# Has anyone here flipped a property for profit?



## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

I am looking to buy a condo (start off small), renovate it and flip it for profit this year. 

Has anyone here flipped a property for profit in the past? If so, please discuss it. I would love to talk about real estate as an investment and flipping on this forum so that we can all share tips, tricks and experiences etc.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

You're relentless.

Why is it every time you post you are here to pump RE, discuss it etc? 

How long before your PMs start this time?


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

I find it hard to believe that you - a perma RE believer and a certified agent - have never flipped a property in all these years.
Or, perhaps, you are like those mutual fund advisors who put their own money in GICs while selling high fee funds to the customers :rolleyes2:


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

In my opinion, the lion's share of successful flippers made very little money from the work they did renovating the property. Most of the profit came from the general appreciation of the real estate that took place while they were doing the renovation. They just assumed it was their brillance that made the money. 

Put a declining real estate market into most renovation projects and you will see some serious losses in the result.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

My parents are three quarters of the way through a flip right now. They bought a place for $45,000 and have done quite a bit of work. I'd say when they sell, they could be looking at about a $500,000 profit. 

Sure, they bought 35 years ago, and don't plan on selling for another 25, but you get the point.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

crazyjackcsa said:


> My parents are three quarters of the way through a flip right now. They bought a place for $45,000 and have done quite a bit of work. I'd say when they sell, they could be looking at about a $500,000 profit.
> 
> Sure, they bought 35 years ago, and don't plan on selling for another 25, but you get the point.


+1 Lol.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Flip doesn't generate any money unless your property appreciated by at least 10%


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

We have friends who have done 4 or 5 flips but they have been buying 50 year old homes in whitby oshawa and they are doing all the work ,she got her RE license so they can sell them.They are keeping them for a year+ with tenants then selling them.We have only done one flip and after expenses we got About 18% but we would not do it again as I am sure my husband worked for >25 cents an hour lol


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

RE agent fees would eat up alot of the potential profit. Nobody seems to mention this when they sell their house.

The flippers who can still make the money in a declining market, would be the ones I would want to hear from. For that you would have to log on to the Americanmoneyforum.com.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

well I have a friend who buys up vegas properties and spends maybe 10k then sells them for a 10k profit.She did 2 in February,she pays cash for them ,keeps them minimum time then sells them .For me I would not bother for $10,000..


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I was doing some back of the envelope calculating a while back and I figured out that you'd need to buy a property about 100K under value at least to make some profit on a "flip" 

I have an agent who is a friend of mine and that's what we figured. We calculated that we would be hiring out the contractors and not doing the work ourselves. We also calculated that using an agent to sell the property. 

Frankly it's close to impossible in the GTA market to find such a property as the real estate agents representing the seller just deducts the cost of the improvement from the price. For example if a property has a disgusting carpet...they'll take $2000 off the price. Your labour and the bullsh$% involved in that kind of repair are not usually accounted for. 

There is a lot of contractors looking for this kind of property as well. It's a way to take self employment to a new level. Instead of working for clients they work on their own houses.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I tend to agree you have to do work yourself to even think of a flip.although in Vegas my friend hired contractors but they work very cheap and fast ,took her 15 days to have the last house but due to some rule he had to keep it 60 days before selling it .In usa many homes sitting without hydro so just the basic fix up carpet,paint new kitchen and bath makes difference.She paid $1400 for a full bath and only $2200 for kitchen and $700 for appliances.Renos are much cheaper in USA !


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

It's a piece of cake to make money flipping houses. First you secure the TV rights, and sell the show to a big US network. Next, you write a book, then go on a speaking tour talking about how much money you can make flipping houses...you'll make a fortune, and you never have to buy a house...


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## Montrealer (Sep 13, 2010)

The 10% rule is common, I am currently working with one investor that looks for 20% and successfully flips at least 3 to 5 properties every year, one year he did 30 properties and made a killing but that was before 2004. 

I am asking because I see a lot of people buying, renovating and flipping condos and town houses in Montreal and Toronto, it's not easy but there is always a deal to be had if you look and know where to look etc.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

My colleague has a few friends who have flipped houses or condos, but this was in a very hot Toronto market. I do find that in Toronto, people pay a premium to have everything done for them, just to avoid the hassle of doing it themselves, but if time/expenses are fully accounted for, I doubt the payoff it that high.

Probably along the lines of buying high maintenance rental units. The money is very good, but in reality it's a full time job, not a get-rich-quick scheme.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

The people that I know who flip never account for all their costs. If they fully priced their costs, they would make the same as people who just buy and sell.

OTOH they are working second jobs and getting paid in capital gains. That is worth a lot after tax. Sometimes they even move into the places to avoid gains entirely.


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