Thread: What to know about flipping a house

If a beginner wanted to get started in flipping homes, what would he/she need to know?

So far I have:

- How to buy (determining fair market value)
- How to find a good house to flip: what to look for
- Getting Realtors or birddogers to find properties for you
- At what price point should a noob start out with?
- Estimating repairs
- Knowing which repairs/fixes bring the higest return
- Estimated time on the market
- Estimated sales price
- How to find a good Realtor--or when to use a Realtor and when not to
- Pros and cons of having a real estate license
- How to stage
- How to choose colors
- How to landscape/choose landscaping
- How to attract buyers
- Which advertising is worth the money
- How to estimate closing costs/final costs
- How to have an open house
- How and when to negotiate with potential buyers

...Any other tips, tricks, topics or questions that a noob should know about/ask? Any common mistakes you guys see that you can list here?

As usual, any insight is much appreciated!

Hey Yves, if you're looking for a crash course this should help you out:
Real Estate Investing at FlippingHomes.com - Make Money Selling Houses

I don't have any affiliation with this product, nor do I know Steve Cook, but his program looks to be the real deal. And there seems to be a lot of good info that he and others share on his website / forum.

Hope this helps.

How to sell it quickly.
What to do if it does not sell.
Where to find discounted materials
How to work with contractors / subs. (pitfalls to watch out for)

Here are some things to add to the list:

- Choosing a market and performing market analysis
- Figuring out which house-types and buyer segment to target
- Learning to use the MLS
- Financing (lots of sub-topics here)
- Making offers
- Negotiating offers
- Inspecting a property
- Defining a Scope of Work for your contractors
- Getting bids
- Managing contractors
- Insurance considerations
- Contracts for your contractors
- Marketing techniques to find buyers
- Book-keeping