Flip A House - House Flipping Advice

All flipping houses boils down to is acquiring and re-selling properties. It's as easy as one-two-three. There are some simple, basic steps on how to flip a house.

First, you need to pursue a property (either for sale by the owner, or listed through a service). Once you've found one you think is commercially viable, you need to make an offer. If you don't make an offer, you don't get the property to sell. When you're evaluating the property, and considering your offer, think about who you're selling it to - if you're going to sell it to another end consumer, your prospects are different than if you're selling it to someone who's fixing it up for their eventual resale. A good margin in the latter case (what wholesaling is all about) is about $5,000 after expenses for your wholesale profit.

Once you've got a bite on an offer, you need to get the contract paperwork filled out and give them the deposit money; then start on the title work. This will need to go through a title or escrow company, or your attorney. You want the title work done fast, so you can settle when you're supposed to - and in case you find a buyer faster than expected, there's no wait in flipping the property.

Once the title paperwork is in process, it's time to start marketing the property to find a buyer. Start with your buyer's list to see who's interested; you can also look at placing an ad in the Investment Properties section of the local paper. Even a small amount of marketing will find interested buyers. Once you get buyers, it's time to work out the deal for selling the property; obviously the more buyers you have, the less flexible you have to be in reaching the final sale price. Make sure your prospective buyers either have the cash on hand or the qualified line of credit - asking for proof of funds or proof of a credit line from a hard money lender isn't rude, it's the way this sort of business is handled.

Once the buyer's lined up and qualified, get your attorney to draft the contract language and get a deposit in house. This contract of sale is their receipt for the deposit, make sure you annotate appropriately, stating the amount of the deposit you took in on earnest money, and the date the rest of the funds are due. Once that's handled, you need to submit both the contract and the sales agreement to your title company or attorney and schedule the settlement date, and go to the settlement date - get your check and start the process over to build your income stream.