Every new business faces growing pains. When I first began flipping houses for a living, I dealt with and overcame many unexpected challenges.
Today, I am actively flipping 2-3 houses per month, however I still face growing pains. This past week in particular has presented 4 distinct challenges that I am working to overcome.
In this post I will share with you the challenges I am facing in my business right now, because I know you will face similar challenges as you build your house flipping business.
I was curious about what really fuels the fear of real estate investing so I did a little survey on real estate investors.
I’ve done lots of survey and talked to lots of new investors about what prevents them from getting started investing in real estate and house flipping in particular.
So at the last few House Flipping School MeetUps, I've been asking new investors what's holding them back.
I expected that some of the answers I would get would include:
The answer I got completely took me by surprise; people actually were afraid of getting into real estate.
What are the tips for real estate investing success? They are much more useful than you think.
Success: a word that means achieving different goals to different people. To me, success is more than investing successfully in real estate; it is just plain happiness.
There’s been a lot of talk about real estate investing success and the steps everyone should take to ensure they reach their goals. What real estate gurus hardly ever talk about is the mindset you should have when reaching for your real estate goals.
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.
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.
If you want to know How To Wholesale, make sure you learn these clever tips.
When people think of real estate investing, they usually imagine something along the lines of house flipping or long term buying and holding. However, a crucial part of the real estate world that is often overlooked is wholesaling.
As you might know, wholesaling is the act of finding a property and then, instead of buying it, putting it under contract and finding a buyer to close in your place.
Wholesaling bares much less risk than standard house flipping and can be appealing to people that have not yet built up a sum of expendable income.
Below are a few critical ways to improve your mindset and execution when wholesaling.
Knowing the steps to making the right offer with help teach you How To Purchase Real Estate.
Imagine for a second that you are looking to purchase a house to invest in. You search through listings on MLS, in the newspaper, on Craigslist and even drive around town looking for “for sale” signs.
Finally you find it: the perfect house for your flip. The asking price is even below 70% of the ARV. Everything is working out great…
Except that you aren’t the only one looking at this house. There are more than a few other investors taking the same bait as you, and you are on the brink of a bidding war.
When you are the only one making an offer on the house, you can influence the seller to meet your needs. However, if there are multiple bidders, you don’t have time to play hard to get.
Real estate investing can have an enormous amount of unpredictability. You never know which way the market is going to turn, or what problems could arise when buying, rehabbing or selling a property. To eliminate this unpredictability, you should do the proper research and get rid of as many variables as possible. If you fail to do this, you will be at risk of sinking your venture.
One of the most common reasons that newcomers are scared away from the idea of house flipping is the risk. Many people believe the old saying “the bigger the risk the bigger the reward” is the be-all and end-all of real estate.
For most regular folk, especially beginners in house flipping, risk is a dangerous word, that could mean the loss of your life’s savings, or falling into a deep pit of debt.
Don’t roll the dice on a project. Instead, lay out a house flipping business plan, outlining your risk-free strategy. Leave the risk to the hedge funds and the wealthy that can afford to take a loss on a property.
Don’t be discouraged from real estate investing because of these bogus myths!
House flipping, and real estate investing in general, is an immense field with great potential for profit. Throughout history, owning and dealing in real estate has been the universal way to increase wealth, and has become synonymous with profit.
However, in modern times, the Internet has become flooded with misinformation about the business. These myths often spring from post-recession paranoia and pessimism.
On the other side of things, idealism often discourages potential house flippers from realizing on the reality of the situation: no deal is ever perfect.
Most of these fallacies are perpetuated by the media or by general public, not by the real estate investors themselves. To conquer your fear of real estate investing, you must first cleanse yourself of the any myths you might hear.
To learn How To Buy And Flip Houses, you must first know the essential tools of the business.
House flipping, and real estate investing in general, can often be a complicated task. There are a great number of variables that can change after you purchase a house, and from property to property. Moreover, flipping can be an incredibly quick process, and one mistake can send all of your profit down the toilet.
If you want to know how to buy and flip houses, it is important that you have some vital resources in your back pocket that you can always fall back on. You’ll never know when you might need some extra help.
Knowing the right people and having the right instruments can often make the entire process run smoother and bail you out if you are in trouble.