My latest article is now posted on RealtyTimes.com. Here’s a preview:

To Fail at Flipping
By Ralph R. Roberts, CRS, GRI
Co-Author: Flipping Houses For Dummies

How do you earn mega-bucks flipping houses? You line up your financing, plan in advance, build a solid support network, over-estimate costs, under-estimate profits, work hard, and with a little luck and a lot of sticktoitism, you’ll probably earn a good profit. Is is that easy?

Here are ten sure-fire ways to fail at flipping houses:

• Convince yourself that it’s too hard. Flipping houses is difficult, time-consuming, and risky, but it’s not impossible. If you talk yourself out of it before you even try, your flip has already flopped. Pursue your dreams, plan well, stick to it, and you’re very likely to succeed.
• Convince yourself that it’s easy. If you start flipping houses thinking that you just hopped aboard the gravy train, you’re going to be very disappointed. Any venture in which you can potentially earn a high profit requires hard work and sticktoitism and carries some risk.
• Speculate on the housing market. Assuming that housing values are going to rise ten percent annually is likely to lead you into offering too much for a house. Make sure the house you buy today is one that you can sell tomorrow for 20 percent or more than your total investment in the property.
• Get emotional. When you buy a home to live in, it’s okay to get a little emotional and perhaps pay a little more. When investing, deciding which house to purchase and how much to pay is purely a business decision. Make the offer with your head, not your heart.

To read the rest of this article, please visit RealtyTimes.com.