In this instructional YouTube video, seasoned broker and investor Joe Homs (over 40 years of experience) outlines five essential strategies to guarantee profitability on a fix‑and‑flip project. He begins by urging novices to operate within a familiar geographic area—ideally within an hour’s drive of their home—so they can leverage local market knowledge. He then recommends starting with small, low‑maintenance properties such as condos, which limit exterior work and simplify the rehab process, before scaling up to larger single‑family homes. Homs stresses the importance of continuously monitoring market conditions and re‑calculating the after‑repair value (ARV) right before listing, because market shifts can dramatically affect projected sale prices. He emphasizes rigorous financial discipline: accurately estimating rehab costs, accounting for agent commissions, escrow and title fees, and building a cushion for unexpected expenses. Finally, he details proactive deal‑sourcing tactics, including relationships with wholesalers, MLS agents, other flippers, and the use of online tools like Pellego that automate comps, cost estimates, and profit projections. Throughout, he intersperses real‑world examples, numeric illustrations, and calls to action, positioning the five steps as a practical roadmap for both new and experienced investors to achieve consistent flip profits.
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Today's video, we're going to go over 5 ways to ensure that you make a profit on your next flip. Coming up next. Fixing and flipping properties is a great strategy for many real estate investors. It's more important than ever to get smart when it comes to finding, selecting, and improving your fix and flip projects. Here are 5 things to make sure you turn a profit when you're flipping. Real quick, if you like videos about flipping, give this video a thumbs up. I have over 40 years of experience as a broker, mentor, and investor. I have flipped hundreds of homes and I want to share my experience with you. So make sure you subscribe and never miss a video. Number 1, Choosing the right area, and this is really important, especially if you're a novice investor. I tell people to stay within an hour's drive of their comfort zone where they live, areas that they may have grown up that they're very familiar with. They know the ins and outs of these particular areas. You're going to be a leg up over everybody else. that may be looking at the same properties from another state, another county, a farther distance than you're looking. So you're going to know a lot more of what's going on in that small neighborhood. Number 2, selecting the right property for your flip. And what I'm talking about here is maybe you want to tackle an easy project, let's say a condominium, a small condominium, where you're only going to flip the inside of it. You don't care about the outside, the landscaping, or anything like that because the HOA takes care of that stuff. So it's a lot easier to do something like that as a beginner. As you progress, then you can start looking for single-family residences where you're going to have to pay attention to the roof, the painting on the outside, landscaping, removing walls, you know, getting architects involved, things like that. So my suggestion is you start out small, get a small project, a small rehab, and then at that point go in and do that one. And then as you learn, you'll get more sophisticated, you'll have more contractors And companies that you can rely on so that you can start doing your bigger projects for bigger margins. Number 3, always, always pay attention to market conditions. They can change at any time, sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually. But the best thing that I can tell you is when you're comping a property, doing the ARV, You do that at the beginning, obviously, to establish what you can sell this property for. Once you purchase a property and do the rehab, 2 or 3 months later, if it took you a little bit longer, 4 to 6 months, those market conditions could have changed dramatically. Okay, so you purchased a condo for $525,000 and it took you a couple months to rehab it. It may be your after repair value was $650,000. In this market today that we're in, in California, 3 months is almost a lifetime in that your original ARV was $650,000. I would say it's probably $700,000, $725,000 now. It has literally gone up that much in 3 months. So make sure you comp your property at the beginning, But right before you put it on the market, do the same thing over again to see if there's any other properties that have come on the market and sold during the time that you were rehabbing it. Coming up in just a bit, I'm going to tell you how to find a deal for your next flip. Number 4, know your numbers. Probably the most important thing about flipping properties is literally knowing your numbers. So we talked number 3 about ARV. Rehab is very important, those numbers. And what I like to do on a rehab, since I've gone to so many properties, I don't drag my contractor out there to give me the final number. I go out and I'm experienced enough to know exactly about how much it's going to cost. The only time I drag my contractor out there is when I have it under contract. We're in escrow and we're going to be ready to close in a week or two. Then I drag them out there to give me those numbers. Know real estate agents that you're working with, know how much they're going to charge you for commissions on both ends, know what your escrow and title fees are. There's ways to save money on title fees, and maybe I'll do another YouTube on just escrow companies and YouTube— I'm sorry, escrow companies and title companies, just to show you how you can save money there. But knowing your numbers is very important. If you're a novice or a beginner, you might want to put a little bit of pad on there, extra cushion, just in case something goes wrong with the project. But knowing your numbers is extremely important. Number five, seek properties and submit offers. Okay, I get properties every day from wholesalers, and I jump on a website called Pellego, P-E-L-L-E-G-O dot com. It's very inclusive. It tells me everything I need to know on just on that website alone. It runs comps, rehab costs, closing costs, and And it's very easy to use because it tells me if I'm going to make a profit and how much. So that's important to use those type of tools together along with everything else. So the next thing you need to do is look at these properties that these wholesalers may be sending you, other real estate agents, and start doing the numbers on these properties and putting offers in on these properties. You never can tell. We had a recent incident where there was a property on the MLS. It literally went in a couple of days, but then it came back on the market like 7 days later. We saw it, we jumped on it right away, ended up putting it under contract. So you have to be out there in the market. You have to know what's going on, work your numbers, and start submitting offers, because if you don't submit an offer, you're never going to get anything accepted. Okay guys, where do you find these deals? A lot of deals I get sent to me by wholesalers. I'd say about 95% don't work out, but at least I see what's going on in the area and what they're pricing it at. You can work with a real estate agent who knows how to work the Multiple Listing Service and you can get deals from there. You just have to be with a savvy real estate agent that knows what they're doing. Other flippers in the area may have some excess deals that, you know, they're willing to, you know, wholesale to you. So these are just a few examples of where you can find deals. You literally, you know, like I said at the beginning, wholesaling— you can become a wholesaler and start getting on that phone and calling people, calling sellers and saying, hey, are you interested in selling your place? Especially in today's market where you have a moratorium on evictions, you have forbearance going on. All these things are great for an investor because maybe there's a tired landlord out there that just does not want to deal with this stuff anymore. You give them a call out of the blue and say, hey, are you interested in selling your place? And he's going to start thinking, going, yeah, you know what, maybe it's time to sell. So check out those lead sources. Fix and flip can be a great strategy for investors, but it's not as easy as you might think. You need to do your homework, know your numbers, and definitely have some patience. When you do, flipping can be a great source of income. If you want to see a walkthrough of one of our completed flips, click right here. I've jammed it with even more tips on how to make more money On your next flip. See you on the next one.
