This article is sponsored by New Mexico House Buyers, who are currently expanding their home buying efforts in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
You don’t have to live in Silicon Valley and have an eye for technology to call yourself an entrepreneur. The one thing that distinguishes entrepreneurs is their ability to think forward, and if you are interested in starting your own business, you should consider becoming a house flipper. Although television shows have only recently popularised them, they have been around for a long time, and it’s a career that’s worth considering if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and an eye for real estate.
Essentially, a house flipper is someone who buys property at affordable prices, fixes them up and then sells them for profit. Like all business ventures, you need to be careful as drowning in debt is currently a reality for many people who made hasty decisions and bad deals in the past.
But, with a solid plan in place, being a house flipper can be a highly profitable career. So make sure that you calculate the risks and have alternative strategies before you start your own business.
1. Map out a strategy
The first step to any successful business venture is to create a well thought out strategy. To do that you need to have specific goals in mind. To set up your goals do a little market research and see how real estate prices perform. This will allow you to build a realistic budget which is perhaps the most important aspect of any successful business.
But, creating a budget is not the only thing you need to do before setting up shop. You also need to figure out what your next steps should be and how to ensure that you will eventually make profit.
The next step to becoming a successful house flipper therefore is to find property to buy at an affordable price. This might not be as hard as you expect it to be as lots of people who are in the ‘I want to sell my house’ mindset rarely understand that in order to make real profit they also need to spend a little to spruce up their home. The key is to find a house that has potential and character and that’s in a great location. Ensure that the property doesn’t need too much work as you might end up losing money if renovations are too expensive.
After purchasing, your next step should be to flip the house. To do that you will need a team of skilled individuals. Keep in mind that hiring a team of people you trust is always advisable as it will help your business be more consistent and this will ensure quality.
The final step is to sell. Selling your house fast won’t be hard if you’ve put detail into it so make sure that your team has done their best work before are ready to sell.
It’s important to make the most of your entrepreneurial skills at all stages of flipping a house as this will allow you to make profit more easily. Find alternatives to traditional methods of fixing up a house and don’t be afraid to be creative.
2. Be creative
As a house flipper, you should establish a brand. This brand should be about creating something different to everything else out there. Most real estate agents, for example, focus on a house’s location and proximity to amenities like good schools, but that doesn’t mean that this is where your focus should be.
In fact, you are advised to go for something different. Keep in mind that when you are starting out people will be sceptical about your lack of experience, so establishing a brand that’s all about creativeness will help you overcome this obstacle.
You can look for creative ideas across the web if you are not very experienced in these things; Pinterest is usually a great place for this kind of business as it offers unique designs and original ideas which you can incorporate into the house you are flipping. You can also use it to promote your business so don’t be afraid to make the most of this social media platform.
The key is to be authentic and this means that you need to provide solutions that are tailored to every house you are flipping. So, if for example, you are dealing with property that’s too small then you might want to make it more functional by maximising its storage space. Another idea is to beautify a house by focusing on its garden. Little things like adding a fountain or landscaping it to create a sense of an idyllic garden will go a long way in making it more sellable.
Of course, being creative does not mean that you should ruin your budget. Adding expensive things to the house can increase costs while not necessarily making the house more sellable.
3. Hire a great team
Being unskilled is a recipe for disaster as flipping a house requires specialised knowledge. However, this does not mean that you are doomed to fail if you are not knowledgeable in this field. You can always hire someone with the knowledge, all you need to do is be open-minded enough to understand what you can’t do.
Hiring an experienced handyman will go a long way to ensuring that the result is of top quality so make sure that you include labour costs in your budget. To have the best results you are going to need to pay a bit more, but if this is going to help you to make more profit, then it is worth it.
Apart from skills and vision, it’s also important to look for people who can embrace your vision. So, if you are going for a completely innovative approach don’t expect that traditionalists will be able to meet you halfway. Ensure that your team shares your vision from the get-go and this will make your team more efficient.
4. Sell fast
The key to being a successful house flipper is ensuring that you can sell the house as soon as possible. Many people who have tried their hand at this business fail to understand that selling might take as long as flipping the house or even longer and thus ended up stranded without any money to start a new project and without being able to retain their team.
If you’ve done a great job, you will minimise the time required for selling the house, but a lot of other factors come into play (like the economy) as well. So, depending on yourself to find the right buyer might not be your best bet.
One solution is to sell the house to New Mexico House Buyers. This company specialises in helping people sell their homes fast, and as such it will allow you to get cash to start your new project sooner rather than later.
The company also buys houses that haven’t been repaired, but with the flipping, you are guaranteed to get top dollar. New Mexico House Buyers have been in business for over twelve years, and they purchase as many as 150 properties every year, which demonstrates just how experienced they are.
Apart from paying straight away, they’ll also take care of the transactions which can help minimise your legal fees and allow you to move on to a bigger project faster.
This is a career path you should consider if you have a restless mind and a knack for making broken things looking beautiful!
Do you have any other tips for people interested in entering the house flipping business? Let us know in the comments section below...
New Mexico House Buyers is the largest home buying company in New Mexico. Through experience they help home sellers avoid realtor fees and many of the transaction costs.