At the end of my last post I mentioned that I planned to reveal a house flipping technique few understand. Before I reveal this under-used technique let’s talk about how to make the decision to buy a home for flipping.

Right now in your hometown I imagine there are several homes up for sale. In fact, just down the street from me is a small two-bedroom house that has been on the market for about a month. The family of the owner who passed away is selling it. I have been watching closely to see what type of interest there is in the house.

So far very little interest, I have only witnessed two people tour the home with their realtor. So I called a realtor buddy of mine about two weeks ago now so that I too could see the inside. This house is a perfect ‘flipper.’ I just don’t have the time or I would have bought it by already! Why is it perfect?

First, the bad on this property, no one seems interested. And from my opportunity to see inside, I know why too. The kitchen and both bathrooms are out-dated. The bedrooms are small. The basement is dark and damp with no egress. And finally it only has a 1-car garage.

The house does have a few good things though. The kitchens and bathrooms can easily be gutted and remodeled. Hardwood floors, in great condition, in the living room and both bedrooms. The roof is new in 2006. Siding is in good shape too. I also took a look at the service panel and could see that the home has been re-wired and brought up to code.

Put an egress in the basement and it could easily be a 3 bedroom, two bath home.

Asking price for this home is $95,000. My buddy figures that it is $10,000 too high, I think more like $15,000. But we both agree that it could easily sell for $125,000 after repairs.

Say I offered $82,000 for the house. Put $12k to $15k into remodels and sold at $125k.
I could make potentially $25,000 to $30,000

Now back to my question, how do you decide which house to buy and flip? Given the example above, for me, I should buy that house. I have the knowledge, expertise and contacts to do the repairs and make a ton of cash.

And that is the answer, in my opinion; if you are willing to do the work yourself then buy the house you’re considering and flip it. It is true you can still make money when hiring all the work done through contractors, just not nearly as much.

It’s true there is more to the equation than my simple example above. My purpose was to illustrate how not to make your decision to complicated when buying houses to flip. Decide before hand what your house flipping business plan will be before looking to buy.

And yes, I promise to reveal my little ’secret’ to house flipping few know and use to make darn good money in my next post.

But before you leave to read other articles, please make sure to visit the home page of houseflipblog.com where we are offering a FREE E-course and E-book about house flipping. There truley are never before seen strategies in both the E-book and E-course that you can use.

Please visit http://houseflipblog.com  

Popularity: 48% [?]

Considering house flipping for profit?

Hi my name is Doug and as a contractor I definitely have some advice you might consider taking to heart. I’ve been in residential construction for 25 years now; I know a few things about building and houses in general.

Whatever your reason for flipping houses, may I be one of the first to commend you on such an adventure. I truly love building homes, and despite the sometimes-difficult days, I always enjoy looking back over my work at the end of the day. There is a certain satisfaction I’ve found nowhere else.

Hopefully much the same will be your experience as you take an old, worn out home and breathe new life into its rooms. Am I a romantic, maybe so, I do know that someone once built that home you are looking to renovate. They probably felt then much like I do today about building homes. Another hope of mine, you too will discover the joy and satisfaction that comes from providing quality in your work.

Over the coming days, weeks and months I’ll share from my experience building new construction, home additions and remodels. It is my goal to help you avoid some pitfalls along the way and to maximize your profit(s) too.

Profits sounds good don’t you think? Yeah, making money is the end game with flipping houses but it doesn’t have to be the only game. Flip often enough and you will be amazed at some of the other opportunities that come your way.

In the days to come I’ll share with you one house flipping technique few know about and even fewer will ever discuss. This one is good, I truly hate to let ‘the cat out of the bag’ but I can’t keep it to myself either. No it isn’t some amazing secret but it is overlooked in nearly every housing market and is a moneymaker for many reasons.

I promise to share this house-flipping concept soon too. Don’t miss it!

Popularity: 19% [?]

   Now alot of people say that flipping houses is all fun & dandy plus profitable but not the way you are thinking! It’s a process that you have to be very careful in how you plan the endeavor. I know, you were hoping this was easy, huh? However it takes patience and a good eye for deals, I am going to walk you through my shoes.

The very first thing you need is a REALTOR. I personally like ReMax or Keller Williams Now you are going to think, hey I have friends who are realtors, can I say BAD BAD IDEA!!! These people want to make money & trust me when money is involved, you will see a whole new side of a person. Trust me, I have seen this happen.

So lt’s get out a pen & paper, ya need that Realtor , make sure its someone who’s nuetral & has your BEST interest. Whoever you decide on should be familiar with HUD housing & the foreclosure list, makes life easier, it really does! Now don’t worry about status, you most certainly don’t want someone who is packed to the gills & can’t make time for you except on the day you are to close on the house or at 9pm. That always irked me. I would get a call at 9pm, “So you get all your funds available to close tomorrow?” You may say no, they finish the call with, “oh well, ok then, we’ll touch base tomorrow” &  they find an exit & leave the conversation. Seriously, not cool esp. if they are commission based. In the same breath,

be sure they are prompt & effective.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Step Two

Alison G

Popularity: 16% [?]

You can never undermine the importance of green space in one’s community. A recent research cited by National Geographic suggests that spending time in green parks and gardens work like natural therapies for which we don’t have to do anything.

While it calms us down and helps regulate our blood pressure and circulation, it also nurtures our minds. So if you have the luxury of having a garden, then it’s a luxury worth working for. There are many ways in which you can design your garden, and a lot depends on space too. Landscaping too can vary from garden to garden. But there are some things that are universal to gardening regardless of its size, and it’s nothing you can’t do on your own.

You hardly need to be told to lay that green carpet on your garden. It is the first and most obvious step. Then sprinkle your garden with seasonal flowers and add a slash of color to your surrounding. You can easily buy packets of flowering seeds designed for pots as well as gardens in any home improvement shop.

But make sure you also include some perennial varieties in the garden so that there’s always that dash of green most times of the year. Whatever your choice, just don’t get the ones anyone in your house is allergic to.

Adding a few trees, space permitting, is always a great idea. A wall of trees can create a sense of seclusion from your immediate surrounding and also block dust and sound from outside while sucking in air impurities from around your house. But if you can’t go for that wall, at least plant some trees to setup that old hammock for some R&R on lazy afternoons and start hours of great natural therapy!

And if you are really serious about gardening, you might even want to build a small vegetable farm somewhere in there. Imagine cooking with tomatoes and carrots fresh off your own garden!

Now, all this activity on your plot is bound to be demanding for your soil. So take care of it well. Avoid using lots of chemicals and pesticides. It’s neither good for your health, nor for the environment. You can easily find organic supplements to keep your garden healthy without harming anyone or anything.

Large lush improved home gardenIn this day and age, the last thing you want to do is create a beautiful garden that is in fact not as eco-friendly as it could have been. So explore avenues of eco-friendly gardening. For a $100, you can get a decent set of garden lamps that are not only super easy to install but will work automatically entirely on solar power, which means you don’t have to worry about wiring and your electric bills. And if you want to take it up a notch, you can even get solar powered water fountains and other outdoor decors. You can even replace basic garden supplements such as the traditional sprinkler with solar powered ones. And harnessing rain water for the job isn’t a complicated process either.

You can find most of these things in major home improvement outlets. Or you could just run a simple search for “solar garden products” on the internet and find dozens of suppliers ready to have your orders home delivered. So go ahead and build your island of solace, and build it right. It’s time to let your garden grow

Popularity: 37% [?]

The fireplace has that innate ability to add a sense of coziness to a home and makes for great picturesque memories too. But if you think your fireplace is ready for a makeover, make sure you are ready to give it one.

Making over a fireplace can start off fairly easily as you can find ready made kits that only require assembly after purchase. But when buying a kit, bear in mind a few things: what is the color scheme of your room? What kind of decorative theme does it have? Find the mantle style in color that most compliments the room. Making over a fire place can also be a messy affair.

And the last thing you want to do is damage anything in your room in the process. So clear out the room’s main furniture if possible, otherwise at least give everything in the room a protective covering. Remove any wooden trims that might in the area near your fireplace, but do it gently so that you can put it back on when you are done.

Using a grinder with a brush to make sure the brick surface is smooth and dust is removed so that mortar easily stays in place. After that, create a temporary ledge using 2×4s to support your tile layout. And to make sure your mortar works well, mix it with a bit of acrylic additive. You can do this using a drill with a mixing attachment in a bucket. After you’ve stirred the combination, let it sit for about 10 minutes before you use it so that the chemicals of the two elements really fuse.

Once your mix is ready, divide your fireplace into sections, and apply tiles evenly one section at a time. What you want to do here is use a narrow trowel to apply the mortar mix on the back of the tiles as well as on the brick surface for vertical tiles, and only on the tile’s back for those that are positioned flat. You will need to leave this over night to really stay in place.

The next day you will be ready to fill in those gaps and spaces between the tile using grout, essentially the same as mortar but in colors. Once you’re done with this, its time to place the actual mantle. Now the choice of your mantle’s material will decide a lot of factor in the rest of the process but no matter what, there are a few basics you have to keep in mind.

First, position the mantle legs after making sure you have the right measurements. Then place the mantle cap on top. Your choice of material for the mantle will determine the kind of adhesives you will have to use to secure these things stay in place for years to come. And before you know it, your new fireplace is ready.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Renovating can either be a fun experience, or a frustrating one, depending on how well you are prepared for it. And if you’re renovating a house, then we would hope are quite well prepared. After all, the last thing you want to have to do when you’re done is to re-do something you thought was working out just fine.

In any home, space is an issue. You can really never have enough of it. And a well made closet space is an essential part of the house’s over all aesthetics. When smartly framed, your closet can be quite an asset, whether it’s for your precious wardrobe, or next to the main door to just hang coats. Now let’s take it from the top.

First, you want to decide on the ideal size. 27 inches of depth is what you want for minimum, especially if you plan on hanging your clothes. Other size factors depend on the size of your room or what you need. You could go with a smaller single door closet, or a bigger walk in.

The best way to frame your closet is by laying the structure flat on the ground. You might want to consider placing it at one end of the room’s wall, just to make it more space efficient. But make sure it doesn’t obstruct windows or heat boxes.

Once you’ve got the basic raw materials ready, make sure you’ve got the hardware too; apart from your tool box, keep in handy a nail gun, a power miter box and a compressor. If you don’t have it on you, you could easily rent all three for less than $100 a day.

After you measure the wall height, you should cut them into length and lay them out between the top and sole plates that will be fixed to your ceiling and floor respectively. Also, figure out where your door will be centered and make sure you mark each spot that needs nailing or trimming, and each part of the frame clearly. After that, it’s really just putting the parts in place carefully.

Once your frame is ready, hoist it up carefully to put in place using 3 screws to fix the top of the frame to the ceiling. Place your choice of doors on to the frame and if you want to put a light bulb inside, it is advised you consult your local electrical inspector and use only fluorescent lights.

Popularity: 40% [?]

House flipping can be a real daunting task, especially if you don’t have any experience in house flipping and/or just plain don’t feel like putting in all that hard work and labor. Well, it turns out that there is a bright side to all this Contractors. Contractors will take care of all the work you need done to the house, for a price of course. If you want to find the right contractor to go to work on your house, follow the instructions in the following paragraphs. At the end of this article, you’ll be able to spot a good contractor from a bad contractor, thus, house flipping will become an easy task for you, all you have to do is open your wallet a little.

Before you even call up a contractor to do the house flipping for you, you must know exactly, in great detail, what you want done to the house. Not knowing exactly what you want might end in unsatisfactory results. But it won’t be the contractor’s fault! You’re the one with the foggy vision of what you want done to the house.

Basically, you can’t expect a contractor to read your mind or interpret your thoughts. So make sure that your vision about your house flipping is crystal clear. Knowing what you want will make house flipping easier for you and the contractor. Now that you have your house flipping vision clear, it’s now time to finally seek an actual contractor. The main thing you must remember when seeking out a contractor for your house flipping is that you should not go with the first one you see in the phone book or the internet.

You can call up some of your friends and family and ask around for people who have had a good contractor do work on their homes. Sometimes, the owner of a hardware store can make some good recommendations for house flipping contractors and you’ll have found a contractor much quicker.

No matter how clear your vision is or how many good comments the contractor you hire has gotten, never expect total perfection. There’s always something that may go wrong with house flipping or the contractor may not fully deliver on your vision about your house flipping. It’s quite okay for these things to happen as long as the contractor can fix whatever you are unsatisfied with.

Make sure that the house flipping contract states something that will address any possible problems while the contractor is working on your house renovations. However, it is always good to keep a positive attitude. Yes things that you don’t want may occur, but don’t let that slight possibility get you down.

With the three basic steps I just provided you about seeking house flipping contractors, you should be able to go out there and get yourself the best house flipping contractor you could possibly find. But before you start imagining the way you want your house to be and seeking out a perfect contractor for the job, just remember that there are bad contractor out there.

Some house flipping contractors may sometimes go as far as to ignore the contract. These unreasonable people don’t deserve your time or your money and avoid them at all costs. If you do end up with a bad contractor, just stick to your guns and take any necessary penalizing action that you have stated in the contract.

Popularity: 13% [?]

A friend of mine was surfing the web for a builder in Austin Texas because he decided their was potential there for flipping homes. He asked me to help him with the search for a worthy builder. As you know, there are a lot of contractors and builders that skip out on doing their work after money has been paid.

I offered him a site I found surfing various search engines. The site that kept coming up with positive reviews from others was http://www.bestaustinbuilders.com. The site offers six well known and respected home builders in Austin Texas. I did more research on the six different companies and found that they have very good track records. Each company is reviewed on the internet by their clients, so they all check out.

Also, the site allows you to look at Austin New Homes that have just been built. These really don’t help a short term house flipper, but these beauties can help any long term investor create a wonderful rental property.

Overall, http://www.bestaustinbuilders.com helped me with my search for a good builder in Austin Texas and it can do the same for you. My friend was actually able to find a very good builder who was able to start within a few weeks.

Popularity: 10% [?]

At first glance or to the uninitiated, this may sound funny. Some flip burgers and some flip “houses?” As you read further you’ll find that it is a whole lot more profitable. Owning their own home is the dream for many, if not all Americans.

Sometimes through unscrupulous bankers and mortgage lenders people are convinced to buy homes they cannot really afford. A few years down the line, the home they have grown to love has them in debt that they can’t escape from. Their house goes on the market (the real estate market) at a price that is well below what it is worth. The family is left in bankruptcy.

Some people observing their sad situation feel pity or empathy for them. Some give them a fair offer on the sale of their house so they can avoid foreclosure. This is a way out of paying bankruptcy fees and attorney fees, etc.

Some investors seek out situations where they can buy a home that’s being foreclosed on for a really low price, then do a little bit of work on it, sometimes only a coat of paint and some landscaping, and sell it at a much higher price. When flipping a house, the new seller has the advantage of controlling the paper.

By adding a simple “or assigns clause” or 60 days to find a buyer or “contingent upon financing” the person flipping the house buys enough time to find the seller and realize a nice profit spread.

It could be as simple as a “honey dew” situation. “Honey - do buy this house - I really love the (kitchen) (backyard) whatever feature she has focused on. Smile and as soon as they hear another buyer is interested, they’ll be willing to spend the extra $_________ it takes to obtain the property themselves.

It may be helpful for an investor to come along and buy a home before it goes in to foreclosure.

The fact is a house may be the most expensive item most people will ever own. Getting the best and lowest value for their money is just smart. By the same token, if someone (the investor for example)is knowledgeable enough to estimate the cost of rehabbing a building, thereby allowing him to make a good profit and a fast profit, then they stand to make large sums of money quickly.

When considering a house to buy and “flip” for your own profit, there are practical things to consider. First of all, the most obvious would be the expensive things such as a roof, a new furnace, and rewiring that is needed.

You would want familiarize yourself with the building codes in the area and with any permits required to make renovations. Then look at your own abilities to determine how much of the renovations project you can do on your own. Can you do plumbing for example if that is needed? Wiring must be approved by a licensed electrician in most places. If you can, talk to some of the neighbors to get an idea of what type of neighborhood it is. For example, are you planning to offer it a family with children? They would need to know if the schools in the area are good.

There is of course, painting, plastering, landscaping and a dozen other little chores that will give the house a sparkling new look. Be prepared to pass a safety or any other type of inspection that is required and - before you know it, you will be “flipping” your very first property.

There’s no limit to the amount of money to be made - even on your first try. The family losing their home is no worse off with you than without you and possibly better off financially. The new homeowners are very happy. And you, of course, are smiling on your way to deposit the results of your first successful venture into your bank account.

Popularity: 14% [?]