Flipping houses is definitely an interesting and lucrative industry. As a matter of fact, flipped homes made up 10.9% of all home sales in the fourth quarter of 2018. It is possible to make a lot of money flipping properties.
The primary thing you’ll need to know is how to get into flipping houses. You’ll need to take the right steps to start this type of business, and you’ll need to learn what those are.
If you want to start flipping houses, here are some tips to help you get started.
Find a Way to Afford Buying Houses
One significant step in getting started flipping houses is finding a way to afford it. You’ll need some money to get started, as cash is required to buy properties.
You can use a variety of methods to come up with the funds, and here are some ideas:
Use Your Savings Account
You can use your own money if you have enough, or you could talk to your family to see if anyone is interested in partnering with you.
Finding a way to finance your first property might be the most challenging part of the process. Although, once you find a way to do this, you’ll likely have an easier time financing your subsequent projects.
Find a Real Estate Investor
If you happen to know any real estate investors, or if you can find one in your area, you could talk to them about partnering with you.
Some real estate investors prefer acting as silent partners with flipping homes. They supply the funds, and the other partners handle the work. Finding a real estate investor is a common way people begin flipping houses.
Get a Hard Money Loan
A hard money loan is a unique product that some banks offer. Hard money loans generally last only a year or so, so they are short-term. They have higher interest rates than other loan types, but they are designed for flipping houses.
You’ll have to locate a lender that offers these to learn more about applying for one. You may need excellent credit to qualify, and it is helpful to fully understand the terms of the loans before you take them.
Look for Ways to Find Cheap Homes to Buy
Once you have a way to finance your projects, you can move on to the next step. The next step is finding cheap homes to buy. Flipping homes requires knowledge and wise decision-making skills, and it requires buying the right houses.
Your goal in this step is to find ways to locate cheap homes for sale. You can talk to real estate agents in your area as a way of finding properties. You can also look for motivated sellers by placing ads on local classified ad sites.
You’ll need resources to find these houses, and this is often a challenging part of starting a house-flipping business. Once you begin learning how to find homes, you may experience an overabundance of potential properties to buy.
Make Sure You Have the Necessary Time, Skills, and Resources
It’s also important to know what it takes to operate a successful flipping company. To be successful, you will need to possess the following three qualities and traits:
Time
One primary factor that affects the success of a flip project is speed. You’ll have to understand that time is vital when performing a house flip.
You’ll need to be able to start the project as soon as you take ownership of the property. You’ll also need to be able to finish it quickly and find a buyer right away.
To achieve these goals, you must have enough time on your hands to spend on the project. If your life is already too busy as it is, you probably do not have enough time to handle house-flipping projects.
Skills
People who flip homes should also possess skills with home repairs, remodeling, and design. If you know nothing about these things, you might benefit from becoming a silent partner in real estate deals.
People with a lot of home remodeling skills are usually great at flipping homes.
Resources
The third quality you’ll need is resources. As a house flipper, you’ll need a lot of resources, including a real estate agent to help you sell the homes, and contractors to help you complete the work.
Understand How to Evaluate Houses Before You Buy Them
Another tip to help you get started is to understand the importance of knowing how to evaluate houses before you buy them. The properties you purchase will play a massive role in the profitability of your business.
Therefore, you’ll have to learn how to choose a house to flip. Here are several factors to keep in mind as you start looking for properties:
Price
The price always matters when buying investment properties. Every house is different, though, so you’ll need to learn how to analyze the amount you should pay for a home before making an offer.
You stand to make more substantial profits on flips if you buy homes for the right price.
Condition
Learning how to analyze the condition of a home thoroughly is crucial when buying homes to flip. If you don’t know what to look for, you might end up with homes that need way more work than you initially thought.
It’s also helpful to know when to walk away from a deal. For example, buying a home with foundational issues is rarely a smart move. If you can buy the house cheap enough, you might still be able to make money with it.
As you assess a property, be careful not to let your emotions affect your decision. You should base the decision on facts, not feelings. Feelings can lead to poor decisions, so keep this in mind.
Costs of Repairs
It’s also essential to understand the costs of repairs. As you examine a home to buy, write down the work that it needs and then add up the costs. You may want to include a miscellaneous category for repairs while doing this, to be safe.
Price After the Repairs
Finally, you should learn how to calculate the value a house would have if you flipped it. You can compare this amount to the amount you invested in it to determine if it’s a good business deal.
It takes a lot of time, work, and effort to assess properties you are considering, and yet it’s extremely important to spend the needed time on these activities.
Learn How to Compare Risks vs. Rewards
You can make good money flipping houses, but you must learn how to compare the risks versus rewards when choosing properties to buy.
Comparing the risk versus reward relates to calculating the value of a house after repairs. If you analyze a deal and expect to make $10,000 from it, is it worth it?
Is making $10,000 enough for an entire flip?
Some companies who flip homes aim to make at least $50,000 or more per project. You’re free to set a goal amount for yourself, but it’s also important to compare the risks versus the rewards.
You may have to pass on a property if there is too much risk with it and not enough potential for a profit.
Start Small and Grow From There
One last thing to understand about flipping homes is that it is smart to start small with this business. Starting small helps you protect your budget but also provides a way to get into the business.
When you start small, you buy just one property. As you perform the flip, you’ll learn a lot of things and can use this knowledge in your future flips.
If you want to learn to flip houses, start with one property and go from there. After completing one flip, you may realize that this is not the right business for you. You may also learn that you love flipping homes and want to continue.
As with any activity, you will get better at it the more you do it.
Learn More About How to Get Into Flipping Houses
Flipping houses is an event that interests many people, but it is not for everyone.
It would help if you took the time to learn how to get into flipping houses before you start buying properties.
You can check out the rest of our site if you want to learn more about flipping homes before you get started.