- Aug 24, 2007
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Given how often I still get contacted from people on this site, and given that I chronicled my very first real estate deal on this forum 5 years ago this month, I thought I'd take the time to come back and do an AMA (if anyone is interested, which they may not be
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A little bit about me and my real estate experience/background:
When I started my first project 5 years ago, my goal was to use systems and processes to create a mostly self-sustaining business flipping houses, where I wouldn't have to "get my hands dirty" doing rehab tasks or managing contractors. Many people (including some on this forum) said that it wasn't realistic, and that my lack of construction background and desire to be hands-off would ultimately not work out. These days, my wife and I work about 10 hours/week in our flipping business, and other than when we're breaking into new markets (which definitely takes a lot of time and hands-on effort), we are pretty much entirely hands-off of the actual day-to-day rehab work.
So, it's definitely possible to build a "real" business flipping houses.
Now, that said, based on my experience, I don't believe it's possible to be completely hands-off in this business, nor is it possible to create a passive income stream flipping houses (though it's possible that someone smarter than I am could figure it out). For me, at least, flipping houses will always be -- to some degree -- a job. But, if you don't mind working a few hours/week and are smart enough to roll your income into other investments that are more passive, you should be able to make enough money at this "job" to retire sooner rather than later.
Anyway, that's the quick background on me...if anyone has any questions I might be able to answer, fire away. I've spent the past 5 years trying to help others be successful in this business, and always happy to help any way I can...

A little bit about me and my real estate experience/background:
- My wife and I "semi-retired" from the corporate world 5 years ago and accidentally fell into real estate investing.
- In the past 5 years, we've done nearly 60 rehabs (and just finished our first spec build), have earned over $1M in income from flipping houses and have earned over $2M in income from all real estate investing activities.
- I've self-published two books on flipping houses -- while it changes hourly, "The Book on Flipping Houses" is currently Top 5 on Amazon in the Real Estate Investing category and "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs" is currently Top 20 on Amazon in the Real Estate Investing category. (Unexpectedly, writing books has been almost as lucrative as investing in real estate!)
- We've invested in three states and are currently relocating to a fourth state, where we're building our personal residence and will likely start doing the bulk of our future investing.
- I run a website/blog called 123Flip.com where I've chronicled all of my deals in gory detail for the past 5+ years.
When I started my first project 5 years ago, my goal was to use systems and processes to create a mostly self-sustaining business flipping houses, where I wouldn't have to "get my hands dirty" doing rehab tasks or managing contractors. Many people (including some on this forum) said that it wasn't realistic, and that my lack of construction background and desire to be hands-off would ultimately not work out. These days, my wife and I work about 10 hours/week in our flipping business, and other than when we're breaking into new markets (which definitely takes a lot of time and hands-on effort), we are pretty much entirely hands-off of the actual day-to-day rehab work.
So, it's definitely possible to build a "real" business flipping houses.
Now, that said, based on my experience, I don't believe it's possible to be completely hands-off in this business, nor is it possible to create a passive income stream flipping houses (though it's possible that someone smarter than I am could figure it out). For me, at least, flipping houses will always be -- to some degree -- a job. But, if you don't mind working a few hours/week and are smart enough to roll your income into other investments that are more passive, you should be able to make enough money at this "job" to retire sooner rather than later.
Anyway, that's the quick background on me...if anyone has any questions I might be able to answer, fire away. I've spent the past 5 years trying to help others be successful in this business, and always happy to help any way I can...
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