How to Find More Homes to Fix & Flip?

Rehabbing & House Flipping
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How to Find More Homes to Fix & Flip?

Josh H.
Flipper/Rehabber · Northern Virginia · Member since 2019 · 58 posts · 32 votes

Hello BiggerPockets Community,

I am in a little bit of a situation and looking for help. My wife and I have been flipping homes for the last three years, we have flipped 30 houses with all of them being profitable. My wife quit her job to focus on Real Estate about 1.5 years ago, due to no longer being able to work in the corporate world. I have been helping her manage the contractors on the weekends, and going out to the properties to do some work as they were being prepared to sell. 

A couple of months ago, I got laid off from my job that paid $100K+ per year. We figured that we could sustain and maintain our lifestyle by doubling down efforts on flipping - especially since we have a little more than a year's worth of money, if we did no more flips in that time. However, we have worked very hard to build that capital and don't want to spend through it. We need more flips!

The problem is we have found it very hard to find good flips over the last few months in the Washington DC, VA and MD area. With construction cost, material cost and the houses (even in bad condition) cost an amount that the flips are not profitable. We are checking off market sources (such as Facebook groups) as well as the MLS. The deals are just so hard to come by, and they get bid up to where they are not profitable.

How can we find more houses to flip? 

Any advice would be very appreciated.


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Steven Goldman
Lender · PA · Member since 2019 · 535 posts · 461 votes
3y

If you put together a team in the area you are targeting and, are willing to pay some reasonable wholesale fees, the wholesalers will find the distressed property owners. They are off market deals. If you do not want to pay a wholesale, fee you can find properties which look distressed, locate owners info and, call or, door hang them. I have had a lot of luck in Delaware County just outside of the Philly limits by teaming with a rehabber. He organizes and performs the construction. I provide the capital and we split the profits as members of an LLC. When he is working in those areas he has signage on his truck, on the property, advising the neighborhood we are buying. We get off market estate and distressed properties. Often, from older households, who are more negotiable because of their acquisition price. It is not a formula for everyone but you need to think outside the box, if you are going to operate in a high price, high material cost and interest rate environment. Looking forward to better market conditions in the future! Keep pushing forward.

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  • Alan F.
    Flipper/Rehabber · CA · Member since 2023 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Josh H.:

    Hello BiggerPockets Community,

    I am in a little bit of a situation and looking for help. My wife and I have been flipping homes for the last three years, we have flipped 30 houses with all of them being profitable. My wife quit her job to focus on Real Estate about 1.5 years ago, due to no longer being able to work in the corporate world. I have been helping her manage the contractors on the weekends, and going out to the properties to do some work as they were being prepared to sell. 

    A couple of months ago, I got laid off from my job that paid $100K+ per year. We figured that we could sustain and maintain our lifestyle by doubling down efforts on flipping - especially since we have a little more than a year's worth of money, if we did no more flips in that time. However, we have worked very hard to build that capital and don't want to spend through it. We need more flips!

    The problem is we have found it very hard to find good flips over the last few months in the Washington DC, VA and MD area. With construction cost, material cost and the houses (even in bad condition) cost an amount that the flips are not profitable. We are checking off market sources (such as Facebook groups) as well as the MLS. The deals are just so hard to come by, and they get bid up to where they are not profitable.

    How can we find more houses to flip? 

    Any advice would be very appreciated.



     Hi Josh,

    Flipping is a business, it's not a job. It's like running a machine shop, or a field service company and shares many of the same premise. 

    There's a front end (acquisition of raw product) then execution (rehabbing) then sales. Some businesses are high volume, low margin and some are low volume high margin. These metrics aren't either/or, they're fluent. The sweet spot is high volume, high margin.

    It sounds like the front end is where the opportunity for a solution exists. On old phrase in business is "cast a wide net".

    Just make a list of any/all ways to find your raw product. Sounds like you already know about many ways so sorry if I'm being redundant. 

    Wholesalers, yellow letters, bandit signs, guerrilla marketing, website with seo/blogs, vehicle signage, shirts, bumper stickers, business cards, door knocking, networking, realtors, TV, radio, and other things I'm forgetting.

    I agree with Mathew that contracting also scales and supplements your business. Maryland's contractor license laws are extremely easy when compared to CA. Subsequently you can separate yourself from the competition by doing quality/accountable work.

    Running a business in challenging times creates resiliency, in good times you'll best your competitors.

    I'm a big fan of small business owners, I sincerely wish you the very best! Oh and cool picture in your profile!

    1Reply
  • Jose JacobPro Member
    Investor · 11040 · Member since 2019 · 188 posts · 111 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ronnie C.:
    Quote from @Josh H.:

    Hello BiggerPockets Community,

    I am in a little bit of a situation and looking for help. My wife and I have been flipping homes for the last three years, we have flipped 30 houses with all of them being profitable. My wife quit her job to focus on Real Estate about 1.5 years ago, due to no longer being able to work in the corporate world. I have been helping her manage the contractors on the weekends, and going out to the properties to do some work as they were being prepared to sell. 

    A couple of months ago, I got laid off from my job that paid $100K+ per year. We figured that we could sustain and maintain our lifestyle by doubling down efforts on flipping - especially since we have a little more than a year's worth of money, if we did no more flips in that time. However, we have worked very hard to build that capital and don't want to spend through it. We need more flips!

    The problem is we have found it very hard to find good flips over the last few months in the Washington DC, VA and MD area. With construction cost, material cost and the houses (even in bad condition) cost an amount that the flips are not profitable. We are checking off market sources (such as Facebook groups) as well as the MLS. The deals are just so hard to come by, and they get bid up to where they are not profitable.

    How can we find more houses to flip? 

    Any advice would be very appreciated.



     I feel your pain. I'm in the Nashville/middle TN market. It's dead here. Plenty of so called wanna be start up wholesalers and they can't get me a real deal. Part of that is they take to much for themselves, and I've seen to many flippers get burned by that. 

    I don't waste money and time on cold calling or mailers, I just stick to listed properties unless someone brings me a deal which has been a while. I'm having to look a few states away which has got me wondering considering I can't spend much time away from my elderly mom, and I can't trust trades and pay them blindly, so I don't know what I'm going to do. 


    Most of the investors face the same problem due to lack of inventory. Now it becomes the numbers game. I am also trying different ways to find properties like D4$$, MLS, whole sales, off-market, online auctions, court steps etc. We will continue to face this issue as long as the inventory is tight. I am not sure Out of State fix and flip is a solution. If you planning to do it, make sure you study the market very well. I hear that some town has plenty of inventory and some dont.

    718-200-6100
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