Flipping Beginners

[Turtlemcshell]

             The wife and I were chatting and we eventually landed on the topic of flipping houses. Its a dream career that my wife would love to do and I must say I also have interest there myself. We are debating maybe one day doing it together and doing our own flipping for a new career after saving some much needed capital to start with.

             Anyone done anything like this before, specifically with a spouse? I am curious to hear the advantages and disadvantages. We currently are just renting an apartment and do not own a house yet, but this probably going to be years down the road. The thing that keeps nagging at me is if i want to get into the business Im gonna wanna get some hands on experience; however im not sure how. any thoughts on this? Thanks!

[monarda]

There's a whole lot of information on the Bigger Pockets web site. In fact, there's a podcast this week about getting into flipping.  That said, I 'm not a flipper. We like the buy and hold style, with slower-paced rehabs over the years that we own a place. It takes a certain personality to do the rehabs with the speed required to be financially sustainable, I think.  I'm sure other flippers will chime in. I would recommend joining bigger pockets and asking your specific questions there, too.

[kc2006]

I fell into a flip last year, it was something I had wanted to do but thought it wouldn't happen for a few years at least.  It was a deal I couldn't pass so I went for it.  I'm very handy and did everything that was needed on the home, my wife and I are self employed so we had the time to work on the home together, she did smaller tasks and all of the painting, and then the staging at the end.  Working together was nothing new for us, we have been working together for the past two years.  It actually has brought us closer together, friends of ours make comments about being up each others butts but we love being together, we're truly best friends.  We intend on continuing to do 2 flips a year, our market is very flip friendly and a family friend that's our realtor has been flipping for about 10 years and has been a big help.  In our area, we can purchase a home for 20-25K, if you do all the work yourself invest usually 10-15k into it and sell it in a month of listing for 60-70k range.

As for getting hands on experience, I'm 27, bought my house when I was 23 and I never really had anyone show me how to do stuff on homes.  What I've always done is research like mad, read as much as I could on it and then go to it.  Maybe try to get with friends anytime they are working on a project at their home, I've done this in the past, even if you just hand them tools and pay attention you can learn a lot.