How to flip a house: the five steps, in order
You have seen the television version. Here is the actual process, broken into five stages, from a Henderson project bought at $325,000 and sold at $450,000 in six months. Most of the money is made or lost in step one.
This is the framework. If you want to see it applied to an actual property — the walkthrough, the contractor quotes, the budget overruns and the closing — that project was filmed start to finish: the full Henderson flip, every number.
Planning
This step decides whether the project works. Everything afterwards is execution.
Understand the market you're buying into
Two things mattered on the Henderson project. Inventory was tightening at the end of 2023, which made it a reasonable moment to buy. And Las Vegas at that point strongly favoured turnkey product — because with rates high, buyers spending everything they had on the purchase did not then have money to renovate.
A market where buyers cannot afford to fix anything is a market that pays a premium for finished houses. That is what makes flipping viable, and it is worth confirming before you start rather than assuming.
Current conditions are in the monthly market hub.
Know your budget
Not what you would like to spend — what you actually have. The all-in budget here was under $400,000, because that was the available capital. Purchase plus renovation had to fit inside it.
Set a return target
A minimum 10% return. Deliberately modest, attainable and realistic.
That matters more than it sounds. A target that only holds if nothing goes wrong is not a target — and on this project the renovation ran 25% over budget while still clearing 10%.
Build the team before you need it
Painting, flooring, exterior, electrical, plumbing. Sourcing contractors after you own a property means paying whatever is available rather than what is competitive, and waiting while you look.
On financing the project: how investors finance flips without paying cash.
Getting the house
Where to look
Off-market deals are ideal and genuinely hard to find. On-market, the signal is high days on market — it usually means the property needs work, and it usually means the seller has become negotiable.
Also worth watching: court-ordered sales. Probate, where an owner died without a will and the court has ordered the property sold. Divorce settlements, where a judge has ordered a sale and both parties simply want it finished.
What makes a good flip
| Look for | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Flooring | Foundation issues |
| Paint | Whole-house electrical |
| Countertops | Whole-house plumbing |
| Cabinets and fixtures | Full roof replacement |
| Cosmetic work generally | Mold and fire damage |
The reasoning is about what a buyer can see.
Cosmetic work is the opposite. Every dollar of it is visible, and visible work is what buyers pay for.
The exception
If you have a genuine advantage on a major item, the rule bends. If the roof needs replacing and your father is a roofer, that expensive problem becomes your opportunity — because you are buying a discount everyone else prices at full cost.
Lean into whatever your team is unusually good at.
Then win the deal
Good flip properties often attract multiple offers. Know your numbers, then make your best offer inside them.
Losing a project over a few thousand dollars when tens of thousands were available is the most avoidable mistake in this business — and a common one.
Renovation
The part everyone watches on television. Here is where the value actually comes from, in order.
1. The kitchen
Always first. It is the main selling point of a modern home and the main gathering space. Where budget allows, do it completely — flooring, countertops, cabinets, appliances.
2. The primary bathroom
Second, and slightly counterintuitively ahead of the bedroom itself. The bathroom is where upgrades are most visible, and the person making the buying decision usually occupies that suite.
3. Curb appeal
People say it is the inside that matters, and it is — but the outside sets the expectation before anyone opens the door. A poor exterior followed by a good interior produces surprise, and surprise is not the feeling you want attached to your asking price.
You want someone to pull up, walk in, and feel the whole job has already been done for them.
The rule that matters most: finish everything
Nothing damages a flip like a beautiful kitchen and an untouched secondary bathroom. Or three renovated rooms and a bedroom with the old flooring still down.
Buyers read it immediately as running out of money. And then they ask the obvious follow-up — where else did they cut corners? Once that doubt exists, they will not pay top dollar for any of it.
Quote everything both ways
Restain the cabinets or replace them. Carpet the stairs or continue the hard flooring. Get numbers for each and decide on the arithmetic rather than the instinct.
On the Henderson project, quoting both ways on cabinets is what kept the budget intact.
Run progress checks
Do not inspect only at the end. Two reasons: contractors can get in each other's way if the order of operations is wrong, and discovering a mistake at completion means tearing out finished work to redo it.
Know your sequence, and check as you go.
Selling
Price against today, not against your projection
You started with an after-repair value in mind — that is how you justified the purchase. It is now several months old.
Track three things from the day you close: what is coming on the market, what is going under contract, and what is actually closing. Those tell you what today's ceiling is.
The goal is to maximise the price without creating an appraisal problem. Those two pull against each other, and the gap between them is where the pricing decision lives. See what actually sets a home's value.
Market it properly
- Professional photography, a 3D tour and drone footage
- A substantial open house across the first weekend
- Invite the neighbours — they have family who want to live nearby, and a busy open house makes buyers compete rather than deliberate
Choosing between offers
Cash is usually preferred: fewer contingencies, no appraisal risk. But cash frequently is not the highest number, because cash buyers price in a discount for the certainty they bring. A financed offer can net you more.
Often that is an owner-occupant who intends to live there, or someone with a specific attachment to the location. They are emotionally invested, and if the appraisal comes in short they will frequently find the difference rather than walk away.
One escrow tip
Work with contractors who will come back. Inspections and appraisals produce small repairs and touch-ups, and that work arrives after your crews have moved on to other jobs. Agree it upfront.
Calculate your profit — and review it honestly
The step most people skip, because the money is already in the account.
Go back through it. What was the budget? Did you hold to it? Where did you go over, and why? Where did you simply miscalculate?
This is not about whether you did a good job. It is about learning — because if you flip one house you will want to flip another, and every mistake you avoid the second time is margin.
Then decide what's next
You have capital again. One flip produces a useful profit; it does not change your position. The value is in what happens next — another flip, several projects at once, or converting the strategy into a hold.
A number of buy-and-holds started as flips that were good enough to keep. That decision is worth making deliberately rather than by default. See building a real estate portfolio and a $400,000 rental start to finish.
Flipping process FAQ
What are the steps to flipping a house?
Five: planning, acquiring the property, renovating it, selling it, and reviewing your profit. Most of the difficulty sits in the first step, because your budget, your target return and your contractor team all need to exist before you own anything.
What return should you target on a house flip?
A minimum of 10% is a realistic target — modest, attainable and reasonable, rather than the numbers television suggests. A target that only works if nothing goes wrong is not a target, because renovations routinely run over.
Why should you avoid flips that need major structural work?
Because buyers cannot see it. Mold remediation ends as new drywall and paint. Repiping is inside walls and underground. Fire damage repair looks like an ordinary room. You spend heavily and the finished property looks the same as one that never had the problem, so the money is hard to recover.
What are court-ordered sales?
Sales a court has directed. Probate is the common one — an owner dies without a will and the court orders the property sold. Divorce settlements produce similar situations. Both often involve sellers who want the process finished, which can mean a better purchase price.
Which rooms add the most value in a flip?
The kitchen first, because it is the main selling point and the main gathering space. The primary bathroom second, because it is where upgrades are most visible and the decision-maker in a couple usually lives in that suite. Then curb appeal, which sets the tone before anyone walks in.
Why does an unfinished room hurt a flip so much?
Because buyers read it as running out of money — and then wonder where else corners were cut. A beautiful kitchen alongside an untouched secondary bathroom undermines confidence in everything else, and buyers who are not confident do not pay top dollar.
What should you do after your first flip?
Review it honestly, then deploy the capital again. One flip produces a useful profit but will not change your position — the value is in rolling it into the next project, and into several at once as you build capacity. The review is what makes each one more profitable than the last.
Wherever you are in the process
Whether it is the first project or the fifth, the useful conversation is about a specific property and whether the numbers survive contact with reality. Happy to run them with you.
The rest of the series: the full Henderson flip with every number and five things I'd do differently. Also: financing a flip, what it costs to sell, and investing strategies that still work.
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Jim Fong · NV license BS.0068736 · The Jim Fong Group at Real Broker · 702-997-2050
General guidance based on one investor's experience. Purchase prices, renovation costs, timelines and resale values vary considerably, and flipping carries real risk of loss. Not investment, tax or legal advice.