Hello! Is there anyone here who makes a profit off flipping (real estate, jewellery, furniture etc)? How do you do it? How are the returns? Are there any downsides? What advice do you have for a beginner?
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
pancakes? parathas?
I used to flip cars, see anything that i felt was underpriced, or could be fixed up a bit and then sold for a good profit.
This was in college, my captive customer base was international students leaving who needed to sell their cars and were under time pressure, and the arriving international students who needed to buy inexpensive and reliable cars.
The issue was financing, i did not have all the cash to buy, could not get financing on all, so had 'investors' who would go in with a profit/loss basis of 50/50.
i was not enough to live on but was really good money for not doing a whole lot. Made several times more than my friends working 60-80 hour weeks over summer in service jobs.
K
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
I think the times have changed a lil bit since X2’s car flipping venture. Now its a relatively easy to get investors who’ll be happy to invest in your shop as flipping homes is one of the better sold schemes.
BUT…
and thats a huge BUTT..
Get your pitch ready.. and for that get a grip of all your handles..
do you have enough technical personnel who can do at the minimum cost? How’ll you deal with town authorities or county or wutever its called at yr location. And im sure there are more questions. So make sure you got the POC all worked upon.
I’m sure you can make money if you do it well, but u’ll face a tough competition out there. Not that its discouraging at all.. 
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
I always take opportunity where price is fraction and my profit in that fraction.. 
But that is not my living…
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
I've flipped a couple of houses, but I am more interested in long term investment gains so I stick to keeping rental properties. You need to know your market and have a keen understanding of what is a value add and what is not.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
so kC advise me on best way to go about getting investment properties, are the down payments requirements the same, and do u get mortgage approval on rental income projections or based on personal income like for a regular home one would live in.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Am more of a buy and hold type. Unless valuations get to extremes or asset allocation gets out of whack.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Down payments on investment properties are minimum 20% for non occupant owners. With residential properties, the mortgage approval is not contingent on projected income, it’s pretty much the same as if you’re buying for owner occupancy: credit, debt to income ratio, 3 years of tax returns etc. When doing your due diligence though, while considering a property for potential investment, after factoring in your expenses (mortgage/tax/insurance, property manager fees if you’re going to use one, maintenance incidentals) you want to have a 8-10% cap for it to be worth it.
So how I got started was buying our first “starter” home about a year after we got married. Poor, post college grads lol, we early on made the decision that we would always budget our expenses based on his income solely, so instead of a nice shiny new build with all the bells and whistles we went with a slightly preowned in a outlying suburb which we figured would be easy to rent out some day. We started with a crappy 80/15 loan (put 5% down) but then refied about 7 years later and again 3 years after that when rates were at historic lows (3.2%) so that set the stage for investment portfolio. After the twins were born, we bought a new build townhouse for our first legit rental property. That was 20% down and was also had two notes on it but once I started earning decent money we quickly paid off the second lien and refinanced the first and were then into the 10% cap rate on it. When it came time to upgrade to a bigger house, we had a crapload of equity in the starter home but instead of selling and putting all that money towards a down payment on a much bigger McMansion that would need two full time incomes to sustain, we figured it do better to put renters in there since there was only about 5-6 years left to pay that off. So that added investment prop #2](http://www.paklinks.com/gs/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2) . When my mother passed away, my siblings and I inherited 2 of her rentals homes. One sibling wasn’t interested in keeping her share so I bought her out. We are in the process of selling both off right now as Dallas is a total sellers market and property values have sky rocketed so I’m looking to make a tidy sum. To give you an example of the long term projections, my first house that we bought in 2000, was for $127,500, the market value on that home today is $205,000. On one my Ammi’s rental homes that is under contract right now, when we were considering selling in 2010 the appraisal on it was $183,000…the appraisal on the same property that I just got back 2 days ago is now $248,000.
So the key in residential property investing is to really, really know your market.
I want to add to our investment portfolio but inventory is at an all time low here, especially with the starter family homes <200K, (thank you foreign and out of state cash buyers) so I’m switching my focus to multi family units like a 4 or 8 plex near one the college campuses. Student housing is always easy to rent out, and you don’t have to spend a boat load in fancy upgrades to get decent rent. The loan approval on a multi family unit is a little more complicated, so we’ll see how that goes.
I’m currently working with 2 out of state investors (California) who are buying investment properties not only here in Texas, but in Michigan as well. Because of the explosion of growth in our area (thank you Toyota & Liberty Mutual!!) it’s proving a tad bit harder to find something in the more settled and populated suburbs, but the good thing about the DFW area is that people aren’t afraid to move to outlying areas so we’re now looking a bit further North then originally intended.
I just realized how much I rambled on and on lol, feel free to message me for more info or any specific q’s.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
^ wow. You have a big heart. You just wrote down your strategies. Amazing. Wishing continued success.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Why wouldn’t I??? I never shy away from sharing anything..recipes, knowledge , strategies. I hope my experiences can help and benefit someone else, nothing would give me more pleasure 
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Down payments on investment properties are minimum 20% for non occupant owners. With residential properties, the mortgage approval is not contingent on projected income, it's pretty much the same as if you're buying for owner occupancy: credit, debt to income ratio, 3 years of tax returns etc. When doing your due diligence though, while considering a property for potential investment, after factoring in your expenses (mortgage/tax/insurance, property manager fees if you're going to use one, maintenance incidentals) you want to have a 8-10% cap for it to be worth it. .
So I am a little confused by this statement, I may have to talk to one of my pals. The dude has a few properties but I don't know how that will work with the debt to income ratio. I think the cap is what 3x your income? I may just msg u :)
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
So I am a little confused by this statement, I may have to talk to one of my pals. The dude has a few properties but I don't know how that will work with the debt to income ratio. I think the cap is what 3x your income? I may just msg u :)
Up to 4 mortgages is easy, you're not considered a lending risk. When it comes time for that 5th investment property is when lenders start classifying you under "multiple property guidelines" and the applicant is scrutinized under much stricter qualifying terms.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
aray I was not going to msg u for mortgage stuff… 
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
tho mainay kab manaa kiya, karro message, I can talk about this stuff for days
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
make sure you're tax compliant! :p
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Thank you @khattichic for always being so generous with your advice and answers!
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. It seems like this cannot be relied upon as a steady source of income. Unless, of course, one gets committed, and works from an office/shop.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
The mortgage company I get loans from told me flat out … no 5th property (loan) 
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
You should have flipped them off.
Re: Anyone here who earns a living via flipping?
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. It seems like this cannot be relied upon as a steady source of income. Unless, of course, one gets committed, and works from an office/shop.
It depends on the market conditions. I was late to the game and stayed out because of seeing massive losses for people in know in real estate slow down in canada back in early 90s. some people I know made out like bandits. Others stayed in the market too long, ended up highly leveraged holding properties which lost value and were wiped out.
It is indeed possible, people are doing it right now, but it is not easy.
I am actually looking to buy condos by my old university as rental investment properties but it has to be right property, they are always rented out, but wear and tear can be high depending on who is renting it. so no intention of flipping it, just holding it.