Recent reports show real estate investors are entering the real estate market all across the nation and flipping homes.
According to RealtyTrac® Year-End and Q4 2015 U.S. Home Flipping Report a total of 110,008 investors bought and flipped at least one home in 2015. Although this is not even close to the country’s peak of active home flippers, which was in 2005 with 259,192 real estate investors identified as home flippers, 2015 is the first year showing an annual increase in the past four years.
In 2015, the percentage of U.S. homes that were flipped took 5.5 percent of the share which is an increase from the 5.3 percent share in 2014. The homes being bought and sold, as analyzed by RealtyTrac®, spread into 23 more U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, moving from 83 in 2014 to 110 cities in 2015. This is a rise in 75 percent of the markets.
The Rise in Home Flipping
In 2015, the properties that were most often flipped in the U.S. were single family homes and condos with a total of 179,778 bought and sold as part of this type of real estate investment.
The states with the highest share of flipped homes were noted in the RealtyTrac® as:
- Nevada: garnered 8.8 percent of the home flips
- Florida: 8.0 percent
- Alabama: 7.4 percent
- Arizona: 7.1 percent
- Tennessee: 6.9 percent
Florida Takes Biggest Year-Over-Year Increase
Lakeland, Florida has the biggest year-over-year increase in the share of flips, which showed it increasing 50 percent from 2014 to 2015. Other notable cities in Florida following close behind were Jacksonville, which increased 41 percent, and Homosassa Springs that went up 40 percent.
Miami took the number one spot in the number of most flipped homes of any market nationwide. The report showed 10,658 homes flipped in the Miami for 2015. This represents 8.6 percent of all Miami-area home sales for the year, which is an increase of 4 percent as a share of all sales from 2014.
Among 110 metro areas with at least 250 flips in 2015, those with the highest share of flipping as a percentage of all single family home sales were Memphis (11.1 percent); Fresno, Calif. (9.2 percent); Las Vegas (9.2 percent); Tampa (9.2 percent); and Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Fla. (9.1 percent).
Getting Started as a Delray Beach Real Estate Investor
If you have watched any of the television shows, it seems like home flipping is relatively easy. They may show a couple of surprises and pitfalls here and there, but it gets completed and sold for some amazing profit. That isn’t always the case.
Behind any flipped home is a lot of time, labor, effort, and money that has been invested. Anyone thinking about moving into the Delray Beach real estate home investment market needs to be prepared for this and more.
Three steps every investor needs to getting started flipping homes are:
- Stellar Credit: You need an excellent credit score for lenders to even begin to consider qualifying you for a home loan, especially if it is a high-risk house flip.
- Cash Down Payment: Cash is the best way to go so that you don’t have to invest more money on private mortgage insurance (PMI) on a second mortgage. You could take out a home equity line of credit (HELOC).
- Know the Market: It is vital that you know the real estate market you are working. It needs to be in a great location, and Florida is a great place to buy. The Sunshine State is one of those places where people from all over the country and world would love to move to. There are always homebuyers looking for real estate, like Delray Beach homes for sale.
Consult with a Knowledgeable Realtor
The longer it takes to sell the house, the more money you’re going to lose to monthly mortgage payments, and payments for insurance, utilities, and property taxes. You want to be able to buy a home in a great location, fix it up, and sell it at a profit as quickly as you can.
This is why you need to enlist the help of a seasoned real estate professional, like one with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty. For Delray Beach real estate properties, we’ve got an office nearby that can help you find just what you need to make your investment worth your while.
There also are other BHHS Florida Realty offices located across the state, so you can easily find one near you.
