Involved In Real Estate · West Des Moines, IA · Member since 2013 · 1 post · 0 votes
Hello experts. I am a newbie to Bigger Pockets and am excited to begin a journey into Real Estate. My husband and I were approached by our business partner to consider flipping a single family home. We are in the beginning stages - doing research and analyzing our local market here in Des Moines.
For those that are familiar with Des Moines or have flipping experience here are my questions:
1. What area of Des Moines (suburbs included) would you consider to have the most potential?
2. What qualities would you look for in an potential flip home?
3. What type of homes/situations would you avoid?
4. Would you use a realtor, go to auctions, or use some other means to find out about available properties?
I have also been interested in Real Estate for the past several years and have considered making it a career as a Real Estate Agent. Would this help or hinder the process of flipping? What advise do you have for or against a career in Real Estate?
Hi Brianne,
I live in Ft Wayne but I believe that the towns are probably very similar.
When we flip houses, our number one criteria is to achieve a quick sale on the back end.
We target homes that are going to meet the needs of first time home buyers generally in the 80K-120K sales price range.
We are particular about what school districts that we flip houses in. Although we hold rentals everywhere, we do not flip in the lower rated school systems.
We have purchased REO's, estate sales, HUD's, and craigslist homes. The buy price is critical to achieve a successful flip. Obviously, accurate ARV's are important as well but you cannot undo overpaying for a property. Better to walk away than to overpay and lose money on a flip.
As a general rule of thumb, rehab's always cost more and take longer than you estimate.
Two things that are hard to change when you purchase a home: the neighborhood and the layout of the house. Although you can change a layout, you will not have enough rehab budget to make those kind of changes on the lower end flips.
Those are a few of the items that come to mind. Feel free to ask more questions. I would be happy to help.