Best Properties To Flip In 2026

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. Today we're talking about the best properties to flip in 2026. I'm one of your hosts. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm the new guy.

Joe Homs. The Experience Guy. It's 2026. Oh my gosh. So remind me.

Yep.

Is it like Christmas around the corner?

That's what— yeah, Christmas is coming up.

Wow.

So start buying your presents now. It's already summer. So yeah.

2026.

Just live in a time warp.

Wow.

It's weird. Pretty weird. So yeah. Um, a lot of complainers about last year's market flipping. So we're going to talk about the best ones to flip in 2026. The people I've been talking to have been way more optimistic about this year.

I would hope so, because it wasn't a great year last year, you know, especially towards the end of the year. There was a lot of cancellations. I had one property in escrow 3 times before we ended up closing it. And I don't see any difference. This year? Maybe you do.

It seems like, I mean, the properties that we have under contract are moving a little bit more smoothly.

Yeah.

I had the same thing. I had like, you know, just buyers all gung-ho and then all of a sudden they're like, oh, never mind.

Yeah.

But I don't know. So I, I don't even—

I mean, I was, I was getting offers, you know, you counter back. Minor things, right? And then they disappear. Yeah, they'd ghost you. It's like, really? Yeah, like, why'd you bother sending an offer?

And yeah, why are you— yeah, exactly. But I don't know, I don't know. I mean, with the market, a lot of it is people's perception, right?

It's okay. So what are we talking about? What's improving?

So, well, let's go over, you know, You know, a little bit of last year and we can actually see based on the data that flipping ROI drops below 25% for the first time since 2008. Scary.

I think a lot of that has to do with inventory as well.

Yeah.

There wasn't a lot. There wasn't a lot. You know, everybody's fighting for, you know, the same piece of meat on the bone. And yeah, um, you know, if you don't get it, uh, you, you know, you lower your expectation, then obviously you lower your profit. And I think that's part of what's happening.

It's gotta be. And then, um, it says like, as the nation experienced recent high home prices, a return on investment from flipping continued to, you know, decline. So we had the major shoot up. And then you're buying, you're overpaying, and so you're getting a lot of thinner margins. Um, so that's just kind of interesting.

So you think that's going to turn around this year?

Uh, that's what people say.

Well, I want to hear what you have to say.

I'm a data-driven— no, I'm just kidding. I'm not data-driven. I'm completely based on my feelings, and every year I think it's going to be the best year ever. So I'm not—

Because you're an optimist.

Exactly. So it's kind of annoying For me, but just more people have been not down in the dumps. But this one, there was an interesting graph here. Wait, let me go up to it. I think it was this one. House flips as a percentage of all sales. And this is year by year. So 2016, and then you see right here, now everybody's flipping in 2021, 2022.

Yeah. Right after COVID.

Yeah.

After COVID. Yeah.

That's what When I got into real estate.

Yeah.

And then it, you know, takes a dip obviously as it gets harder and harder.

But it just goes to 2024. It doesn't go more than that.

I, I don't— wait, no, I don't think so.

Yeah, that's it.

Um, but I mean, you know, you started way back when.

Yeah.

How many people were flipping? Probably not that many.

No.

So how cool was that?

Cool.

A lot more deals to be had.

Yeah. And, and that's the thing, you know, it's like you're competing against other people and the only way to The best way to find the best, the cheapest, the most costly acquired properties is to lower your expectations on profit. Right?

That seems fair.

So like if I'm making, you know, 30% on a deal.

Yeah.

I'm happy with making 25 now.

Right.

Which is what the statistics are showing.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

I mean, if you're doing this for a living, then, you know, you have to adjust with the times.

Yeah. That's it.

Yeah.

And so that's what we're talking about. The best properties to flip in 2026.

So, okay.

to talk about you will win even in a weird market. And we're going to talk about what most investors are still buying wrong and what's quietly working right now. So, uh, we, you know, we talked about just in general the inventory problem. Uh, people were crying about interest rates.

Mm-hmm.

Um, that's supposedly going to change this year a little bit more.

I hope so.

We got the announcement of the new guy. Yeah, everyone's all gung-ho about that, but you never know till they get in there.

True.

So true. Um, and so, I mean, are you seeing as far as actual flips, you know, maybe at the height of, you know, everyone's flipping, you could just do like a lipstick and buyers, because buyers were in a frenzy, you could get away with that.

Yes.

Now I think they're expecting more. They want everything done.

Oh yes.

And even if you do it top to bottom, yes, you get a request for repairs.

Yeah.

To fix stuff you didn't even think you were gonna fix in the first place.

Yeah. So absolutely. Yeah.

The lipstick flip, is that, is that dead this year or is that—

Oh yeah, it's been dead for a while. I would say definitely, uh, this generation now that's, you know, buying houses You know, they're the spoiled generation, I call them, because we spoiled them.

Yeah.

The baby boomers, me, spoiled them. And they want everything. They want it brand new, fixed up, painted, new flooring. They don't like carpeting, by the way. New flooring, luxury vinyl, all that stuff. They want everything. And if not, then they're going to tell you about it.

Yeah.

And they're going to want you to change it.

Right. Yeah, that was like, uh, the last one that we did up in Lakewood. A lot of complaints about the layout, and I'm like, hey, blame the 1950s because that's where they put the bathroom. I don't know what to tell you.

Yeah, did you have 2 bathrooms in there?

Yeah, no, there was 2 actually. Okay, but one of them you had to go through the kitchen to use the bathroom, so we closed it off and then made it kind of like you went in the normal living area, but it wasn't where the other bedrooms were, so it was a little weird.

Yeah.

But it's every house up there is like that. Yeah. But if it even has a second bathroom.

That was probably a great idea. You don't want to go through the kitchen to go to the bathroom.

No, no, no.

You know? Yeah. That's a good, good decision.

Yeah. We did it the best we could, but that was the biggest like feedback. And I'm like, hey, we didn't build it from the ground up. So yeah, layout problems aren't mine.

Yeah. And you're lucky you didn't have one bathroom. Yeah. Because that was normal back then.

Yeah.

In the '50s and '60s.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So now we need to have 2 was nice.

Yeah. Now we need like an en suite on every room, I guess. Spoiled. People are spoiled.

Oh yeah, they're definitely spoiled.

So I think 2026 is still, you know, you got to be cautious. It's about risk control, not gambling on appreciation. So if you didn't get— if you didn't feel that this last year, just take my word for it.

Yeah, and definitely, um, keep an eye on your margins. I mean, we used to buy stuff You know, up to 80 cents on the dollar, then no more. We're down to, you know, 60 cents on the dollar, because if not, you're not going to make any money at the end of the day. And yeah, if you can't find properties at that level, then, you know, probably best just to move on.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and, and, you know, I always try to— I don't even do it anymore, but before I'd be like, oh, maybe we could save a little bit on the rehab. It's just, it's— there's no way to do it.

I can't.

I can't squeeze off anything.

No.

Even if I source my own materials, it still just adds up. It's expensive all around.

Yeah.

So I think highest opportunity, best overall properties are probably entry-level single-family homes. I mean, that's just a great demographic. 3/2, 4/2 layouts, at least 2 bathrooms. The ones are going to be hard to sell.

Oh yeah.

Stay away from that. Although you could add another bathroom, but that's going to be expensive.

Yeah. So, and then this year I would say kind of like last year, stay away from condos. Condos have out here in California, they have the balcony inspection law and the association needs to take care of that. And I'm going to tell you like 95% of them haven't done anything whatsoever. So you're going to have issues with that. You don't want to buy into an association where they haven't done the inspection, haven't determined how much it's going to cost to fix whatever needs to be fixed, and has obviously not fixed it. So I'd shy away from condos.

Okay.

Yeah.

How do you find that out? I mean, do you have to— can you call the association if you're looking at a condo? Can you call the association and ask them if they—

The owner is the only one that can talk to the association. So you're going to have to get the information from them. And he's gonna— he or she is gonna have to call the association and find out if they've done the balcony inspections. Do they have a report? Do they have a dollar amount? Have they started work?

Right.

Yeah. Okay. You can get the information. It's just, you have to go through the current owner to do it.

Right.

The HOAs are not going to release that to anybody.

This is just extra due diligence.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Definitely.

Um, and then of course, you know, avoid over-improving. I mean, that's one— that's a fundamental, I guess.

Yeah, number one mistake of a brand new flipper is over-improving.

Yeah, that's just gonna eat up your budget.

Yeah, you're not, you're not flipping it to live there, okay? You're flipping it for the masses. And, you know, just remember that, you know, you're not going to live there, so don't put in that, uh, You know, $500 kitchen faucet that you fell in love with at, you know, Home Depot or wherever, uh, because it was made out of gold or something, right? Because you're gonna lose a lot of money.

I know they got some cool gadgets now. You can get, um, some at Costco. Have you seen those?

Costco's always had them. We were buying stuff at Costco for a while.

I think it's— there's some good prices.

Yeah.

It's decent.

Yeah.

Like for a nice one.

Yeah.

There's that place, um, the Habitat for Humanity.

Mm-hmm.

The surplus store. Mm-hmm.

Do you find stuff there?

We did in the last mobile home flip. It was— oh, okay.

Yeah.

Lauren got a sink for like $30.

Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was gonna say maybe towards the lower end of a flip, you'd find something there. But we used to go there and, you know, there's not much there that it's kind of like, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, they had cabinets and all that stuff, but it's like, is it the right Layout, the right sizes and all that. And it's like, nah, yeah, we're moving on.

Yeah, it's hard to— it's kind of hard to beat Home Depot at this point. Just get everything there. Well, and what's a great thing is you can return the material at Home Depot. So that's a plus. Um, so this year we are, um, let me see here. Okay, yeah. So cosmetic flippers or sorry cosmetic flips staying away from full gut jobs. No, no, you'll do that?

Yeah. Okay. Not cosmetic.

Cosmetic fixer.

Yeah, no.

Yeah.

Stay away from that. Right. But full gut jobs, yes.

Okay. Yeah, there you go.

Still, still, still, yeah, kind of our bread and butter.

Well, yeah, I guess most entry-level people are going to want to do the cosmetic stuff only, then that's what gets bid up.

Yes.

You kind of want to go where people are going to stay away from.

Correct.

So, correct, if there's a little bit— if something looks harder than it actually is, which is a lot of things, Then you— if you have the knowledge to do that, then, you know, go for it.

Yeah.

Uh, one of them being, you know, weird layout problems, not necessarily structural, but if you can get rid of a non-load-bearing wall.

Yeah, which is kind of what you were— we were talking about earlier with your current flip, that, you know, you sealed off a wall in a bathroom and added another door. Yeah. And the other side, that's perfect. That's fine.

Yeah, it was pretty easy. Yeah, actually. Um, yeah, any Closed-off kitchens. You can kind of make them more of a modern layout, I'd say.

Correct. Yeah.

So that could be good. And it's not that expensive to do that.

No, no, not at all.

So definitely look for those. Um, one thing that keeps popping up— properties with ADU potential.

You know how I feel about ADUs. ADUs to me are like, pass, move on. It is literally a 9-month to 1-year project. You know, if I'm buying something at 50 cents on the dollar, I'll consider an ADU, but—

Oh, okay.

If not, yeah, I'm— that's not something I'm, I'm willing to look at or even flip, you know. Just, it's just, it burns up cash. It's what it does.

Oh yeah. Oh, you know, cash and, and time.

Cash and time. Yes. Those are the 2 enemies of flipping. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

I think a good thing you could, you could use, Because so many people are looking for it, you could find properties that are good to have, you know, a bigger backyard, alley access, corner lots, maybe it has, you know, R-2 zoning, and then you could do the flip and then sell that on the back end to somebody else.

No, I'm, I'm moving on. You know what I mean? No.

You could say, oh no, but you could, you could build an ADU here. Put that in the description.

Oh, see, then that's— yeah, you're being a salesperson there.

Exactly, that's what I'm saying.

It's like, look, this has a pool-sized backyard. Okay, where's the pool?

You gotta put it in.

Yeah, you have to put it in. It's like, oh great, this has got such a large backyard, you could put 2 ADUs back there. Really? Am I going to pay you up front for those ADUs that are not built yet? Is that what you're asking?

Yeah.

Yeah, no.

You gotta pay for future potential.

No, moving on.

Okay.

Yeah, no, sorry. I'm still not convinced that putting an ADU on a property that you're not gonna own, you're gonna flip, is a terrible idea.

I think that's what it is, yeah. Or if you do the SB 9 lot split. But what I found out about that is you have to own the property for 3 years before you—

3? I thought it was a year or you had to live there for a year or something like that.

It's 3 years.

Oh my God. Yeah.

Yeah, it's like, forget it. I mean, it makes sense. We'd be splitting up every lot and all developers and investors would come in and just—

Well, that's the problem. If it makes sense, yeah, they're not gonna let you do it.

Right. They just want Johnny Joe Schmo, just one-offs. That's kind of what they want. But yeah, we'll make it work. Um, okay, so niche flips that are going to pay this year, and everyone knows what I'm gonna say. Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, the mobile home. I'm still trying to tell people about this on owned land.

On owned land.

Mobile homes on owned land.

Yes.

Because there's still a stigma around it that it's for a certain demographic and that they don't hold value. But if you go in there and you look at your comps, there's some, especially on Quarter acre, half acre, maybe an acre that are going for like $700 grand mobile home. So, you know.

I mean, that's just honestly, it's a good way to get the price down.

Right.

These structures almost look like a regular stick-built house. You know, it's just literally less time. We're in the process of finishing up one. We're in escrow with it. We removed a single-wide and we put a double-wide in there.

Yep.

Did you ever post those videos of the installation of the double-wide?

I did somewhere, yeah.

Okay, because that was awesome. Yeah, you know, just, just to see how they did it and stuff. Yep. Um, I mean, if you're gonna flip, that's an easy way to do it because it literally comes all done for you. I know, everything's including appliances. All you do is hook up the utilities And, uh, head down the road and you're, and you're actually selling a new house.

Yeah.

You know, with a, with a 1-year guarantee on everything.

So yeah, it's crazy.

Um, if the numbers work out, it's, it's definitely, uh, to me, a lot better than just buying a regular mobile home and going inside and doing a normal type flip.

Yes, because you start opening up some of those walls and It gets scary in there. It gets scary underneath. You don't know what's going on with the plumbing. You're probably gonna have to repipe. You're probably gonna have to put a new roof on.

Yeah.

And by then you're basically just building a new mobile home.

Yeah.

Rather than, you know, having it come straight from the factory, have the installers put it in. I think the key is to look for that single-wide, that one that's hard to sell, but it's on owned land and it has all the utilities already. That's like the prime nugget that, that we're looking for, because then you just rip that one off, put a new one on there, and there you go. Yeah, like you said. Yeah, and then people like that, that warranty. Yeah, brand new car smell.

I think— aren't you looking at another project like that, or were you going to rehab the one that was—

I was going to rehab that one. Oh yeah, it wasn't cheap enough. I think we needed to get like $100 grand lower, but Yeah.

Yeah.

I was looking at another one.

Okay.

So yeah. And then you got the faster turnaround times. And then the second one, I don't know how you feel about this, small multifamily flips, duplexes, triplexes.

I've never flipped a multifamily because I can't find any that are at a good price.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, I'd be happy to flip a multifamily.

Okay.

I just have never found one. At all. I've never, never, never done one, and you know how long I've been around, right?

Yeah, yeah, it's hard. I mean, yeah, we're not really targeting— yeah, like the duplex owner or— yeah, but it seems like it could be good, uh, because it still qualifies for FHA, and then people that want to house hack or whatever can— yes, can be your buyer. So, um, let's talk about what not to flip in 2026. Um, rural properties, right?

Define how rural.

Well, Barstow.

Yeah, Barstow, in the middle of the desert.

I would say if it's not hooked up on city sewer and it's, um, you know what one that people send me all the time? Anza.

Anza?

Yeah. Oh yeah, that's out there.

That's way out there.

It's just dirt.

Yeah.

People are living on a couple acres on a mobile home, but I just, it's hard to make it work because there's not really any good comps.

Right.

I think that's the biggest issue.

Yeah.

And so how long is it gonna sit there?

I mean, the, the only time, and it was a bad time, was after COVID and everybody was buying everything. So, uh, yeah, you know, we, we went into that venture.

Oh.

You and me.

Right.

You don't know.

Oh.

You and me. Where was it that we—

Oh yeah.

Where was it that we bought—

I blocked that out of my memory. I'm just kidding. Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree. Yeah, Joshua Tree. And it's like, yeah, we didn't make any money on that one, did we?

And that— yeah, that one's like— I mean, we were still in the city, but it's Joshua Tree itself is out there.

Yeah.

So you couldn't get anybody to do anything.

It was way out there.

But some people are making money out there. I don't know.

More power to them. Yeah, not me.

Right.

Not something I would recommend.

Do not recommend that.

Keep it local. Try to make it as easy as possible.

Go where the buyers are.

You know, keep an eye on your contractors. Mm.

That's a big one.

Yes.

That's a big one.

You learned that lesson, didn't you?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yep. I've had to relearn it before too. Heavy foundation work, hillside or septic nightmares. What not to flip?

All the above.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I noticed that on any hillside property, it pretty much has heavy foundation issues.

Yeah.

And I don't even know what you got to get. You got to re-engineer the whole house.

Yeah.

At that point.

I mean, we're talking $75,000 to $100,000 to fix things like that. They're expensive. And at the end of the day, you have to disclose that. And the buyer comes in and says, oh, I see you re-engineered this. And Oh, look, it's got an engineer report and they guaranteed it for life, which they don't. So you have to ask, okay, well, whose life are they talking about? The person that did it or the company? Well, if the person that did it dies tomorrow, then there goes the guarantee. If the company that did it dies tomorrow, there goes the guarantee. So—

Yeah.

It's like, I don't know that I would ever recommend somebody to buy a house that had previous foundation issues. That's just something that I, I would never recommend for anybody to do.

Yeah, and I just looked at so many in Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente. San Clemente, in really nice neighborhoods, but then the second you walk in them, you can kind of feel that they're like walking downhill. Yeah, walking downhill. So I don't know what you would do with that.

Were you with me at the The one we went to look at in Laguna Beach that one time?

No, I couldn't make it.

No.

It was you and Stephanie.

Yeah, it was Stephanie and I. And I could feel it that, you know, we were walking and there was carpeting and you could feel that there was a crack underneath the carpet and we had 2 different levels going. And I had her follow up with the agent. The agent says, I don't know anything about foundation issues. I go, how can you not know? Did you see the cracks going up the wall?

Right.

Okay, you didn't walk? Uh, on the living room floor and see that there was 2 different, uh, grades to the floor. You'd actually like almost trip over yourself, you know.

There's no report. It didn't happen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's—

I mean, I talked to a foundation guy before. He says it's not that big of a deal.

Okay. Okay.

It's like, yeah, all you gotta do is dig a trench around it.

If you're a foundation guy and you're listening to this video, would you please come and sit down with us for an hour and talk to us about this. Please come and change my mind.

Oh, okay, that's good.

If you don't, you know, that's fine. We'll have a nice conversation. We're not going to beat you up too bad, right? But, uh, yeah, if you're a Foundation guy and you, you know, you want to, uh, come and sit down with us for an hour, we'll even do it over, uh, video. Yeah, you don't have to come in. No, you would do it over video, whichever.

They're like, I will. And I think that's, uh, to get you in to get their foot in the door. They're like, no, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, no, I could do it real quick, maybe like $6,000. And then once they get in there, like, oh, it's— oh, it's a lot worse than I thought. Um, yeah, it's gonna be, you know, like at least $90,000. And so at that point, your house is like in disarray. So yeah, maybe just stay away from that. Uh, septic nightmares. I did one of those last year, so 2 houses right next door to each other. One of them's on city sewer. The other one was flowing its not-used septic system, which had been defunct for a few years. It was attached, daisy-chained to the house that was on city sewer. And so I didn't know what to do, so I sold it at a discount. Still made money.

Mm-hmm.

But the, the other guy that bought it from me actually did something really smart. He's like, hey, did you look at the septic? It's actually not that bad.

So he reconnected the sewer?

He reconnected it to septic.

Got it.

Fixed it, put it back in there. Yeah.

See, he knew something you didn't.

I know.

You know, and he wanted to take a chance on that. And I remember you telling me that the person you bought it from actually owned both lots.

Yeah.

So it was okay to do what he did with the sewer. Not that the city approved, but he owned both lots.

And apparently—

I understand, you know, what happened there, but that was a good resolution.

Yeah. No, I mean, I was just going off of the buyer that we had. Of course, they were like, oh my God, this is— we've never seen anything like this. This is unbelievable. You're gonna need a whole new septic system. City wouldn't approve a new septic system because they want you to connect to—

To the sewer.

To the sewer.

Yeah.

And it's gonna be like 50 grand to put in a lateral line, which they didn't have on this particular one. But I was talking to the neighbor. Apparently, a family actually owned the 3 lots. 2, they were all daisy-chained to the one at one point, and then they hooked up. And, and so, but yeah, this guy, you know, he took a chance and he knew what he was doing, and he actually made— he made pretty good money on these 2, actually.

That's good.

So yeah, that's good. It's good to him. Good for him. Um, and so yeah, septic nightmares, unless you know what you're doing, I would just stay away from that. Homes with unpermitted additions you can't cure.

Stay away. That's a tough one.

Yeah, stay away from those.

Stay away.

And there's a lot.

Oh, there's, there's a lot. There always has been, and I'm sure there always will be a lot of these type of homes. What about— especially in older areas.

Right. I was gonna say, I saw one, you know, there are these wholesalers send them, they're like, it walks as a 4/2, But on the tax records, it's a 2/2. So, and so all their comps are the 4/2.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It sounds like a pad split to me. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

And I saw the pictures. You can kind of tell it was just Mickey Mouse walls.

Yeah. So, I mean, honestly, that's what you have to be careful of when you're dealing with wholesalers. They're unlicensed people and they're gonna just tell you everything that's, you know, nice and You know, rosy and all that sort of stuff.

Walks as a 4/2.

Yeah. And you're going to get very little, if any, disclosures. Walks like a 4/2.

Yeah.

I mean, I've— we've bought properties that are different. We've walked them as a 3/2, and it turns out on tax records they're a 4/2.

Oh, right.

And so they took one bedroom and pushed it into the other bedroom to make it larger.

That's right.

You know, the primary bedroom. But then you convert it back because you're going to get more money for a 4-bedroom than a 3-bedroom. So, uh, 4 walks is a 4.

And it's normally a 2x2. Can you cure that though? I mean, I guess, what did they do? They had to— what do you— what would you do? You have to open up all the walls. So the— you have to come up with plans that get approved.

Yeah, I mean, you have— there's a lot of things that you have to do. The room size has to be no less than 10 by 10. You have to have window, you have to have a closet, you have to have a door going in there. Um, you know, is all that configured correctly?

Right.

Um, and then obviously you have to get a permit for all this, and, you know, the city may laugh at you or something. You know, it's like, I don't know that I'd take that risk.

Right. Yeah, no, exactly. So why, why bother? Um, yeah, so stay away from those. And then let's talk about underwriting flips for 2026. What do you— what do you— are you doing anything differently?

Yeah, like I said earlier, you know, we're, we're We're down to 60 and 70 cents on the dollar, you know? And if we're not gonna get it at that price, we're moving on.

Yeah. And the reason is because, you know, the hold time is just, it's longer. Or, and if you didn't plan for that, you are SOL. I was talking to a private lender buddy of mine and he was saying he has like 3 borrowers that are defaulted right now because they didn't account for the longer hold time.

You know, and, you know, I've talked to lenders in those situations, usually hard money lenders, and I've always told them, like, you know, if you're having problems with somebody, you know, please have them reach out to me and maybe I can help them out, you know, somehow.

Yeah.

I mean, especially if you're going to foreclose, you know, let me know. Maybe I'll buy it for, you know, what's owed.

Yeah.

At the time.

Yeah.

You know how many calls I've received?

Zero.

Zero. Yeah, zero.

They're like, unless you want to get up on— you want to get on our leads list, and what you can pay us, $29.99 a month, and I'll give you my—

yeah.

So yeah, longer hold times, bake those in. Um, your financing costs, I think a lot of people misjudge this. Those, those interest-only payments, that's just you throwing money into the garbage. You know, it's hard So make sure you have that over there. And then, yeah, like you mentioned margins, just make sure your margins are there, pad them. And what, what that is going to equal is you skipping over a lot of deals. It's just, it is what it is.

Yeah.

You're going to say no to a lot of them.

You know, if you're a risk taker, I would say this is a great time to buy something right now. Now the risk is that the new guy that comes into the Fed is going to start lowering interest rates. And so by the time you finish your rehab, yeah, the prices are going to start shooting up because that's what's going to happen if they lower the interest rates. The prices are going to start shooting up. So if you're a risk taker and you think that's good, what's going to happen, then you should be out there buying.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that's good. But also, if you're underwriting, just have a conservative ARV.

Don't—

I don't know, don't count on that.

But— Well, that's what I'm saying. You're a risk taker.

You're a risk—

if you're a risk taker, you know.

Yeah, which I kind of am, but I'm not anymore. So that's good.

Yeah.

So that's good.

Things have changed.

Things have changed.

Yeah, things have changed.

I am a father now.

Yeah.

So I don't have just myself.

Soon to be.

Soon to be. Yes, a couple months. But, uh, yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, so just to recap on all that, you— yeah, I guess first decide if you're a risk taker or not, because this is going to be the middle of the year, is going to really shift things.

Yeah, I mean, and who knows, who knows how quick they're going to lower the interest rates, if at all. You know, this is— I mean, he's the Fed— going to be the new Fed chairman.

Yeah.

How long is it going to take him to get confirmed?

Right.

Okay. And then once he gets in, he's really, he's only one voice. He's just the main voice, but he has to answer to all the other Fed chairmen and not chairmen, but chair, whatever.

People.

People.

Remember that Janet lady that was there for, is she still there? Remember the little lady that was like—

Janet Yellen?

Yeah.

No. What happened to her? She became Treasury Secretary under Biden. Yeah, and said that inflation was transitional. Yeah, remember that part? Good. Yeah, yeah. Look, look, don't worry about this inflation. It's transitional. It's gonna go away. No, it got up to nine, ten percent.

Then they're like, you know. Then then once Trump gets in, they're like, look what he did.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, look, look at he. He said. In fact, I heard Elizabeth Warren today. She said he said day one the grocery bills would go down. Right? You know. It's like, oh my God, you guys are not listening at all, are you? Yeah.

And I mean, it takes a minute to recorrect these things, but yeah. So, um, yeah, so yeah, pretty much if you're a risk taker, decide now. Decide right now because you should be buying if you're putting it all on black.

Yes.

Because you might strike gold.

Yeah.

If not, you can just buy boring and stick to the fundamentals and pad in a little bit extra just in case something goes sideways. If and when, actually.

My suggestion, yeah, is that, you know, you stick to the fundamentals, you know, and then if you, if you see things are going to, you know, change in the future, if you want to, if you have that crystal ball You know, then, then go for it. But, you know, I, I definitely just stick to the fundamentals at this point.

Yeah, it's kind of about longevity. Yeah, I've found in this game, because there's some people that start and then they get burned and then they leave forever and start like an Amazon store or something thinking that that's less risky.

But they still have those?

I think so.

Yeah, really? Yeah.

I don't— maybe not. Maybe it's just that type of person.

Never got into any of that stuff.

No, there's no point. This is, this is your best bet.

Yeah.

Real estate is going to be your best bet. So who should flip in 2026 and who shouldn't?

I've always said that, you know, the people that are going to flip need to be in the game. And you need to be in the game like literally 100%, because if you're not, you're going to get distracted with other things and you're going to go to the next shiny object over here and you're going to end up losing money. So I've taught many people how to flip homes, and I can tell you that not everybody is cut out for flipping homes. I was teaching one of my agents, and I won't mention The name. Uh, you thought you were going to catch me in a he or she, right? No, the name. And this person flipped one property, had difficulty, uh, decided to flip another property, uh, just was not, was not a type of person that, you know, uh, flipping, especially working with a contractor, has got issues every single day, and you just have to deal with those issues. And you know, correct whatever it is. The third flip that she attempted. Oh, I messed it up. Gotcha. The third flip this person attempted. I literally told this person. I said, "You're sorry, but this is not for you." Right. I had to be honest.

Yeah.

It's like, sorry, because this person was literally calling me on a daily basis, saying, "You know, the contractor is not doing this. I was just there. You told me to tell them this. They're not listening to me." Blah blah blah. And I go, you know what, I'm done. It's like, you're done flipping because this is not for you.

Right.

This is not something that you need to do. So yeah, to answer your question, you need to really, really be into it and, you know, pay attention to it as much as you can, hopefully 100%. And if you can't deal with conflict, because there's always conflict, if you can't deal with that, then move on.

I, I would agree.

Yeah. I think Starbucks is hiring.

Yeah. Yeah. Or the people, and surprisingly, I, I meet a lot of these people where they need money right now.

Everybody needs money right now.

Well, I mean, they can't even, they can't go like an extra month, you know, let's say if the flip's not selling, it's like coming down to like, if it doesn't close, yeah, I am on the street.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, you gotta give yourself that runway.

Exactly.

You know, so maybe start wholesaling first. to have a quicker turnaround.

Yeah.

Build up something so you're not freaking out.

Right.

Like you said, if and when something goes wrong.

If and when it always does.

When something goes wrong.

When something goes wrong, it always does.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So if you're not prepared for that and yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So, but I'm just saying some people will, they're like, I'm down to my last penny. I'm gonna start flipping houses.

Yeah. Or, you know, the other thing I have is a plan B. The Plan B is, yeah, Joe, teach me how to flip. We're going to flip a property, and if I don't make any money, that's okay because I'll just rent it out. You know, I don't teach Plan B. There's no such thing as a Plan B. If, if you can't sell it, lower the price.

Yeah.

Okay, hopefully you have enough built in there that you're going to sell the property. Worst case scenario, You break even. Really bad scenario, you lose money, but you're out.

Right.

You've moved on with your life. You're not, you know, sitting there trying to rent the property that's, you know, been fully rehabbed. And, you know, after you come back after a year, it looks like you have to start over with the renovation all over again.

Yeah, that would hurt. Yeah, I feel like that works in Ohio or someplace like that where— I don't know. You know, even after you flip it, it's worth like $150 grand. So then you can put a renter in there for $1,100 or something like that.

Yeah. Like a BRRRR type thing.

Yeah. BRRRR type situation. Yeah.

But that's different.

Yeah.

That's different.

It just doesn't work out here.

Than just literally just, you know, planning to buy and flip, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Just avoid the plan B.

Avoid the plan B. Just make it work.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I think people are so excited to start that They skip over a few things.

Do you think?

Yeah, myself included. And, and that's how you got to learn, you know. But if you want to skip all those mistakes, pick up Flipping the OC.

You can get this on my website, uh, and I'll give you a link. And actually, I have to change it, but right now, if you go onto my website You can have all my 7 books for free. Usually this is a whole $10, like almost less than a cup of coffee, or pretty close to a cup of coffee. But if you go on my website right now, it is free along with the other 7 books that I've written. Mobile Home Flipping, Adverse Possession. There's, there's a bunch of books on there that I have for free that I need to change. I'll keep it open for a few more days.

Okay.

In case you want to buy free books, but because I said it.

Yeah, there you go. So pick that up if you want to learn from the master. What if people want to meet you in person?

You can go to my website. There's a calendar link on there and you can book an appointment with me. Coffee, Coffee at your expense, lunch at your expense.

Okay.

You can always meet at my office. That's free, but I prefer coffee or lunch. But yeah, you can meet at my coffee, or if you don't have time for that, you have a 15-minute call with me and get whatever it is that you're looking to do, and I'll give you my best advice. If that's, you know, let's meet for coffee or lunch, then we can do that. But yeah, there's lots of ways to get a hold of me. Literally, you can call me, email me, text me, whatever. I'm open. I'm an open book. So everything's there.

Boom. Let's talk about this month's event we got coming up.

Multifamily is Better Than Single Family with Mike Morawski. Uh, I think this is the second or third time Mike's spoken.

I think it's the second time.

Second time. Yeah, second time Mike has spoken. Very knowledgeable. He does multifamily investment out of state, not here in, um, California. Multifamily is very, very knowledgeable person. He does have a course and he does teach others. How to do multifamily. He will partner up with you if necessary. So definitely, if you're interested in multifamily, I would definitely reach out and touch us on the 23rd, I believe, of this month at Norwoods. I like Norwoods. You like Norwoods?

It's pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's—

it was a good crowd. I think we had like 75 people there last time.

Yeah, it was nice.

It was a really good crowd. Met a lot of new interesting people. Last month was Stand Up and Connect, so I had a lot of new people get up there and give us their elevator speech on what they do and how they do it. And I think it turned out really well.

I think it did. The surprising one that got a lot of questions asked to them was the young man who has the house cleaning business. Yeah, he washes the outside of houses.

Yeah, so that you don't have to paint.

So you don't have to paint.

Yeah.

And everyone was blown away by that, including myself. I was like, that could probably save you, you know, a pretty penny. Because I've had people power wash before, but it never really does anything. But apparently he has his potions and— yeah, chemicals and stuff.

And they're all environmentally safe.

Yes, he recaptures the soap so it doesn't go into the dolphins' blowhole.

Yeah, nothing Nothing goes down there. Yes, he recaptures everything.

So yeah, it was kind of interesting. I was like, wow. But that's, uh, that was kind of cool. Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of good people that it— they, they— people, it's just like anything. You had, you had to really like get them started, and then eventually once you see a couple people go up there, a lot of people started coming up.

Yeah, I tried to volunteer some people, but they didn't And they refused. And okay, I'm not gonna drag you up here, you know. I'm giving you a great opportunity to speak to 75 people about, you know, what you're good at, and you're gonna say no? Okay, whatever, moving on.

Well, you should force people to buy 5 beers before they start and see how that turns out.

Yeah.

That'd be fun.

Yeah, we'd have to roll them out.

You have to roll them out. Um, look what I added to the screen. I put our QR codes, so if you guys want to link up with us, um, go ahead and scan that. That's both of our information right there.

Yeah, scan my side.

Scan it.

Don't scan his.

Scan both! Put them in there, see what happens.

Scan my side. We have a bet going to see who gets the most links.

Mine goes to a very strange video.

And where's mine go? I don't know.

Yours goes into the deep dark web.

Oh yeah?

No, I'm just kidding. There's our contact info.

Okay, and what's that at the bottom? Is that, uh, Instagram handles?

Yeah.

Okay, got it.

It's our handles, so grab a hold and, um, get your questions answered. I mean, if you have any questions right now, we are live. I forgot to mention that at the top. I've been doing a different sort of opener.

Yeah.

The first time you had to stop me because I didn't even have the guest introduce himself. Yeah, yeah, I was trying something new and I got all nervous and I didn't have the guest introduce himself.

Because we don't have a producer.

I know.

Yeah, I know.

It's—

you're doing everything.

Doing everything.

Trying laptop there.

Trying, folks. But yeah, no, we do this for you guys so, uh, you can get the information that you need. Uh, surprisingly, a lot of people come up to me at the meetups and just randomly and say that they're watch. So there are people out there.

We are the number 1 podcast in Laguna Hills.

That's right.

Just to let you know.

Took us years to get there. We clawed our way to the top.

Year what, 4?

Yep.

Year 4.

And then now it's like the ratings beat the, the top guy, which is us, number 1. Between number 1 and number 2, it's like, it's not even— there's not even like—

Not even close.

It's not even close.

Yeah.

So do with that information what you will. Um, we're lining up new guests. If you guys have anybody that you want to recommend, we now are doing call-in. So to, you know, open up sort of the variety and the different people that we can get that may not be here in California but have a bunch of knowledge that we can curate and bring to you. So if you have anybody that you would like to recommend, then send it our way. Or if it's you.

Yeah, anybody.

Yeah.

Or if it's you want to hear about anything that you do that's real estate related, even if you're like just starting out and, right, you know, what, what struggles you're dealing with, we'd be happy to interview you.

I love those ones. Yeah, those people. But those people feel like they don't have anything to tell, but oh, they They do.

They have a lot to tell.

They do.

We'll get it out of you.

Yeah, we sure will. So yeah, I mean, that's pretty much it. What to look for, what, what to stay away from in 2026. I am a risk taker. Oh wait, no, no, I said I'm not a risk taker, right? That's why I have Joe and Lauren around me to double-check these things. So, so big things this year and, uh, We will be back next week.

Okay.

All right.

We'll definitely see you then.

Thank you guys. See you soon.

If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one-on-one.