Texas flippers: where are you finding margin, and what's your 2027 game plan?

Question

Okay Texas flippers, I'm curious how you're actually making the numbers work right now.

Every time I bring up flipping in Texas, I get one of two answers. Either "it's still a great market if you know where to look" or "between insurance, property taxes, and how long houses are sitting, the margin's basically gone." Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle and depends a lot on where you are.

So what's your game plan these days? A few things I'd love to hear about:

• Where you're buying. Are you sticking to DFW, Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, or heading out to the suburbs and smaller towns?
• What margin you're happy with now compared to a couple of years ago. Still holding out for the big spreads, or doing thinner deals to keep things moving?
• Where you're finding the margin. Is it all in the buy, or are you squeezing it out of the rehab and the timeline?
• What's eating into your profit the most lately.

Where you're buying. Are you sticking to DFW, Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, or heading out to the suburbs and smaller towns?

What margin you're happy with now compared to a couple of years ago. Still holding out for the big spreads, or doing thinner deals to keep things moving?

Where you're finding the margin. Is it all in the buy, or are you squeezing it out of the rehab and the timeline?

What's eating into your profit the most lately.

And the question I can't make up my mind on: would you rather do a handful of deals with big margins, or a lot more deals at thinner ones?

I'd bet the answer in Austin looks nothing like the answer in Midland or the Valley, so chime in and tell me where you're at!

Diego Alvarado · Answer

Hi @Amanda Snyder

In my view, it is all about perspective.

My market has always been DFW, I explored other markets like San Antonio but I decided to stay out here.

I am looking the same margins than years ago so that didn't change.

Not sure why you are asking where is the margin, a flipper always find their margin when buying, if I don't make what I am looking for I'll hold it. I always analyze my deals based on two exits if one doesn't work we have a backup plan.

Profit loss happens everywhere if you are not careful in my case it happens when I cause a delay in a project because we didn't come with a decision promptly.

I will do less deals than thinner margins.

One thing that you didn't ask but it changed this year is that most of my deals are coming from the MLS. In previous year I was getting 50/50 but this year are more active listings.

Ametria Chaney · Answer

I'll answer from across state lines, since I'm a Memphis-based agent rather than a Texas flipper — but I work with enough investors to see the pattern from the deal side. What I'm watching most is the appraisal math on the back end. When homes sit longer, that resale comp can slide while the project is still in drywall, which is why the disciplined flippers I know are buying with a thinner target and protecting the downside with a longer hold scenario. The ones treating every deal as buy-it-right-or-don't-buy-it are the ones still smiling. On your volume question, I'd take a handful of well-bought deals over a dozen thin ones every time — thin margins plus one bad surprise equals a job you paid to have. Appreciate you asking it honestly; the flippers who ask this in public tend to be the ones who survive the shift.

Jeremy White · Answer

Most of the margin on a Texas flip is set in the buy, so the part worth working on is how early you see a property that is going to need to sell. In Fort Worth we gather Tarrant County tax foreclosure sale filings and residential permit filings from official records, one time, not a subscription, and it covers the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County only. Are you buying in Fort Worth, or another part of Texas?

Texas flippers: where are you finding margin, and what's your 2027 game plan?

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