Which venue would make a better side busines: trading stocks or flipping real estate?

Question

I have $25,000 cash and I'm looking to invest my money into an activity that could eventually become a "business" and replace part, if not all, of my annual income. I'm considering either swingtrading stocks or flipping houses. Which should I chose?


SWING TRADING

Pros:
I can get started right away bc I have some money already saved.
I don't have to monitor my positions 24/7 because I will be holding positions from 3-10 days.
Easier to swing trade while holding down a full time job.

Cons:
1) To make substantial profits, I would need more than 25k.
2) Huge learning curve even though I have studied the subject for over a year.


HOUSE FLIPPING
Pros:
It's a buyers market!
Not as risky as swing trading stocks.
Even if I can't flip a property, I can rent it out and build equity.

Cons:
I would have to wait another year to get started so I could save capital for improvements.
Not as easy to do with a full time job bc I would need to be on the jobsite

Answer 1

Whichever you are actually better at is probably what you should go with. And by that I mean do you have the aptitude and skills to go with either of your choices.

With the house flipping, how much do you know about home renovation / rehabbing? Are you able to do projects after hours and complete them in a timely and profitable manor (e.g. retiling a bathroom, putting up drywall properrly, etc) if you don't have the specific skillset do you know or at least have a good connections to find people who do have the necessary skills? Do you know a good general contractor who can be your project manager and knock stuff out while you're at your primary job?
Do you have tenant leads lined up?

As for the stock trading, have you done mock trials and how have they worked out? (keep track of what you would have bought at how much then waited for a period of time before retending to sell, record the profit/loss). Then of course, how did you do?

I personally like the stock market as a whole to gambling, I know some tidbits about certain sectors of the market and that's what I'd limit my transactions to.

Frankly the answer comes down to what you're more comfortable with and think you can do better at.

Answer 2

this is a hard question to answer because both markets are good for long term investment. at the moment it seems like the stock market is the way to go, just make sure you diversify. at least you can have a larger return on investment with stocks right now since the housing market is currently stagnant if not falling. keep a keen eye on the housing market over the next several months and invest in real estate when it seems that the number of homes sold increases from one month to the next for 3 or 4 consecutive months.

good luck!

Answer 3

I would suggest you go into real estate. There aren't many succesful day traders anymore. It's to risky. If you do go into real estate, however, I would suggest you become a middleman when it comes to flipping. You can find the bargain houses, get them under contract, and sell them to someone who specializes in rehabs. There are ways to set the contracts up to where you don't have to put up any capital. This way you can build capital with relatively no risk, plus someone else can put up with the headache of rehabing and trying to resell. After you make enough, then you can start rehabing on your own without having to rush to make a sell. If you do rehabs, I suggest you hire contractors and not do it yourself for the simple fact you can do multiple projects at one time without getting tied up into one project.

Answer 4

HOUSE FLIPPING. JUST START SMALL AND LEARN TO DO SOME OF THE WORK.