Flipping houses is a huge risk ... On TV, it looks so great ... but that is reality TV... We know where that can lead ....
You buy rental units when the market and rates are low, and make the rental income cover all out of pocket expenses ( mortage principal, mortgage interest, taxes, maintenance, condo fees ) .
Your profit is whatever positive cash you get, plus the payment of principal . If the units go up in value, that is the bonus.
For my US condo, I sold a unit in 2003 ( when the Bush-Iraq frenzy ) at high market value/high US dollar value .
I rented for my vacations a unit in the same building for 5-6 months.
I bought again after the Bush fiasco , in 2010 when banks were not lending and had pages of adds in newspaper . Paid cash 170K, when the Canadian $ was worth MORE then the us ( 163K can ) . A similar unit sold last month at 290K US, which is 377K ....
My rental units in Montreal are a mix of multiplex/condos. Multiplex brings back way more money, easier to sell, but more work to maintain/manage.
So buy after the republicans are kicked out after tax break fiasco, and sell when replubicans retake the gov again ( but before they fuck it up ...)
