I am a college undergrad. Is it possible for me to gain enough funds to "flip a house?"?

Question

I'm a junior at Virginia Tech. I'd like to purchase a home, fix it up and sell it for profit (a la the TLC/HGTV relaity shows). Is there a real possibility I can do this despite my age and inexperience?

Answer 1

There are many factors to consider before you flip a house like how much is it going to cost to buy the house, how much it is going to cost to fix it, and how long it's going to take since you will have to be making the payments while it is being fixed. If this is your first real estate investment, I would suggest you look for a house to "wholesale" or "lease option" before you do a " flip" . Check out www.richdad.com for information on real estate investment.

Answer 2

If you would look into some of these r/e courses - not take them, just research where they are coming from; you'll see almost all of them "flip houses" without a limited amount of any of your own cash, since you never want or take possession of. You more or less receive a "FINDERS FEE" for your efforts. Some one you know of has a home for sale and you hunt for another that wants that type of house at or near a certain price. You offer the buyer an amount plus your fee and present it to the owner. With some bickering back and forth and some paperwork to protect both parties you can eventually come to a "win - win " situation; so they say. I think there might be more then just N.Y.S., that doesn't allow "flipping" . You must own with paperwork a certain amount of days in order to resell a house.
Most are "no money" down, give closing costs to one or the other , and you collect the difference between the buyer and sellers price that "YOU" negotiate.
Unless your very aware of the construction end of the building trades and costs of rebuilding and remodeling, you'll get eaten - up and will lose what money you have unless you can be taken on with someone you know as an apprentice/semi partnership till you get the feel of what is going on. There are a lot of "foxy" people, hired cover-up artists and real estate that go to the limits just to sell run-down or fixer-ups to innocent people like you. DO SOME RESEARCH BEFORE YOU SIGN OR GO TO ANY CONTRACT THAT LEGALLY BINDS YOU - or else you'll be another poor soul without a pot - (in plain french-as they say). Others have done it, but it takes-"moxey" as they say, building inspectors reports, good trades people till you feel experienced enough, and quite a few bucks to keep the working material on a roll while you pay the mortgage, taxes and utilites while doing so. GOOD LUCK to you .

Answer 3

I like to buy fixer uppers and then rent them out. I go through with a sheet and try to figure a monetary amount on the fix ups, things I can see, new bathroom, kitchen, carpet, water heater, roof, etc... then I will get a budget together for what i can not see. There are always more things wrong than what you expect, so it takes a lot of money to fix right. With that being said, if you do not have the proper funding, your project stalls, if your project stalls, you start to lose money fast, "mortgage, taxes, water/electric, insurance, etc.." So I would say unless you know you have enough funding, don't wing it, because it could be a costly mistake.

Answer 4

There was the story a while back. The dude started out with a giant, plastic paperclip and set out on a bigger and better hunt. He got there, but the house is in Canada??? I think. Oh well, the cliche is: Rome wasn't built in a day and Ralph Loreen couldn't save a car company wholesaling cocaine.

Answer 5

Do you have a spare $50k - $500k lying around? If you paid attention to the shows you'd know what kind of costs are involved as well as how much work and risk is involved. As a student it's not likely that you'll have the time to put into it.

Answer 6

You can try whatever you want to. People have been telling me all of my life that I will never be able to walk. They have been correct so far, but I will prove them wrong eventually. Good luck!