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…)

Whether you’re a seasoned real estate investor or brand new to investing, you will – at some point in your career – need to turn to hard money!

Many people turned away from hard money except on the REALLY UGLY properties for much of the early 2000s or if they had pretty beat up credit. This was because conventional lenders were giving money away for all intents and purposes! Virtually anyone – first time home buyer to seasoned investor – could get 100% financing on their properties and it didn’t seem to matter how many properties one had!

Well… welcome to 2007! The “conventional” lenders (like Chase, Indymac, Countrywide, etc.) have tightened their reins, and for good reason!

Before we go into how to get hard money, let’s talk about some of the pros and cons of hard money versus conventional financing! (more…)

We’re often inclined to think that we can handle it all in our real estate businesses, especially in the early phases of the business. There are 7 key people that you need to have on your team… I realize it’s a balancing act because you’re often faced with balancing the financial aspects of a new business with finding the right people. However, the cost of NOT getting the right advice can be crippling.

My very first partnership was with a long time friend. We’d attended some workshops and trainings, asked an accountant and attorney we knew what we should set up for the business entity, and ultimately set up a basic corporation with an s-election. We weren’t real clear on what we needed it for and were primarily looking at the tax beneifts. Well, from a tax perspective, we did alright, I suppose. But, what we didn’t factor in was what was going to happen when we inevitably wanted to go in different directions.

We were warned by a good friend and mentor early on. He said, “Partnerships will only survive as long as both people need each other. Once either one is able to stand on his/her own, the partnership no longer works.” And we, of course, said, “Yeah, but we’re different.” (more…)