Flipping Houses

[meshugener]

@Fan of Dan:
For example?

[cayberry]

Flipping houses used to be a big thing. A strategy involves buying a piece of real estate and then selling it at a reasonable profit. Very much profitable business at less risk. If you have good amount of capital and basic knowledge about the property then it can be good career opportunity for you. Granted, that's when housing as a business was fairly healthy. Now, however, it it's been ill for a while, but more people are flipping properties again. In either case a good bit of care is normally exercised to avoid and or minimize taxes.

[Fan of Dan]

@Fan of Dan:
For example?

Not all short sales have 30 day no flip clauses. You can, with the right banks, obtain a mortgage for the second buyer only and both sales happen at the same time one right after another. The first buyer doesn't pay for the property until the money is wired from the 2nd buyer to the first. You will pay extra taxes and recording fees for dual transactions though.

[Deal Guy]

If you want to buy a house and give a $50,000 down payment for example when the house is not up, and then decide you don't want to buy the house, and find someone else to buy it instead, for that price or for a bit more, how does the process work?

Is it possible to just get back your money from the seller, once he gets the $50,000 deposit from buyer #2, or are you going to have to buy it all the way through and then sell it to #2?

If that's the case, and then you find a different house to buy that you like, are you still considered a "first time" homebuyer?

[Saver2000]

What about option #3 - buyer reimburses you for the downpayment, and completes the sale on his own?

Is there no such thing as that?