I know that rule #1 in real estate is not to get attached to a piece of property! However, when it’s your own home, the rules change! And that’s what happened to me.

I bought my home in Coral Gables back in 2003 and absolutely fell in love with it. It was an old spanish home with unique architectural elements and it was absolutely perfect for me. In fact, it even had a converted carport that I used for my office so that my work didn’t creep into my entire living space (as it has in my new home!)

In 2005, I bought another house… This time, in West Palm Beach a block from the water. The house itself was not my dream house, but I loved the location. I could even put my own sailboat in the water at the end of the street (which I never got around to). I decided to move to West Palm Beach because I was doing more real estate in the area and didn’t want to keep both houses as active residences. I did go back and forth for the first 18 months and just didn’t want to do it anymore. So, I rented it for just about a year and a half. (more…)

Flipping Homes… Flipping Houses… What is everyone flipping over?

In the past five years, you’ve obviously heard the buzz surrounding flipping homes. There’s a new TV show popping up weekly, it seems. And it’s hardly even possible to keep track of them all these days.

But, what’s the real scoop behind all the “flipping houses” buzz? And is it right for you?

In this article, we’re going to dispel some of the myths surrounding flipping homes and also give you the steps in case you want to jump in. First off… the term “flipping houses” often refers to two different things:

1. Wholesaling – also known as assigning the contract – is when you simply put a property under contract and “sell” the contract to someone else, usually another investor.
2. Retailing – or rehabbing – is when you actually buy the house you are going to flip, do the repairs, and then sell the house, usually to an end buyer, or homeowner.

On TV, they’re showing the latter: buy-fix-sell.

There is a lot of money to be made flipping houses, but if you don’t do it right, you can also LOSE a lot of money. What you don’t see on the television show is how they find their properties, how much it costs to acquire the properties and, in most cases, the profit. It’s funny how these programs very rarely tell you HOW MUCH the person REALLY made from the deal (not the gross profits, but what they put in the bank after all is said and done). (more…)