How to Start House Flipping: A Simple 5 Step Guide

So COVID-19 has you ready to get into the real estate game and wondering how to start house flipping?

Within the Coronavirus thumping real estate markets nationwide, there are going to be some unusual investment opportunities in the months ahead. If you’ve been laid off or furloughed, now might be an opportune time to learn how to flip houses for a profit.

The pandemic—and the recession it’s causing—is going to get worse before it gets better. What does that mean for you?

It means that there will be opportunities to snag houses to flip at historically low prices as this pandemic drags on.

Especially if you’re willing to put in some elbow grease—and perhaps rent out your properties for a year or two while the economy recovers before relisting it—you could benefit from rebounding real estate markets when we reach the other side of this pandemic.

Historically speaking, this is how fortunes are made:

You buy during a market recession, fix up the property, wait for the recovery, and sell during the market “rebound.”

How to Start House Flipping: 5 Simple Steps

If you’re new to the flipping scene, how do you make sure you’re a success and not a sucker? Use these tips to master your first flip.

Find Hidden Value
Start with Cash
Know How Much to Pay
Do Serious Background Checks for Contractors
Make It Universally Appealing

1. Find Hidden Value (Spot an “Ugly Duckling”)

Finding a flip-worthy house is often the most challenging part of any real estate investment. Not all inexpensive homes have hidden value you can bring out with a renovation.

There are two aspects of a house that you cannot change:

The location
The lot

The key is to find a shabby home in a strong location with enough space to have value.

This is why it’s so important to know your local real estate market. You need to know how a house’s value compares to the value of the homes around it.

You also need to know the trends. Which neighborhoods are on their way up and which are on their way down? Understanding which neighborhoods to watch will help you snag a great deal as soon as it hits the market.

2. Start with Cash

Make no mistake: buying a great flip house is a competition.

One of the best ways to be a top competitor is to have cash on hand. Paying cash for a house can save you thousands. For one, you won’t shell out money for interest or other financing fees.

You may even be able to get a lower purchase price on a home if you pay cash. Buyers with financing make sellers nervous because that financing can fall through at any time or can be associated with delays. If that happens, the sale falls through and the seller is back to square one.

If you’re prepared to pay with cold, hard cash, sellers may accept a lower amount from you to avoid the hassle of a buyer with financing.

How to House Flip with No Cash?

Paying cash doesn’t mean that it has to be actual cash, as in your money from your bank account.

Instead, your cash could come from:

Money Borrowed Against Your Assets – If you own a valuable asset, a great option is to borrow against its value or equity. The best known example of this is a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), in which you can take out a line of credit to access the equity in your home. This is what the wealthy are usually doing when you hear they bought properties for “cash”.
Cash You Borrow from Friends or Family – Under the right circumstances, your friends and family may give you short term loans with only repayment or a low rate of interest expected in return.
Cash You Borrow from Investors – Investors are people who expect to be paid a return on their money, either as a flat percent (known as a “Debt Partner”) or from getting a share of the deal (known as an “Equity Partner”).
Cash from Hard Money Lenders – This is a loan from a lender who is not a bank, usually an individual or a company. They typically expect to be paid higher rates of return than a bank, sometimes as high as 6-15%. If you use them, you’d better have a lot of upside present within your flip, because they will charge you high interest rates.

Another creative option you could consider is seller financing, in which the seller acts as your lender.

In this case, you pay cash (yes, actual cash) for a small portion of the deal, say 20%. Then, you ask the seller to finance the rest of the sale, paying them the remaining money owned (80%) plus interest over a defined period of time.

For example, if you were purchasing a house for $200K, you might pay $40,000 up-front (20%) and then repay $160K to the seller over a 5-year time period at an interest rate of 6%.

In short, with seller financing you buy the property from the seller in installments over time.

If you ever default on these payments, then they can take the property back from you.

If you are intending to flip a property, you could make installment payments to the seller during the renovation period (and for any time you opt to rent it) and pay them back in full at the time of sale.

3. Know How Much to Pay (What is the 70% Rule?)

Negotiating a great deal on an investment property is far more difficult if you don’t how what a fair price is.

A good guide is to use the 70% rule. This rule says you should never pay over 70% of a home’s after-renovation value minus the cost of all the repairs.

For example, let’s say you spot a home in a hot neighborhood. Your real estate expertise tells you that with the right renovations, the home could be worth $400,000.

70% of $400,000 is $280,000. After inspecting the home, you estimate it would cost $50,000 to get the house into prime selling condition. This means you should pay $230,000 or less for the home as-is.

Of course, this involves some knowledge and research. You need to be able to see a home’s potential and know what that potential is worth. You also need a basic understanding of how much you’ll pay for various renovation jobs.

4. Do Serious Background Checking for Contractors

We all know the stereotype that contractors will try to scam you out of money. While there are plenty of honest contractors, you have too much to lose to risk hiring a dishonest one.

After you’ve found and purchased the perfect home to flip, you need to be cautious with your contractor choices.

Do research into each person on your team, from your general contractor to your plumber. It takes extra work, but it will be worth it when you receive quality work for a fair cost.

As you flip house after house, your goal should be to develop relationships with go-to contractors. You want to build trust with each person on your crew.

Not only will they be less likely to overcharge you, but you won’t need to research contractors for every new job.

In addition to these pointers, don’t forget the golden rule when it comes to paying the right price. Don’t have contractors purchase materials and bill you for them. Ask the contractors what you need and buy the materials yourself.

The only exception is when you need rare items you can only get through a contractor’s professional connections.

5. Make It Universally Appealing

We all have our own cosmetic styles when it comes to interior design. Flipping a house may feel like an opportunity for you to exercise your creative chops and try something new.

Seasoned house flipper Jeff Lewis suggests otherwise.

For paint colors, countertops, and other major elements of the home, go neutral. You want something that will appeal to as many people as possible.

When you stage the home, use temporary accessories to bring color into each room. These include pillows, rugs, and decorative pieces. Those items will brighten the house without making potential buyers worry about converting the style to their own.

Even in those pops of color, don’t follow the impulse of matching your own style. You need to think about what will appeal to buyers in the neighborhood.

For example, don’t use trendy colors that are popular with millennials if your flip house is in a neighborhood of retirees.

How to Start House Flipping, Today

There’s something undeniably satisfying about flipping a house. Through your own hard work and investment, you see a shabby shack transform into a proud, elegant home. Done right, the quick gains can be rewarding too.

The tricky part is that every decision you make in your flip contributes to your success or your loss. A Jeff Lewis Flipping Out marathon is a start, but it won’t give you all the knowledge you need to rake in revenue.

The tips above can help you start on the road to success. For more life skills that your parents and teachers probably didn’t teach you, explore the blog.