You just paint it white and sell for double, easy.

I wish it were that easy, I actually had someone say this to me recently.  Renovating looks so easy on TV, I get it, people swan in hair all perfectly styled and looking far from red and sweaty – that’s my reality.   And if I had it my way EVERYTHING would be white but I digress.  Renovating is addictive and fun but it’s also a lot of work, yes it might look easy when you walk through the finished product and most people don’t get to see the mess or funky floorplan you started with. But we always say, the sign of a good renovation is when the previous state is unimaginable, if it’s done well it does look easy.

And yes, most of the time we do sell it for double and that’s because when it’s finished that’s what it’s worth! 

Bayshore before
bayshore after

 I’ve heard from the Guru’s you can make money without stepping foot in the property. (insert pig flying)

 

OK stop what you’re doing and let’s all jump on this gravy train!! Am I right? I mean seriously?  If it’s too good to be true then it probably is.  There’s a load of fluff being touted around about ‘flipping’ 200 plus properties a year, almost bragging rights.  I remember seeing these ads in the early days of flipping and thinking wow maybe we should be aspiring to this until I understood this is NOT flipping HOUSES.  These people are flipping CONTRACTS or Wholesaling.  This is where the wholesaler go under contract on a house for say $200,000 and then they transfer that contract to a new owner for say $205,000 they walk away with $5,000 gross profit for flipping this contract. 

Flipping Houses is where you buy a property, renovate it then sell it on for profit.  Our last flip, we walked away with $200,000 gross profit. So let me ask you would you rather flip 200 tiny little contracts per year or one big house – at least with the house you get to scratch that creative itch and create something special for someone out of a pretty dire property. 

Any business that is going to be successful takes time, hard work and focus.  Sure you can make a lot of money but you can also loose a lot of money which is why it’s important to educate yourself as best you can.

bath before
bath after

You have to have cash to flip houses

No, not at all.  There are a loads of ways you can flip houses and ways to finance outside of just cash such as equity, hard money loans, mortgage and investor partnerships.  Cash will help to keep your costs down and it’s always good to have some cash as if you need to finance your entire investment it can become considerably risky.  

And if you want more you can go directly to The Flipping School

If you want to take the fear out of flipping and learn how to set yourself up for success then check out my free House Flipping Masterclass.