I want to flip houses full time when I'm older (I'm a teen now). How should I go about it? Do I need to become an independent real estate agent? Do I need a 4 year college degree or just a few business classes? Thanks.
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When I was selling my home about 3 years back, I had dozens of home flippers make me low ball offers. They certainly didn't look like they had even a high school degree. I imagine all you need is good credit. You'll learn the ropes when you flip your first home. Make sure you get a home inspector to inspect your first home purchase. The title search people and mortgage brokers will do all the work. /
Given the market and future expectations, start with a big bankroll. The days of making large amounts of money from flipping houses is probably past. Predictions are that the market will not recover for about another year and after that, appreciation will subside to about 4 to 5% a year. Unless you can pay cash for the property, it is probable that the costs of buying and selling plus the financing costs will eat up whatever profit you might make. While you do not need a degree or a real estate license to do this, I would suggest some basic investment courses and possibly some decent business management courses (where they teach about ROI, etc.).
Do TONS of research before a deal. You need very very thorough inspections and you want to be familiar with some local contractors and know how much they will charge to fix each thing. It would be very helpful, although not required if you had a real estate license. The real estate commissions will eat up a big chunk of profits if you have to pay realtors every time. If you can process the transactions yourself, you basically earn commission on your own sales. Plus you can probably work as a realtor for other buyer and sellers in addition to doing your own houses that you are trying to flip. My other advice is to become familiar with general construction practices. If you can do some of the work yourself, you save money by not paying contractors to do it. I recommend some business management classes, some real estate classes, and if you can find them, some construction management classes.
