If you are a first time home flipper and are a little nervous, that is a good thing. When you take on something as big as buying a house and spending tens of thousands of dollars on what you hope will be a good investment can get to be a little nerve racking. However the more houses you flip the more confident you will become.

The first house I flipped back in 2004, I turned a profit of about 10k and It made me feel like I was on top of the world and then the second house we only made about 4k. And as you guess the third house was a bomb, we lost over 5k. After we sold the house and got over taking a hit I went back to the basics with the houses we were looking at to buy, Now by this time the market was at its highest level, my issue was over paying for the houses as I was trying to beat out all of the other investors that were competing for the same house.

As I realized we had left our business model behind for the sake of “getting” a house. I started to look in unconventianal means to buy houses,. At that time I had only purchased houses from owners or the mls with a agent, and then when we sold the houses we listed with agents. this was no longer the competetive way to do real estate. I started buying houses thru wholesalers and looking for more for sale by owners, and after I would land a deal and the rehab was complete we started listing our houses on the mls thru a limited service agent. We spend even today only $450.00 to list on the mls and all associated websites as well as for sale by owner sites, when we sell our flip we only pay 3% to the selling agent (buyers agent) . Now I realize to a seasoned investor this is not earth shattering news, inFact it is pretty basic. The problem was as a builder/remodeler I knew everything I needed to know on what to do to the houses, what to add and what not to add however I did not not really understand the finding the deal part of the business. When the housing crash hit I only had one house that I needed to sell and after a few months we unloaded it I dropped out of the market for 2 years.

Leaving the market was not a smart move, I learned this in 2010 when a few well known investors were showing of the deals that they have picked up. Thats is when I realized I needed to start reading every investors blogs, web sites, and trying there info that was being sold so I could try to max our my knowledge  because I knew the houses rebound was just around the corner. the more I read the more I learned with little tricks of the trade, But something else hit me, there was never a lot or even any important information as it relates to “how to in flipping” I mean thanks for talking about bandit signs and direct mail marketing and of course wholesaling houses but where was the details of how to make that budget created from who knows where on the renovation.

As I started on this new quest for information I would also keep my eyes open for quality flippers, the ones that found their own houses for sale and paid for them with there own money, those guys I wanted to learn a little something  from if they would let me. ( I do not think I am a know it all) so you will always read my blogs and the line “learning from everyone ” is me being as proficient as possible.

Here we are in 2015, and I am getting a deal every month, sometimes two of them. Flipping has come full circle in one regard , that is buyers are smarter as well as agents. more and more agents are looking for some of the (Flipping disasters ) tm. A lot of your novice or cheap flippers are not getting to dump anything on the market like in years past, unfortunately some still get thru and yes they are sold!

My goal is to help investors to grow there business in a ethical way and to offer some of the best flipped houses on the market, and help keep the America dream alive of home ownership. As you will hear and maybe see from me, I am a first class A builder. Remodeling is something I like to do and find a challenge in every house that makes me stay on my game, I want all of us to learn the best most current ways to buy houses at a steal and flip them to make big profits yet giving our buyers the house of there dreams.

Stay tuned!!

Duane Cotton0038-3434251516-O-1

 

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Duane Cotton
Master Builder at Build America Construction