From what I've learned Short sales, REO properties, and Foreclosures can be a potential gold mine when it comes to flipping homes, but is there anything to be scared of?

I'm looking to find my first home to flip and through research of heard of the possible scenarios where that could turn out bad. Is it true that you could potentially assume the responsibility of someones loan or some other disaster scenarios?

My main concerns are typically with the building itself. You can always find a random story about an incorrectly filed lien or some guy whose great-great grandfather has a claim to a property and swoops in to exercise on that. At the end of the day, you should get title insurance and have a title agency do all of the necessary due-diligence on that front. Worst case scenario, the title insurance should have you covered there anyway.

Back to the building...there are all kinds of things you need to look for when purchasing such a property because they almost always come "as is" and rarely have any information in disclosures. If you're not aware of the things you need to consider, there are numerous posts on here about that and I would definitely suggest paying a quality inspector to go through the property for you and give you an idea of what you're getting into.

Be sure to do your homework, crunch the numbers, and have adequate resources to cover the unexpected. .