Anyone buy cheap houses, fix them up and sell them for a profit? My uncle a licensed general contractor and my best friend is a licensed plumber. We're thinking about going into this together and start flipping houses. You can make some pretty good money and since it's a sellers market now, we should be able to make a decent profit as long as we get houses that dont take a lot of work to fix up. Thoughts?

 

It's a lot of money to get into as far as the initial investment goes and you probably wont make that much of a profit with your first few houses. If you're going to buy foreclosed or auctioned houses, you could end up getting something that needs a lot of work and it will drown you in repairs. Plus theres the risk that once you're done with the house that it could be on the market for a long time before someone bites and gives you an offer.

 

Even the crappiest house can sell better than others if it shows well. You need more than handyman skills. Do you know how to stage a house? Landscaping experience? Just doing this can add $5k-10k to an offer.



Flipping houses is a game against odds. You'll win some, you'll lose some. Will you survive a loss or two in the beginning?