While on vacation in Las Vegas, we had lunch with some friends who were also vacationing out there. They both are professionals, but they want to Flip houses for a living. They currently have a condo, a duplex, and have had several others that they have sold. Their plan is to get so they can flip about three properties a year to replace his income. They have come to the realization that inorder to be able to flip the houses on a schedule, one of them needs to not work. Work just has a way of getting in the way of rehabing a house. After all, contractors are not going to work around your schedule. They also mentioned that they think the housing market in Chicago, where they would be flipping, seems to have become a little flat. They are not the only ones who have sensed that the Real Esate bubble has burst. According to Harry S. Dent JR, in his article The housing boom has peaked he states that he believes the flattening has started earlier this year and will continue for several years. Then some time near or after 2010 he predicts that their will be a down turn in the real estate markets.
The flattening of the real estate market can be seen in many other areas. Ben Jones of The Housing Bubble Blog, in his post “The Only Way It Can Go Is Down” states statistics that indicate that the sales of homes in Virgina slid down in September for the 13th straight month.
With this knowledge at hand, I hope my friends along with many others that would try and make a living at flipping houses do so wisely and frugally. As long as they can flip at least 3 houses a year they should remain financially stable for quite a while. When they flip these houses I also hope they manage to invest some of these funds in other markets to act as a cushion just incase the market turns more suddenly than expected.
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