flipping houses

I am a stay at home mom and want some adviee. I've seen a lot of shows were
people buy houses, fix them up for a few bucks and resale making huge
profits. Is this really attainable? I'm really really interested in doing
it and have been doing a lot of fixing around my own house (repairing
toilets, doing insulating, fixing fences, painting ect). I feel I can do
this but does anyone know how I even begin or can they direct me to a
legitamate website that can tell me how to legally do all this? Oh by the
way, I don't have thousands of dollars laying around to do these repairs.
Will I need that or is there some kind of special loan that will allow me
to buy a house, make repairs and then resale? Thanks for your help.

Posted by dpb on September 27, 2006, 5:36 pm

mamace wrote:

> I am a stay at home mom and want some adviee. I've seen a lot of shows were

> people buy houses, fix them up for a few bucks and resale making huge

> profits. Is this really attainable? I'm really really interested in doing

> it and have been doing a lot of fixing around my own house (repairing

> toilets, doing insulating, fixing fences, painting ect). I feel I can do

> this but does anyone know how I even begin or can they direct me to a

> legitamate website that can tell me how to legally do all this? Oh by the

> way, I don't have thousands of dollars laying around to do these repairs.

> Will I need that or is there some kind of special loan that will allow me

> to buy a house, make repairs and then resale? Thanks for your help.

It is possible, but it's also risky--for the most part the ones
peddling on TV are making far more money selling their "program" than
in doing what they're recommending--think about it--if they were busy
getting rich doing what they talking about, why would they need/want
the competition they're bound to generate?

This is probably a particularly poor time to even think about this
unless you are _VERY_ experienced and don't need to ask such questions
in most housing markets given the rising interest rates. My
recommendation is that unless you have far more capability than simply
doing a few minor repairs and the tools, etc., necessary, and the time
to devote to this other than a few evenings or weekends to stay the
heck away.

Posted by Paul on September 27, 2006, 6:02 pm

>mamace wrote:

>> I am a stay at home mom and want some adviee. I've seen a lot of shows were

>> people buy houses, fix them up for a few bucks and resale making huge

>> profits. Is this really attainable? I'm really really interested in doing

>> it and have been doing a lot of fixing around my own house (repairing

>> toilets, doing insulating, fixing fences, painting ect). I feel I can do

>> this but does anyone know how I even begin or can they direct me to a

>> legitamate website that can tell me how to legally do all this? Oh by the

>> way, I don't have thousands of dollars laying around to do these repairs.

>> Will I need that or is there some kind of special loan that will allow me

>> to buy a house, make repairs and then resale? Thanks for your help.

That ship has sailed, for the most part. You should wait for the
housing market to bottom out and begin to recover before delving into
that kind of work.

During upward-moving markets, however, good renovators serve a great
purpose. In our older neighborhood, many of the houses are prime for
renovation. When the market is better, this would be a great place to
make a good profit on renovating and reselling houses.

Posted by Norminn on September 27, 2006, 6:48 pm

Paul wrote:

>>mamace wrote:

>>>I am a stay at home mom and want some adviee. I've seen a lot of shows were

>>>people buy houses, fix them up for a few bucks and resale making huge

>>>profits. Is this really attainable? I'm really really interested in doing

>>>it and have been doing a lot of fixing around my own house (repairing

>>>toilets, doing insulating, fixing fences, painting ect). I feel I can do

>>>this but does anyone know how I even begin or can they direct me to a

>>>legitamate website that can tell me how to legally do all this? Oh by the

>>>way, I don't have thousands of dollars laying around to do these repairs.

>>>Will I need that or is there some kind of special loan that will allow me

>>>to buy a house, make repairs and then resale? Thanks for your help.

> That ship has sailed, for the most part. You should wait for the

> housing market to bottom out and begin to recover before delving into

> that kind of work.

> During upward-moving markets, however, good renovators serve a great

> purpose. In our older neighborhood, many of the houses are prime for

> renovation. When the market is better, this would be a great place to

> make a good profit on renovating and reselling houses.

In my neighborhood, three years ago, flippers were making money like
mad. 80-100% profit in three years. Can't give them away now, and the
taxes might triple or quadruple because of the homestead/save our homes
laws in Florida. Can't get insurance either.

Posted by Norminn on October 1, 2006, 8:10 pm