For many Americans, a home is not just a place to live and raise a family; it can also potentially be a major investment with huge returns. “House flipping” is a practice where some people go into a small—but financially significant—business for themselves, buying homes to sell back, at a profit, to people in the market to buy a home for residential purposes.

But if you’re interested in getting into house flipping yourself, there are a few things you need to consider.

Plan Your Finances

House flipping can be an extremely lucrative business to get into, but, as with any business venture, it is far from easy. One of your are initial considerations is your financial situation. At first glance, buying a home to sell it later may seem “easy” thanks to no-money-down mortgages you may hear about. But acquiring those loans from legitimate lenders is not as easy as they make it out to be. Research your financial options, and don’t assume the risky loan is your best bet.

You Need To Research

A key component of successful home flipping is research. You can’t buy any home that’s available for sale, fix it up, and put it back on the market, expecting a quick profit. It would help if you considered the cost of the home itself versus your investment in renovating it. You also need to factor in the location of the neighborhood and how it relates to the current market. Frequent, successful house flipping only occurs when people target the right areas, with the right market environment.

It’s Not Get Rich Quick

Buying a home and then putting back on the market is far from a quick process. If you’re thinking of house flipping, be prepared for a process that will take, at minimum, months. Finding the right home at the right price in the right location takes time. But even after acquiring the home, you need to spend time improving it before putting it back on the market.

Judge Your Skill

Another critical factor that will determine both your profit and your timeline for sale is your plan for home improvement. If you can do many of the renovations yourself, you take more time, but you save much more money, which turns into profit. If you hire a team to renovate the home, this takes less time, but also dramatically eats into your sales profit.

Just remember that flipping a home can yield profit, but it’s not the type of business that many wealthy individuals choose to get into, due to the time and commitment involved. Be realistic about your finances and time frames, and you can still enjoy the process of house flipping, but don’t treat it like an easy route to riches.

Of course, if you want to improve your home, we can help! Contact the Empire Construction Group, and we can come to your home, listen to your ideas, and formulate a plan of action and budget to make your ideas into a new home experience for you and your family to live in.