Confessions Of A Home Flipper

Aloha Flippers

So, as the year 2020 quickly approaches, I have a dream to write a book on flipping houses. But in order to do that I need your help.

I’m asking you flippers for input. What would you like to see me write about? Tell me some of your mistakes or gee-I-wish-I-knew-that before I started this project. It will help me to write a User-Friendly Manual and to organize the book in a reader-friendly way.

My pledge is to collect your comments, and from those comments, continue to write blogs. I will post at www.hawaiilife.com/LindaMcCormick. The blogs will be edited and organized into a book which will be offered on Amazon.com.

Here We Go

House flipping is not for wimps or the weak of heart. So why do many people do it? What is the payoff? Why did I do it?

I guess originally, I saw myself making money hand over fist. I would be turning over one home after another, retiring on a tropical island. Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome would be there, pouring champagne and peeling grapes for me.

Here’s the reality: I was recently divorced with two little boys to support. I had no idea what I was going to do to provide for them financially. I held a California teaching credential, without holding any grand passion for teaching elementary-aged children. After all, I was my children’s private tutor on their life’s journey. Why would I possibly want to take on tutoring more kids?

Then I Found The Book.

Marsha Sinetar’s, Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow, found its way into my home. I devoured it in about 10 minutes. Her premise is that if you find something that you love to do, it won’t be work. It will be play. Play, I can do that. I played as a kid. I can play while my boys are at school. Oh, so optimistic and so naïve.

What Did I Like To Play As A Kid?

Well, I liked to play my personally designed course of miniature golf. I would set it up in our back yard using croquet mallets. You know those large stick things that look like golf clubs on steroids. Then I designed the buildings that the ball had to go through to win a point. Out of cardboard, I made and painted churches, fire stations, dollhouses, and a doghouse for my neighborhood award-winning miniature golf course. Naturally, being the good little entrepreneur that I was at the age of 10, I charged the neighborhood kids 5 cents to play the course! I had no shame.

Fast Forward To Age 30

Divorced — two kids, I decided that I had found my passion! I’ll go to art school and become the artist who designs album covers (yes album covers) for rock stars….how cool is that? Of course, that didn’t last long. I realized I had no passion for hanging with the Rolling Stones or the Beatles to understand their “inner passions” of art and music (However, Paul’s Yesterday always made me homesick for In ‘N Out burgers and fries).

I rethought my inner happy places and learned I always found drawing, painting, and designing miniature buildings to be my place away from unhappy places. Art kept me safe and sane from the pains and problems of learning to navigate my world as a child. I entered art school at Pasadena City College followed by Art Center College of Design, and finally graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Environmental Design.

Why Am I Telling You All Of This?

Hopefully, so that you will not become discouraged along your own private path to finding your bliss with house flipping. It does not develop overnight, and if at the first bump you are discouraged, rethink this passion. I love Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why. To take from his text, Sinek says, Martin Luther King did NOT say I have a plan, he said: “I have a dream.”

Take your dream of changing an old worn, loved, slightly battered home into a beautiful new creation. It is in bringing my dreams to fruition that I continue to be a flipper, and my hope is that I can help you along the way also.