo many damn ideas for everything...............

b

My bf's dad does this in a small town where nobody else has caught on to the practice yet. His only big guideline seems to be: never tear the whole thing down, because remodel permits are so much easier to get. Other than that, he pretty much guts everything, and has never not made a profit. But then again, he is a contractor and does all the work himself, so there's a lot less overhead to it.

I was told in a development class that the way to spot the next 'hot' neighborhood was to drive around and find an area where the lawns weren't getting mowed, the gutters weren't getting cleaned out, things needed a new coat of paint, etc. and try to buy up as much property as possible there. Why? Because these things signal that the area is populated by people who are about to die (average age of tenent is around 75 or so) and can no longer care for their homes. As soon as a good number of them start dying, the houses will sell cheap, which means young urban professionals will snap them up and fix them up, and bingo, you've got yourself the next hit real estate market. Sad, huh?

done about three so far. But we tend to live in them for about 5 yrs and upgrade during that time, have to live somewhere and in Canada if its your personal residence then there's no capital gains tax. Doing a new build now which will be complete in the fall. Already joking about the next one with my wife, she's not into it as much as I am. Probably do a few more in my life time. I don't want it too overwhelming as I end up being the general and find it too be pretty time consuming, while I run my office. So I like spreading the process over a few years, then enjoy it for a few years while the market progresses. Absolute key is location, if you build anything in a good location and take advantage of what the site offers you should do fine, even in times of a depressed market, good buildings always sell. You just have to see all the bad work that sells to prove that its not about the deisgn as much as the location. Its worth while to spend more for a killer location than you scoop that will appeal to a broader market than a unique, funky location that might only appeal to a few "artsy'" types that have no bankroll.

i must wonder if the television show killed the market

vado please insert video killed the radio star

there is some real benefit in what flippers do. in a city like ours it often takes a flipper to see the value in the huge amount of derelict 100 yr old housing stock in the urban neighborhoods that sits vacant or in renter-hell. these are great houses in a perfect old urbanism setting. i guess i don't mind so much if the interior gets renovated as a builder-special with its inventory of things that realtors can check off on the listing as long as these fine old shotguns and bungalows find a new life.

there ARE those flippers that make things worse for the houses by hiding nasty mold, rot, bug, or structural conditions. those guys should be arrested. but there are many more that try to do the best possible job for a small amount of money. good on 'em if they can make something at it.

our market is still pretty strong in louisville, though we're usually only a few years behind everyone else. people here are looking at the rest of the country and slowing down a bit, but flipping is still happening.

I've done about 12 since 2000. Yes, the market was hotter a few years ago. But, real estate like any investment is a risk. Without risk there are no rewards. Don't put yourself in finanical position you can't afford to be in. Real estate is still a great investment. Right now you just have to change the way you do business. Those TV shows are unrealistic in the way they are portrayed. Nobody turns a S#$% box around in three weeks and makes 80k profit. I've had a few dilaptaded properties that usually took four to six months to turn around. We made sure once that property was sold it was not going to haunt us with defective work. Look in the paper for sheriff sale or foreclosure listings. They are going to rise in numbers since alot of people who took bad loans or shouldn't have qualified for loans will be defaulting. Usually, those properties can be had below market.

I have a client sitting on a $10 million house right now he cant sell...that $50k a month mortage aint fun