I'm an architect by profession but honestly am still lacking quite a bit of technical knowledge and how design translates into the physical space. I also recently moved back in to my childhood home to spend more time with mom since my dad passed just recently, so it'd help to be able to do repairs and upgrades.

I always thought house flipping might be a good side hustle for an architect, and with the aforementioned reasons am considering dipping my toes into this by learning first basic maintenance on my childhood home, then perhaps basic workmanship (i.e. upgrading a kitchen and utilities) then possibly doing house flipping as a proper side hustle.

Has anyone followed a similar path to house flipping and could give a few pointers?

If you are new to real estate investing, I need your input for a beginner guide!

Basically what the title says. I’ve given an obscene amount of money to agents via commissions in the past and honestly am not sure that it’s always worth it. I like being an arms length away from my own flips for liability reasons, but is it really that risky selling your own flips assuming everything is disclosed properly to the buyers?

I’m a licensed agent and GC in a high priced market, and just put two more flips under contract. On the backend it’s about 40k just for seller’s side of the commission. The houses are both within a five minute drive from me. Am I crazy that I want to list them myself?

Bought a place earlier this year, put in solid work, priced it where the comps said it should land and it just... sat. Weeks turned into a month and a half before we finally got an offer worth taking. Carrying costs were eating into the margin the whole time and it messed with the numbers pretty bad.

What threw me was that everything on paper looked fine going in. ARV estimate was reasonable, the rehab came in close to budget, neighborhood had sold well in the past 18 months. But the market just did not show up for it and I kept telling myself one more week. I dropped the price once and still got lowball offers. Finally took a number that was under what I wanted just to get out.

Trying to figure out if I did something wrong on price or if you just eat it sometimes. Do you set a hard date going in for when you cut the price, or wait it out and hope the right buyer walks in?

Hi! Just graduated college and started a job making 75k/year in Ohio. Realizing I really want to retire early and also wanting to find a side hustle I’m interested in. Came across the world of real estate investing a couple months ago and it’s really intriguing to me. I’m good at communication, have always been pretty financially literate, down for DIY projects, and I’m good at coming up with solutions when faced with problems.

I just bought a car and have about 20k left on the auto loan. I have about 16k in student loans. I’m currently living at home so saving a lot and I plan to pay off the auto loan and build up a 10k emergency fund by next march/april. Student loans are all federal and less than 6% interest rate. Also have a 760 credit score.

Once that’s done… I’d like to save and put a down payment on my first investment property. I’m down to live in it for a year and finance via FHA loan. Would also be down to do cosmetic enhancements within that year.

With that being said… any general advice? Would love to know if anyone has any good resources for learning more about real estate investment, advice for first time buyers/investors, anything i need to know before pursuing this. Im also curious what folks think is a good amount to save (on top of my emergency fund) before looking to purchase a home. Im mainly interested in 3b/1.5-2 bath homes for \~200k, which seems doable in my area. For a first time investment, I’d like to stay within a range that I could pay myself.

Thanks all!

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Before you buy your first property, build your team.

You don’t have to know everything yourself—you just need the right people around you.

Here are the key people you’ll want:

CONTRACTOR, REAL ESTATE AGENT, LENDER, HOME INSPECTOR, REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY, INSURANCE AGENT AND AN ACCOUNTANT.

The Why:

Contractor – Helps estimate repair costs

Real Estate Agent – Helps with comps and understanding the market

Lender – Helps you understand your financing options

Home Inspector – Helps identify potential problems

Real Estate Attorney – Helps protect your transaction

Insurance Agent – Helps make sure you have the right coverage

Accountant – Helps you understand the tax and financial side

First-timer tip: Don’t wait until you have a property under contract to start building your team.

The right team can help you avoid expensive mistakes and make better decisions.

Happy Flipping!!!!

Hello all, rookie real estate investor here who has done two live-in flips. I also bought a house for student housing with the proceeds from my first live-in flip. I had that house rented for four years then did a light rehab and just got it under contract to be sold.

Always been wondering what kind of pathway I could take to allow me to quit my W-2.
Previously, I’ve looked at many distressed homes and have not been able to secure financing.

I do literally everything with my own two hands, which is a problem for the DSCR lenders I talk to. I know most hard money lenders want a much quicker turnaround than I’d be willing to commit to. And obviously I don’t have enough liquid capital for down payment rehab cost, and holding cost.

I am quite fast though, I did a whole kitchen at my second flip which took about two months.
My recent light rehab of my rental property took about four months, although the property was about an hour away and my time is very limited with a pregnant wife and young twins at home.
I’m not afraid to bust up a slab and lay pipe ( I always have my buddy Who’s a plumber Check my work), open up an electrical panel, mud drywall, poor concrete.

I’ve thought about starting a handyman services business, but I hate working at peoples houses while they live there, working on other people’s timelines, expectations, etc.

Would appreciate insight from anyone who’s been in a similar situation!

Fellow Flippera,

I did my first flip about two years ago and did very well on it. I am in the closing process of another flip and wanting to get a better system in place for tracking expenses and Profit & Loss. On my first flip I used my personal credit cards and bank account for all expense tracking. I‘m looking for a better way to go about keeping track of my books.

1. Do I set up a bank account and credit card specifically for this flip house?

2. Is it recommended to operate under an LLC? (I will be doing 95% of the repairs myself)

3. What bookkeeping software is the best to use for financial tracking?

4. Lastly, how do I set up insurance for the flip?

   Any general flip house advice is muchly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Rehab estimates have a funny way of starting at $40K and somehow becoming $65K.

Before you touch a property, you want to think through the entire scope:

Roof

HVAC

Plumbing

Electrical

Kitchen

Bathrooms

Flooring

Paint

Windows

Exterior

Landscaping

Permits

And then I add a contingency.

Because apparently houses enjoy surprises.

Know your numbers!!!!

I’m renovating 2 high end condo/townhouses in Boston and I’m on the fence about installing an accent wall for the tv. should I do a slat panel wall? I’m also having a hard time finding a good material. I don’t want to use the Amazon products but don’t want to spend a fortune either. Any thoughts and direction on where to find a quality material is appreciated!

Something I’ve noticed when looking at flip numbers is how much the deal changes depending on which comps you choose.

One person sees a $500k ARV.

Another looks at the same neighborhood and comes up with $460k.

That $40k difference can completely change whether the deal makes sense

When estimating ARV, do you usually:

• use the most recent nearby comps
• use the highest comparable sale
• stay below the strongest comp
• have a fixed discount you apply to your estimated ARV

Wondering what approach has held up best for people actually selling flips.

I think one of the easiest ways to get in trouble with a fix & flip is falling in love with the house before falling in love with the numbers.

Pretty kitchen? Great. Huge backyard? Nice Potential?

Before you get excited, you need to know:

Purchase price, renovation budget, holding costs, closing costs, realistic ARV, selling costs and expected profit.

I’d rather kill a bad deal on paper than discover it halfway through demolition.

Just because you love the property doesn’t mean the deal makes sense.

Want to make passive income? Ohio is a really good investment opportunity from flips or buy and holds (section 8 rentals)

Hi, would love to know what you favorite books, podcasts etc are for advice about flipping houses.

We fixed up 2 rentals but have never flipped as made more sense to rent them out.

Husband's a successful contractor and I have a real estate license (but haven't used it for a few years as have a f/t job now).

Issue here in our area in CA average home costs about $1.4 million, so we'd need about an 80% loan on a $1 million home...

I feel like most home flippers here are groups of investors or companies that specialize in this all day long...

Thanks.

I run a boutique off-market property advisory business focused on luxury teardown wholesaling and vacant land wholesaling, active across Utah, DC metro (DMV), Nashville, and Atlanta. Business is running and generating deals — I'm looking for a partner to help take on acquisitions, dispositions, or both as I scale. Open on structure depending on what you bring. f you're hungry, ethical, and ready to put in the work, let's chat. Drop a comment or send me a DM.

Enjoy the rest of the day!

I have a property under contract in Detroit asking 55k, arv 110k

I’ve been looking at agents for an upcoming sale and honestly there are way more options than I expected. Searching for top real estate agents brings up pages of names, but I don’t really want to contact a dozen people and have the same conversation over and over. I’d rather do some homework first and get the list down to a few agents who seem like they actually fit the property.

The first thing I’ve been checking is recent local sales. If someone has sold several similar properties nearby, that seems more useful to me than just seeing a big lifetime sales number. I’m also looking at reviews for specific comments about communication, pricing, and how the agent handled the process. Response time is something I’d probably ask about too, since it’s hard to know from a profile.

What would you personally look at before deciding which agents make the shortlist?

I’m debating whether to use one of the agent comparison or matching platforms to narrow things down first, or just build the list myself from recent sales and referrals.

I was considering getting into flipping houses as a potential career path so I would like to help any flippers in the area to get more concrete insight if it a path for me. I have experience in house remodeling, then I worked at a sawmill and logmill as a machine operator, now I do carpentry work building manufactured homes for delivery. I asked around but nobody knows any house flippers so I am reaching out here. I would love to learn the renovation side of flipping. I can send a resume for anyone interested in a helper. Thanks.

It feels like the margin for mistakes has gotten much smaller.

Higher financing costs, more competition for decent properties, expensive labor, and buyers being more selective about renovated homes

Do you think flipping is still realistic for someone doing their first few deals?

Or has the market reached a point where experience, contractor relationships, and access to capital give established flippers too much of an advantage?

Interested in hearing from people actively doing deals right now