Anyone Can Flip a House After Hearing This

**Dave Meyer** (0:00)
It's my first time flipping a house, and I cannot wait to see that sweet profit when it's all done. But until the sale actually closes, I am a little bit nervous. But fortunately, I have one of the best house flippers around to hold my hand through the entire process. And today, we're going to share everything that anyone thinking about their first house flip needs to know. Well, of course, talk about how to find the right deals and maximize your profit. But we'll also talk about how to spot big risks and potential mistakes before you make them. All that and more so you can flip with confidence. Stick around.
Hey, everyone, I'm Dave Meyer. I'm a housing market analyst and the head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets. I've been buying rental properties for more than 15 years, but I have never actually flipped a house until now.
I am diving into a whole new realm of investing, and it's one that comes with big profits, but also big risks. So today on the show, I have my on the market co-host, James Dainard with me. James is one of the most experienced flippers out there. He has flipped more than 4,000 homes in his investing career, and he literally wrote the book on it, The House Flipping Framework. So James, you're ready to help me out?

**James Dainard** (1:18)
I always get so excited when people take their step into flipping houses.

**Dave Meyer** (1:23)
You have finally converted me to the dark side. After knowing you for like three or four years, I finally agreed to flip a house.

**James Dainard** (1:30)
Yeah, it starts with one and then all of a sudden...

**Dave Meyer** (1:33)
You already tried to get me to do two.

**James Dainard** (1:35)
Yeah. The first one is free, Dave, and then you're going to be hooked on this.

**Dave Meyer** (1:39)
Well, we'll see. If it turns out well, I could see how it will be addicting. But because I'm still starting my first flip, I'm more nervous than excited right now.

**James Dainard** (1:48)
Well, you should be nervous. I mean, flipping is a great tool in real estate, but it's also very, very risky. It's probably one of the most riskiest asset classes you can buy in real estate. So I mean, I guess the real question is, Dave, I know you like hedging against the wrist, so why do you want to flip house?

**Dave Meyer** (2:01)
There's a couple of reasons I want to do it. The first is I want to get better at managing construction. I'm interested in flipping houses, and if this first one goes well, I might do it more and more. But I've also been doing BERS and I've been renovating rental properties for 15 years now.
And I admit, I don't think I'm the best at managing construction projects. So that's my number one objective, is to really learn how to work best with contractors, to do things efficiently, price efficiently and to maximize my ROI. So that's the number one thing. The second thing is, as you know, I moved to Washington and it is super hard to buy cash flowing, profitable rental properties, but I want to invest in my own backyard. And at least right now, it seems like flipping is the best way to invest in the Seattle area.

**James Dainard** (2:49)
It is, especially in those expensive markets because properties are expensive, they're in high demand and if anybody can buy them, the price is not that good.
What I always say is flipping gives you the best foundation for being a real estate investor across all asset classes. I mean, you see how we cash flow in Seattle. Like when we're buying a rental property, it's not turned key. But that's how we create, the math will work when you can buy so deep and that's what flipping is so important about. You can create your own returns by controlling your cost. And so it's not just about making money, it's about making you a Swiss Army knife investor for all different types of asset classes.

**Dave Meyer** (3:27)
That's exactly why I want to do this. Maybe you'll wear me down and I will become an addicted flipper like you are. But my objective at this point is to hopefully just build big chunks of equity that I can maybe put into other flips, but mostly used to go out and buy more rental properties, do more burs, that kind of thing. I am also lucky though, because you have agreed to help me find my first deal as a flipper. So maybe tell us a little bit about if someone's out there like me looking for their first flip deal, and they want to do it in a responsible, risk-adjusted way, what do you look for in that first deal?