May 07, 2007

10 Reasons House Flipping is Dead

A demerit of flipping house is if you buy a house and prices fall you can lose money in a deal. Flipping requires you to be a good investor.  It can be a great fun. When you are thinking about starting a real estate investment, don’t trust on flipping show that are running on television. Those one hour shows won’t give you enough information and knowledge of investing. Rather they spit out sixty minutes of fun and profit, hiding the down and dirty facts of investing.


Don’t hope to earn profit on what you see on television. Market trends vary from region to region, and community to community. Those witty advertisers have creative skills to create a big profit in front of your eyes. Investing is not a game; it’s a business and need lot of first hand information to make lots of money.


Let us discuss some demerits of flipping a house.

  1. Hard to Convince Sellers:   You will have more difficulty convincing sellers to give you a good deal in flipping. Cash and credit give you credibility with sellers. They are more likely to give you a good deal if they believe you can deliver. Most experienced sellers will laugh at you if you offer $10 to bind a contract. They will also question your assignment clause and why you need it. So, be prepared to lose deals to people with demonstrable buying power. You will need to find sellers that are especially motivated and unable to find any other buyers besides you. Tough job indeed!
  2. Finding a Buyer:  You will have to rush to find a buyer. The typical closing period for a contract is 30 days. Therefore, in less than a month, might need to find a buyer for your contract. You have to give them enough time for due diligence and allow them to arrange financing. All this you have to do in 30 days. Usually, you'll need a buyer that can close in cash, eliminating costly delays with conventional financing. In either case, you'll limit your pool of buyers to those that can act quickly.
  3. Impacts of Bad Service: Suppose that you are a used auto dealership. You find people that are ready to unload their autos for a discounted price. After buying the auto, you put it on your lot with a slight markup. You take out ads on the newspaper convincing buyers that they can get a great deal at your auto lot because you're selling them much below the market trends. Here, you are acting as a middleman. You collect a fee for that service from people. Similarly, when you are flipping houses, you will use a similar formula. You will buy houses from motivated sellers and mark them up. Next you resell to investors looking for a good deal. In other words, you are in the business of making other people money. No one particularly cares how much time you invested or how much money you make from the resale. They are paying you to find them excellent investments. You are providing a service. When your service is not good, all your hard work will be fruitless.
  4. Foreclosures Trouble: You will be unable to buy foreclosures. Most banks have stopped accepting assignable contracts. Not all flippers are always able to assign their contract in time to close, so they have to admit to the bank that they are unable to buy the property. During the contract period, the bank might remove the property from the market. That is to say, they have to start marketing from scratch. As a result, most banks in the US have created policies that prevent any buyer from using an assignable contract. They have gotten burned too many times.
  5. Lost in Flipping:  Remember, you make your money from the markup. You need to look for properties that are better than your investors require. Otherwise, you won't make any money. For instance, if your investors are willing to pay $60,000 for a house that is worth $80,000, then you need to pay less than $60,000 for the house. You might buy it for $50,000 and resell it to one of your investors for $60,000, making a quick $10,000. If you are unable to perform such profits, flipping is a lost game for you.
  6. Time Consuming Job: Of course, it's easier to talk about it than actually do it. Unless you're in an especially poor market, it's difficult to convince anyone to take 20% below market value for their home. Most professional house flippers take several months to build up their database and find a few deals before they start making money. It's a business that takes time and a lot of hard work. Still, if you're willing to do what it takes, there are countless investors who are willing to pay you for the service.
  7. Lowering Price is Dead: After your home has been on the market for quite sometime, there is nothing you can do but lower the asking price. Once it has been long enough and you are eager to move into or put an offer on a house that you were interested in. Next thing you know, someone comes along and gives you a lower offer than you hoped for, and you feel determined to sell your home therefore end up letting it go for less. Here is where you lose more money.
  8. 30 Seconds Syndrome: Since real estate is expensive these days, when buying a house most buyers want something they fall in love with immediately. When first walking into anyone’s house you know, you can tell right away whether you like the set up. It usually takes people looking at your house thirty seconds to decide whether or not they like it when they first walk in. That means your entrance has thirty seconds only to impress your buyers! If you fail to do so, then you are a dead house flipper.
  9. Hard to Survive : Real investment plan assumes that you have the knowledge and skills, time to work on your fixer, and that you will sell the house as soon as it is finished to a qualified buyer. Home improvement centers help you with various know-how tips, brochures and advice. You need to give up your free time--television, parties, leisure activities and work on your fixer. You could hire workers, but contractors and laborers work slowly and eat up your profits. You have to compete with several other flippers in the real estate market. Only the best will survive!
  10. A Long Wait: Selling your house quickly to a qualified buyer requires you to do selling homework in broad way. Many investors seek free help from a loan officer to price the house right and to qualify their buyers. These investors earn the sales commission by selling their houses by owner. You will have to wait for many days to find the buyers. Spending time on decision making will often lead to the house being left unsold for many days. Such flipping policy is a real dead indeed!

--
Did you enjoy this post?


Comments

Post a comment






« Carnival of Homeowners #3 | Main | Carnival of Homeowners #4 »