Originally Posted by DareRing

Until this year I considered "flipping" my primary occupation. Frankly, for the last several years it's been disgustingly easy to make gross amounts of money buying and selling houses with almost no work and adding little real value. Such a situation is a serious warning sign of impending economic crisis, and everybody (myself included) who participated just made the problem worse, but what choice was there? Play the game, if just to keep up, or be left behind. I am not suggesting anyone get into this game now; infact I finally got out, because I'm no gambler and I believe I've pressed the timing of this market far enough. The "can't lose" days are over. I'm sorry if you missed out, but ... you missed out.

Anyway, here's how I went about it. Base all your searches on homes built around the 1970s. The sellers of these homes are very likely themselves to be approaching their 70s, and they haven't remodeled. Their houses are well maintained but look like shit because of all the wood paneling, strange colored carpeting, and hanging gold light fixtures bigger than basketballs. I don't know how any of this stuff got installed in the first place, but my theory is americans were punishing themselves for vietnam through fashion and home decor. The average shopper can't see past this mess no matter how good the location/layout, and you can get these places at a significant discount.

Don't be tempted by those tv shows into massive projects. I've turned 8 houses and I never did any serious structural work. My attitude was if it can't be done in a few days by the team of Jerry's / HomeDepot / pot-smoking handyman, it's too much time and risk. New paint, carpet, lights, doorknobs, (sometimes) appliances, done. Purely cosmetic, finished in a week, then back on the market.