Do This Now If You Want To Be A Successful House Flipper
If you reside in the New England area, then be sure to check out our next House Flipping School MeetUp on December 19th. This networking event will be a phenomenal opportunity for realtors, contractors and virtually anyone who is interested in the house flipping business.
As always our goal for this next MeetUp will be to connect you with the right people-perhaps even your future house flip power team members. I can speak from experience that establishing relationships with key people in this business can be difficult when just starting out.
House Flipping School MeetUps are my way of helping you overcome this hurdle.
Yet one thing is for sure. Most folks reading this post right now will not come to the MeetUp, even if it was being held right down the street from their house. The truth is that very few people are able to overcome their fears and actually take action in this industry.
Without a doubt, overcoming fear and taking action is the first and most crucial step to house flipping success.
How to Wholesale Real Estate In 12 Simple Steps
Ever wanted to know how to wholesale real estate? We give you 12 steps to real estate wholesaling success here.
For many people who want to get started flipping houses, real estate wholesaling is a great first step to get started - especially if money is tight.
Although there are many ways to flip real estate with no money of your own, there's lots of people who want to get started investing in real estate quickly, without having to raise an capital on their own.
This is where real estate wholesaling may be a really good fit for many people interested in getting into real estate investing.
The definition of real estate wholesaling is simply "the entering of a contractual agreement with another party for the purpose of purchasing property, and then assigning your interest in that contract to another investor for compensation".
Sounds simple? There's a few things you'll need to know about before you get into it. But first let's talk about why real estate wholesaling may be right for you. Continue reading
4 Tips for Flipping a House Without the Headaches
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series this past week, but instead of going to the celebration parade I went to a house flip I just finished up in Hanover, Massachusetts. I wanted to film some new videos for House Flipping School members because, to be completely honest, this particular house flip proved to be quite the challenge for my team and I.
Even with my time-tested and proven step-by-step house flipping system, some house flips still veer off track at times. Folks, in this business we are working and relying upon real humans to get their job done on time, and stay true to their word. This is true for contractors, real estate agents, interior decorators and anyone else who is involved in the project.
Sometimes us humans make mistakes, and things don't go as we planned. So even with a step-by-step house flipping system on my side, it is still important that I remain flexible and willing to adjust on the fly. You just have to take the good with the bad, and keep your attitude in check at all times.
So with all of this in mind, here are 4 tips for flipping a house without the headaches, that I learned as a direct result of my latest flip in Hanover, MA.
New Additions for HFS Members
The past few weeks have been real exciting here at House Flipping School. Personally I have met a ton of new people, some who have been investing in real estate for years and others who are just thinking about getting started. It's been a real fun ride.
On October 16th we held our first ever monthly House Flipping School MeetUp. We had over 65 people show up from a variety of different backgrounds and professions. The MeetUp proved to be a great opportunity for building your team and making those connections that really help grow a business.
While at the MeetUp I was able to talk directly with many blog readers and House Flipping School members. It was nice to get out from behind the guise of the computer, and actually speak 1 on 1 with many of you.
A few HFS members even gave me some helpful recommendations on how to improve the membership side of this blog. In particular these members wanted:
- An easier way to navigate through the dozens of educational posts here on HFS
- Access to some "older" pieces of premium content that were available when we launched HFS over 1 year ago
I take your recommendations seriously, so last week I reached out to my website guy Ryan and explained that we needed to make some changes.
Here's what we have added so far to the HFS membership experience. This is really just the tip of the iceberg of what we have in store.
Continue reading
5 Little Known Ways to Finance Your Next House Flip
This guest blog post is written by Jimmy Moncrief of realestatefinancehq.com
I’m a credit officer (read: underwriting) at a bank so I am naturally skeptical when loan officers pitch me their customers who flip houses. However, over the years I have seen people who have literally had nothing to a million dollar net worth, purely from flipping houses.
House Flipping School does a great job on educating you how to flip - especially on how to flip houses with no money. My skill-set isn’t house flipping, it’s financing so that is what I’m going to focus on - namely some other methods on how to finance a house flip - whether its your first or your hundred and first.
How to Finance a House Flip - Things to Consider
It is very rare for full-time real estate flippers to only do one deal at a time. If they are doing their bookkeeping and have a strong way to stay ahead of their finances, then they should be able to juggle multiple deals. Additionally, the very successful home flippers want to do more deals because the more deals they do the more money they make.
However, there is one small caveat. The more deals you are involved in, your company and personal cash dries-up due to all your cash being in the deals you are currently working on. This not only causes stress in your business, but also limits you in future deals.
Lenders always want to match the maturity of the loan with the repayment strategy. Since all flippers I know want to be in and out of the house within one year, I focused on those loan options.
I know everyone always wants the lowest interest rate. I agree this is very important. However, I also want you to think about the time value of money. What do I mean by this?
If you can acquire a property 1 month faster and pay a 100 basis point (1%) premium, it’s probably worth it. Let’s go over the math: Continue reading
House Flipping Update | the Hanover property
One of the ongoing house flips I have in the works right now is a deal in Hanover, MA that was once on the brink of collapse. This particular house flip almost never happened, but thanks to some swift negotiation I was able to purchase this house back in August. Since then my team of contractors have been working hard to fix this place up for its future homeowners.
I think the best way for you to learn about the house flipping business is to peer into my business and see how we do things. Books and manuals are great, but nothing beats the real deal. In this post I want to let you in on what's happening with the Hanover flip, inside and out.
House Flip Breakdown | Analyzing the Whitman Property
If you have watched the Whitman Round Table Discussion then you know that this particular house flip got off to a slow start. We actually owned the property for two weeks before we began any renovation work. Of course this is not ideal because I prefer to hit the ground running and start work immediately after closing on a property.
Yet the slow start was actually a good thing. My team and I are finding lots of profitable house flip deals right now, and my team of contractors simply cannot keep up. We are going through some "growing pains." Soon I hope to be working with additional contractors so that we can remain up to speed with our current deal flow, and not have another two week lag time like we did with the Whitman property.
In this post I want to take you through the Whitman deal, from how we found this property all the way to the final renovations. It's been quite the ride and I am really looking forward to the final sale.
How to Analyze Deals Quickly & Submit Offers that Get Accepted
If you flip houses for a living then you know that real estate never sleeps. Often times your phone will ring when you least expect it, and suddenly there is a deal on the table. Smart decisions need to be made quickly when this occurs, or else you may miss out on a valuable money-making opportunity. To excel in the house flipping business, an investor needs to be able to analyze deals quickly and submit offers that get accepted.
Take for example what recently happened to my acquisition manager Bill Roberts and myself over Labor Day weekend. Bill and I were just hanging out, taking it easy and unwinding from what had been an eventful week. We were just about ready to "shut it down" for the weekend when Bill's phone rang.
It was a real estate agent calling on behalf of a local asset manager, about a deal that we had previously passed on. Low and behold the asset manager was now ready to negotiate. As mentioned above, real estate never sleeps!
The #1 Obstacle Preventing People from Flipping Houses
My palms were starting to sweat and I felt hot all over, borderline anxious even. I was in the midst of a meeting with a rather challenging client, whose tile flooring was "just not looking right." The only problem was that the flooring had been changed and altered a few times now, in an effort to make her happy. As cliche as it is I was having an intense case of "The Mondays." I knew I desperately wanted to change careers and get into real estate, yet I was just too fearful to make the leap.
My phone rang just as I finished the meeting with my flooring client. It was my wife, informing me that something was wrong with her vehicle, and that the parts and labor to fix it were going to cost nearly $1,500. That same anxious feeling began brewing again in my gut, and suddenly I felt hot again.
I had been involved in the flooring business my entire life. It was all I ever knew and it had treated me well. Yet something was different now. Going to work had become a grind and I was having trouble finding enjoyment in my career. Problem customers were just the tip of the iceberg. On top of all that finances were getting tight. My family was growing, yet my income was not. Looking a few years down the road I saw college tuition, which scared me half to death.
I had to make a change, not just for me but for my family and our financial future.
A Deal on the Brink | my latest house flip in Hanover, Massachusetts
My acquisition manager Bill and I re-read our Facebook post to make sure it made sense. Neither of us are experts when it comes to social media but we're doing our best.
Both Bill and I have pretty expansive networks on Facebook, mostly friends, family and colleagues. I'm always cautious about promoting my house flipping business with friends and family, but in this case I am pretty happy we did, because it led to our latest house flip deal in Hanover, Massachusetts-a deal that would ultimately stretch my negotiation skills to the brink.
I didn't know it at the time but when we clicked "Post" another local real estate investor saw the status update in his news feed. He then messaged us, letting us know that he had a property he wanted to rehab, but was having trouble with financing. Two days later Bill and I had the contract wrapped up from the investor for a $10,000 wholesale fee.
I'm going to reserve the exact Facebook lingo I used to find this deal for HFS members (click here to learn about our posting strategy). Yet to be honest finding this deal through Facebook was just the tip of the iceberg as far as surprises were concerned. I don't think anyone on my house flipping team expected what was about to happen next.