House Flipping: 5 Vital Tips for Success (Based on My Mistakes!)

by Brandon

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House Flipping: 5 Vital Tips for Success (Based on My Mistakes!)

House flipping can be a lot of fun, right?

You get to turn something ugly into something beautiful.

You get to hone your design skills and impress your friends.

And, let’s be honest…

You can make a lot of money.

But house flipping is not as easy as the TV shows make it seem!

You know that, right?

Good! You are already farther along the path than most flipping newbies.

House flipping can be fun, challenging, and profitable — but it can also be dangerous. Many people have gone bankrupt because they decided to get into house flipping.

I’ve lost money on flips that didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

It sucks.

However, like any business venture, practice makes perfect.

Ok, that’s a lie. You’ll never be perfect at house flipping. But at least “practice makes better.”

Today I want to talk about five vital tips for house flipping success that I wish I had known when I first started on my house flipping journey. Knowing these would have saved me hundreds of hours of wasted time and thousands in lost dollars.

Let’s make sure you avoid that and find incredible success on your house flipping journey.

But first…

*** Hey, you! Yes, you! If you are reading this post, you must like the idea of house flipping. If so, I want to invite you to this week’s BiggerPockets Webinar, How to Analyze a Fix and Flip Deal (And Avoid Getting Burned!). We’ll be talking about the best ways to do the math, which is tip #1 on this list! Hope you can make it! And now back to the post!)***

Okay, let’s get to the five vital tips for house flipping success

1. Understand the Math Behind House Flipping

Before the paint colors, before the new countertops, before the demolition…

There is the math.

The math is like a crystal ball, helping you see the future.

It shows you the right improvements to make.

It guides you to the best neighborhoods.

It helps you know if you will succeed or fail.

However, so many people struggle with the math. They see a dilapidated house and start thinking about all the beautiful things they could do to the house, but they don’t see the math behind it. Does it really make sense, financially? Is this house really going to provide a great profit? Should you really do this flip?

The math helps you answer those questions. The math helps you gain confidence. The math helps you avoid mistakes.

The math is not as simple as the TV shows make it seem, but it’s also not rocket science either. It’s simply a matter of knowing ALL of your expenses and subtracting them from your ultimate profit.

There are many blog posts here on BiggerPockets about analyzing a flip so I’m not going to dive deep into the topic here. Besides, I’m doing a 90-minute LIVE webinar on this very topic this week. (Can you make it? If so, click here to register.)

Also, if you are not using the BiggerPockets House Flipping Calculator… you are missing out. Seriously, it’ll save you a dozen hours a month analyzing deals!

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

About Brandon

has written 199 Awesome posts in this blog.

Brandon Turner (G+) is the BiggerPockets.com Senior Editor and Community Director and owner of RealEstateInYourTwenties.com. He is also an Active Real Estate Investor (Flips, Apartments, and Buy-and-Hold), Entrepreneur, World Traveler, Third-Person Speaker, and Husband. Come hang out with him on Twitter!

P.S. looking for hard money loans in California? Be sure to check out my friends over at northcoastfinancialinc.com. They have very competitive rates, can fund within a week and specialize in fix and flip loans and other hard money loans.

P.S. Looking for more real estate investing knowledge? If you are interested in a top-notch course to help you understand the nuts and bolts of creative real estate investing, I would like to recommend Ben Leybovich's Cash Flow Freedom University. Ben is a close friend and has been my trusted adviser for years. He's a smart guy and CFFU is pretty awesome. The course is waitlisted, but while you wait for an opening Ben will send you tons of FREE content. Seriously. Click here to check it out.

(yes, that's an affiliate link!)

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