Flipping: The Pros and Cons
For many individuals, flipping houses is a serious investment of time and money. The factors why house flipping magnetizes numerous investors is due to the potential for a huge, one-time payoff. Plus, there are some house flippers who have gained huge money.
Yet, that expected payoff includes a significant set of risks, commencing with having your money tied up in a flip for as long as it takes to renovate and sell it. You only generate money after finding, buying, remodeling, and then reselling the property. For many investors, that signifies your income is limited to the number of flips you can do in a year.
Flipping is also commonly volatile, with several probable dangers that can quickly eat into your profits. For instance, there’s no guarantee that the bargain property you procured will appreciate or be worth as much as you assumed once it’s ready to sell. Your income is totally at the mercy of fluctuations in the real estate market. Rising costs of materials, an absence of qualified service providers, or unethical or dishonest contractors, along with some other issues, can also make your renovations pricier, minimizing your potential payoff eventually.
Zillow: A Case Study
For a high-profile example of flipping gone wrong, take the story of Zillow. The corporation agreed to enter into the house flipping game by suggesting to purchase homes for sale and then turning around and selling them at a profit. At least, that was the primary objective. The challenge is that Zillow could not sell most of the purchased properties, leaving them with 7,000+ homes now worth less than what they paid for them. It’s every flippers nightmare – on a massive scale.
Investing in Single-Family Rentals
The ideal approach to minimize risk while growing wealth is to invest in rental real estate. Single-family rental homes have proven time and time again to be one of the greatest ways to real, long-term profitability. There are numerous significant reasons for this.
First, one of the primary benefits of investing in rental homes is the possibility to earn short-term cash flows while growing your property values. As your properties appreciate, the compensation when you sell keeps pace with inflation over the years.
There are very few investments that can claim the same! Rental properties appear to be fairly stable in difficult economic circumstances, letting single-family rental property owners keep a consistent monthly income. Additionally, there are multiple tax benefits to owning rental properties, which can add up to big savings over time.
Perhaps the biggest reason some investors avoid single-family rental homes is because of the management they require. While owning rental homes typically takes less time and effort than flipping houses, rental homes still need active management to stay profitable.
The good news is that, when done properly, you can streamline your investment properties and reduce the amount of time they will require of you. When you employ a quality Polk County property management company, you can take most day-to-day tasks off your calendar, giving you time to focus on growing your investment portfolio.
Communicate with Real Property Management Lakeside to learn more about our full range of high-quality services. You can call the office or contact us online.