How can I learn about flipping houses?

sheramber

If you intend to live in a house while you update it  it will have to be in a condition that you can live in it. Therefore there won't be a lot of room to increase price.

Updating decor , a new kitchen and new bathroom will not increase the value on the house by much.

Meanwhile where will your income come from if you have chucked your jobs and moved?

FreeBear

What HUTH don't tell -

Auction price - They give the hammer price, but fail to include buyer's premiums, legal costs, stamp duty, and all those inconvenient extras.

Refurbishment costs - Quite a few (the majority ?) of the participants are "in the trade", so labour & material costs are heavily skewed. If you were to employ trades at market rate, the refurb costs would double.

EA Valuation - Gushing pricks giving hugely optimistic market price without mentioning fees, solicitor costs, or all the other expenses in selling.

Then there is council tax, utility bills, and so on whilst the refurb & sale is taking place. All eating in to any notional "profit".

Houses in Norfolk go for a good whack as it is. There is very little scope for making a profit by flipping, so corners are going to be cut - Read that as cheap materials, shoddy workmanship, done quick & cheap. If you're buying up North, there is no way you can manage a project from a distance and expect to keep costs down or get an acceptable level of quality.

Auction properties come with problems - Quite likely unmortgageable for one reason or another. So you need to be looking for something within your cash budget. £20K might get you a beach hut at Hunstanton, but not much scope for adding value to it. Or you could buy a terrace house in a depressed area up north for maybe £10K. Again, very little room to make a profit.

Jaybee_16

As others have mentioned HUTH properties are often bought by those already in the trade. If you're not in the trade, getting builders, plumbers electricians will be a problem. If they're any good, they are booked well in advance so your money will be tied up for quite a while waiting for trades.

stuart45

I know an EA in Brighton who has made a lot of cash through Flippin.  He works with a solicitor . Between them they get probate properties quite cheap. Solicitor buys the house offering a completion in 7 days. 
They used mainly cheap Albanian labour and usually had it back on the market within a few months. The practices they use to get the properties are bordering on illegal.

babyblade41

Unless you are in the building trade and have a good knowledge of how property flipping works and with a good financial pot behind you (and I do mean GOOD) then I wouldn't throw in the day job just yet .

Start on your own. house first and buy a small refurb  that you can happily do up at weekends and evenings and live in whilst learning a few skills .
HUTH is rubbish and like Doozergirl infuriated me so much. I can't imagine how many people have watched it and tried to do the same with dire results ..

I think with your financial limits you won't get very far and possibly end up well in the red 

theoretica

Why houses?  Which would mean putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were.  Do you have any interest in doing up other, smaller, things? 

stuart45

theoretica said:

Why houses?  Which would mean putting all your eggs in one basket, as it were.  Do you have any interest in doing up other, smaller, things? 

If you know cars you could be a secondhand car dealer, or if you like antiques be a knocker boy. Same principle, buy as cheap as possible, spend as little as possible doing the work on them, and sell for as much as the punters will pay for them.

Indigo_and_Violet

DestinyGamer said:

both my fiancé and I are disheartened with our jobs and are really considering this as a way to make extra income and eventually go full-time.

Do you think you would actually enjoy this more than your current jobs/a different job? For example, would you consider re-training as an e.g. plasterer, painter and decorator or builder instead? 

This thread generally suggests it's a lot harder to make money flipping than is made out and that you'd need to be able to do a reasonable amount of the work to a good standard yourselves. Given the shortage of workers in the sector have you thought about asking a local firm if they'd take one of you on as an apprentice for 6 months? It would give you a chance to see if you enjoy the manual work without sinking your savings into a flipper in a different part of the country. If you do it and like it then you'll have some extra skills at the end of it. If you do it and hate it then you know home renovation isn't for you and you're better off just getting a different job and earning more money in a more traditional way. 

steampowered

I'm no expert but £20k doesn't sound like anywhere near enough.

What sort of property are you realistically going to be able to buy for £20k?

Before taking account of solicitor/conveyancer fees, auction fees, electrician/plumber costs, building materials (still gotta buy the materials even if you do the work yourself) etc. etc.

AFF8879

You say you currently rent, well with £20k I’d be far more inclined to use that as a deposit to buy a small flat/ starter home to live in yourselves as a first time buy. You can then get some hands on experience in redecorating, basic woodwork and tiling, etc. Then you’d be in a much better position later in life, with some trade skills + equity behind you, to then think about doing it as a career.