Finding houses to flip..

[Zane Bradshaw]

I'm reading the forums, and most of the examples seem to be in America.. I live in Cape Twon, South Africa, and things are a little different here.. The mortgage bonds are 10.5%. I am struggling with finding any flippable houses in my area. Literally all the houses on the websites are quite pricy, and all look pretty much perfect in the pictures. What can I do to go about finding a house that I can flip?

[Valerie Hiscoe]

There must be some older areas of town. If I were giving advice for here, I'd say look for the one with a Starbucks or equivalent, a health food store and vegetarian restaurant, a boutique selling clothes with weird fashions, and anything artsy.  You'll have to look for the cultural equivalent of that revitalization.  And go to the local building department too and look for new projects, new zoning, and new avenues of transportation. 

Failing that, find a house with an unfinished basement  (for example) and add a suite to it.  Or a small multi-family that's not being looked after because the owner may have gotten too old or too frustrated to deal with it.  Just because stuff isn't for sale yet doesn't mean it isn't for sale.

Happy touring!