Finance Guide Center

Real Estate?

Bare with me, I'm a newbie at Real Estate stuff, so I'm sort of stupid when it comes to the topic! But I am in love with shows on HGTV and anything related to makeover houses. I recently came across "Flip This House" on A&E. Can you have a career doing something else, and then buying and selling houses as a hobby? I've heard of Real Estate licenses but don't know exactly what they are for. Is it really as easy as it looks? And is there a lot of competition? Can anybody get me the scoop on this? Because I'd love to give this a shot in a few years!

Public Comments

1. Unless you have lots of money and it will not hurt you too sit for a long time, stay out of FLIPPING>. right now there are a lot of professionals involved in it..
2. There are different kinds of flipping. From your question it sounds like you want to "rehab" as a hobby. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't know what you are doing. There are too many ways you can go wrong and lose your assets if you don't have the knowledge to buy at the right price, know the cost of repairs, how long it will take to sell, the holding costs if it doesn't sell. I would recommend you find an experienced rehabber and offer to apprentice with him/her. You may work for free for a while, but you don't risk anything while you learn the ropes. Also, depending on the extent of the rehab, you may have to be available at least part of each day to get the job done in a timely manner. Even if you hire contractors to do most of the work, you have to check up on them to make sure they are doing the job. Another low risk way of getting into the business would be to start out wholesaling. Get a list of rehabbers and make offers contingent on approval of your partner. Ask the rehabbers if they are interested and if nobody is, then you know it isn't a good deal. If a rehabber is interested, take him to inspect the house. If he will offer more than you did, you can do an assignment of contract and let him take over the deal for an assignment fee. Otherwise, cancel the offer on the grounds that your partner didn't approve the deal. You will learn the market, rehab costs, etc. by doing this and it doesn't take alot of time so you can do it without quitting your job. You don't need a real estate license for any of this. The TV shows make it look easy because that is good entertainment. You wouldn't sit and watch a show that dragged on for months with all kinds of delays. They are in the business of making TV shows, not in the business of making money from real estate.