How Much Money Do You Need to Flip Houses? - Question on Quora.com

Buying real estate is expensive. According to Zillow, the median house price is $231,000, and real estate is obviously much more expensive in urban markets on the East & West Coasts. When you account for other costly expenses as buying costs, holding costs & repair costs you could easily need over $300,000 in capital to rehab a property.

So how do you start flipping houses if you don't have any money?

The short answer is you use OPM (Other People's Money).

If you don't have the money to buy a flip property by yourself, you will need to use OPM to help you buy the property & pay for the project expenses. You can use other people's money by utilizing lenders, business partners, friends or family that have the money to fund your rehab projects.

Even if you are utilizing OPM's money, a lender will generally require some sort of down payment (generally 20 to 30% of the loan value). On a $300,000 purchase, the down payment could be close to $60,000 to $90,000.

So in order to flip houses with absolutely no money, you will have to utilize creative financing strategies and utilize multiple funding sources to get 100% financing for your projects.

For example, you could use a Hard Money Lender for the purchase price, and utilize your business partners funds for the repair costs & on-going holding costs.

Partner with Someone

Another option to consider If you don't have cash or don't want to take on debt is to partner with another local investor, friend or family member that can provide the funds to fund the deals.

Work as a Protege or Employee for a Local House Flippper

If you don't have any rich friends or uncles to partner with you could also as a protege for a local house flipper that could mentor you and help you get your feet wet flipping houses. Go to local investor Real Estate Association Meetings or Meetups and network with other house flippers and investors in your area. Ask them if they need any help and offer your assistance as a 'non-paid' intern.

Wholesaling

If you don't have any money to get into rehabbing, you may also want to consider a strategy called wholesaling which requires little money upfront. In wholesaling, you are getting a property under contract at a discount, and then re-assigning the contract to another buyer for a small premium.

With wholesaling, you re-assign the contract before your take possession so you never need the funds to purchase or rehab the property. You will only need a $500 to $1,000 Earnest Money Deposit and potentially a few thousand dollars for Transactional Funding.

Here’s an article on Loans and Funding Options for Flipping Houses