Flipping? Read this.

[Les]

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf ... ofita.html

The market is a bit different in Michigan, but there are some lessons in this piece for Home Inspectors.

[hausdok]

I have a standing flat-rate deal with a Vietnamese couple that flips houses in the Seattle area to do pre-offer inspections and then follow-up inspections when the houses are finished.

They are kicking ass. They have a couple of contractors working for them and they have at least two houses going at any given time. One day about a month ago I pre-offer-inspected five houses for them - just roofs attics and crawlspaces - relaying my findings as I went. By the time I was finished up with the last one they were signing papers with the owner of those properties in the driveway and I got paid cash on the barrelhead. They are now in full swing tearing into them and I expect that I'll probably get called back in about another month to do finals on them before they go on the market.

I know a local contractor that I used to refer all of my customers to. He recently got into flipping houses and now he hasn't got much time to do much else. Talked to him last night. He's kicking ass too.

About ten days ago I inspected a POS house way up in Monroe for another guy who hopes to be a flipper. Found enough crap in that house to give Whitey Bulger nightmares; including roof rafter that are so rotten that they'd broken. Huge lot with a new septic system and well. Ideal candidate for a tear down and rebuild, a modular or a used house to move onto the lot but it's going to be really tough for anyone wanting to flip it. Try as I might to discourage him, including my, "Hope you've got some running shoes so that you can run away from this piece of crap," line, he's determined to go ahead. Something tells me he's not going to make any money off that one.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Les]

Mike,

Yep markets are really different.

I contend that most folks do not know how to flip. They do not really do it as a business. The common thread for success is ambition when flipping.

Your area, Florida and couple others are doing quite well in the flip dept, but for every flipped house there is a person that is not selling their principal residence; ie home. That makes the "home" less of a store of value and of less value.

I have never met a person that admits losing on a flip. I lost money when I bought houses that were in a higher price range.

[kurt]

Good article. The links about the rip off seminars are worth reading too.

Anyone that's ever watched 2 minutes of those stupid shows (that's about all I can stand) knows these guys make money by beating some schmoe handyman down to their bottom dollar to do crap work.

I can't stand those stupid ****ing shows.

[Mark P]

I've renovated and sold 2 homes and renovated and rent out 3 homes.

The article say "But it's not as easy as it seems on TV" - that is for damn sure. I hate those shows where the fliper acts as a general contractor, doing little or none of the work himself and then shows a big proffitt at the end. I think those cases are the exceptions. From my experience you have to do the vast majority of the work yourself and it takes many many months, not days or weeks.