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The Advantages of Flipping Houses
By Vic Hurlstorm | October 12, 2008
Aside from the obvious financial rewards that go along with real estate investing and flipping houses there are a few more abstract benefits that can be gained when you embark on a house flipping adventure if you are looking for a little more incentive to get going in the direction of your dreams of real estate riches through flipping houses.
Most things in life have more than one pro or con to them and the same can be said when it comes to flipping houses. Whether you are doing this for a living or this is a one-time deal you will find that there are all kinds of little lessons you learn along the way. Knowledge is rarely a bad thing and the lessons you learn while flipping houses are lessons that can be applied in many aspects of your life.
1) Budgeting. There are only a couple of things that can give you a crash course in budgeting your money faster than flipping a house. In order to successfully flip the house you are working on you will need to learn to budget quickly or you will wind up literally hemorrhaging money. Learning to set a budget and making sure you stick with it are both very necessary skills for flipping houses but when they carry over into other real life situations you will find that this is a very useful skill that has you looking at everyday purchases through your new eyes.
2) Muscle Definition. Who knew that flipping houses would be such an excellent workout? This is especially true for those who traditionally hold jobs that aren’t necessarily dependent upon physical labor and those that do much of the work themselves (which is highly recommended when you can in order to save expensive and profit eating labor costs). From heavy lifting to hammering and several other physical jobs in between you should discover that your labors are rewarded in more ways than simply watching your project come together.
3) Attention to Detail. This is a big perk that comes from flipping properties and you can bet you will get better at this with every new property. The money, when flipping houses is often made in the small details that others will overlook such as new electric faceplates, proper staging, and a good eye for color throughout the property. These items make potential house buyers see a property that is loved and cared for rather than another house on their list of properties to see. If you take this attention to detail into your 9 to 5 job after flipping houses or into your tax preparation, event planning, and home organizing you will find that the lessons you've learned while flipping houses are well worth the time, effort, and labor that went into learning them.
4) Positive Thinking. You will hear many times in life that positive thinking is a powerful tool. There are only a couple of areas that this holds true more than when it comes to flipping houses. You will definitely want to season your thinking positive with a BIG dose of reality but you should be well aware that thinking positive has many advantages to you when flipping houses and in almost every other area of your life. You do not want to spend the time you could be improving your flip searching for problems or excuses.
5) Just Do It. The old Nike commercials had a point and if flipping houses doesn't teach you anything else it should teach you this lesson. Procrastination wastes money. For every day that you own the property you carry the expenses of the house (electric, mortgage, interest, etc.) get in there, get it done, and move on to the next project. Procastinating on the tasks that you don't want to do, will not make them go away so you might as well just go ahead and complete them.
Flipping houses isn’t rocket science but it does take a unique combination of luck, skills, and stubbornness to turn a profit in this particular business. Learning the teachings above will help you not only be successful when it comes to flipping properties but in other areas of your life as well.
Topics: Real Estate Investing |
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