How Web site Flipping Works – And Why Would I Want To Do It?
Back during the 1980’s when the North American economy was booming in some areas, many people made money “flipping” houses.
They’d buy a small house badly in need of a little TLC, clean it up, do fairly minor fix-up, decorate it in a fresh, neutral scheme – and re-sell it within six months for sometimes double what they paid for it.
When the market crashed in the early 1990’s, many of the people who lost their shirts were the investors who had gambled on the real estate market and were highly leveraged with money they didn’t have.
Being overextended financially, they faced loans and mortgages they couldn’t pay, penalties, even legal actions.
To make matters worse, they had sold houses with serious problems, having glossed them over with paint and wallpaper to cover a multitude of sins, and grossly misrepresenting them as worth more than proof or appraisals would bear. Almost all of them lost everything.
The ones who came out of the crash in much better shape were those who had not succumbed to unrealistic greed or shady, unethical practices.
They bought each house with financing that fit their budget, fixed each one up with basic but necessary repairs and cosmetic alterations, and sold each house for a reasonable profit, without trying to hide flaws or make any misrepresentations.
It was a simple formula – but quite effective.
There were no undisclosed patches hiding seriously leaky roofs or termite damage. They didn’t need to falsify any documents to convince buyers that the 1-bedroom “starter home” was a Beverly Hills mansion. If there was water in the basement, or the house had flooded, they disclosed it.
Flipping virtual real estate (websites and domains) is very much like that. During the “boom” years, website flipping was so hot, things got a little silly.
But now, everyone is very conscious of the economic downturns, so if you are expecting to breeze in, throw a bit of paint on the walls, and sell your modest one-bedroom fixer-upper for mansion prices, web site flipping may come to disappoint you.
However, if you learn simple, economical and effective “decorating” techniques that quickly enable you to offer a solid little “starter home” website, then sell it for a sensible price, using sound business practices, there’s good news. You actually can make a profit – and very quickly too.
