You make your money on a flip the day you buy it, so rule one is don't overpay. A cheap DIY crew or a contractor connection will not rescue a mediocre purchase price. The discipline that protects you is buying right in the first place. Then be brutally conservative on the exit: - Estimate what the property will actually sell for after repairs using air-tight comps, then haircut that number. - Model three scenarios before you commit: best case, most likely case, worst case. If the deal only works in the best case, it isn't a deal. - Build real margin for the stuff that always shows up: surprise repairs, permit delays, holding costs, a slower sale than you hoped. A razor-thin spread gets eaten. The reason one of us has never lost money flipping is boring: only buying properties that pencil under conservative assumptions, so even a soft resale still clears. Nobody can promise where prices go between your purchase and your sale, so don't underwrite a flip on the assumption the market rises to bail you out. Buy low enough that the numbers work at today's value, and let any market tailwind be a bonus rather than the plan.