Anyone make a living flipping?

I'm looking for input on making a living flipping cars.

I have plenty of experience working on em. I've flipped em for side cash, but what about making a REAL living on flipping? Like driving around the countryside and picking up anything pre-72 with potential fixing it up just enough and offing it for a profit.

I know plenty of you do it- but does anyone feed their family,make a house payment, and keep em warm flipping only?

 

Last time I flipped a car it cost me a lot of money!!
Clark

 

My experience has been the majority of hobbyists prefer buying collector cars from true owners rather than middle-men. Personally, I strive for cars with documented provenance - unless it's a parts car.

 

Hard to do how the market is right now... 5 years ago alot of people were doing it...

 

I know a few who have tried and none were successful.

 

tough to do, hard to find a steady stream of good deals, part time occasional cash it works

 

Probably make a better living flipping burgers And you could eat too

 

I have a friend who does it, but he buys 3 to 4 cars at a time. He's always on the phone to the guy he pays to drive all over the country. He's got the money to have them fixed up for sale, although he does work on some of them. He's got a warehouse/shop to store them. It easily holds about 10 cars. All this means is that while he does make money, it's a TON of work. And the initial capitol (MONEY) needed was quite a bit.

If you're driving around the country looking for cars, how will you have the time to work on them? They'll need to be almost completed to even begin to sell them and make a decent profit. Do you have the cash to get started? Time and money. A lot of both to start.

But, it can be done, so good luck.

 

Good luck..not as easy as you think. I buy/sell/trade em so I know.

 

THIS IS A HOBBY FOR MUST OF US ON HERE YOU WILL ALWAYS PUT MORE IN A CAR THAN YOU WILL GET BACK WE DO IT FOR THE PRIDE TO BUILD YOUR OWN NOT TO SEE HOW MUCH WE CAN MAKE. YEAH FLIPPING BURGERS WILL DO BETTER I THINK. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. Knuck From Indiana.

 

The guys that are doing it won't be posting here .Everyone fancies themselves as a
player and thinks its all fun and games .Just like full time ebayers .If you are going
to be sucessful in flipping cars you will be working lots of hours and the fun will go
away fast .Making a little mad money to spend on your car is ok but if you become
an iron whore you will loose your freinds fast .
my $ .02 worth

 

I've only known one guy who made a decent living doing it. His nickname is "Klunker King." He resold cars 5-10 years old. He shared his secret to success with me. He said " there are more people buying hamburger than steak." So in today's terms that would be keeping the resale price under $6,000. He was wholesaling to used car lots about 20-25 cars a month, and had his own six-car transporter and paid a guy to drive it.

 

I believe Joey Chitwood did.

 

This hobby costs most people money.
If a person's smart they can break even and have their fun at no cost.
To profit enough to make a living that person would need to be a genius w/insomnia and an insane drive to work, not to mention money to get started with.
I've never met anyone like that.

 

Why is he screaming at us ??

 

i tried and am still trying. I but junkers and spend a few months and a few thousand, make drivers out of them and I made at least a 50% profit. problem is, it takes several months to sell one.

 

if you have a spare 250 thou, a new flatbed, fully stocked shop, and a secure place to store them, you should be able to make a go of it four maybe five years. By then, the truck will be woreout, the shop won't be as stocked, and your secure building will be just a wet dream. Oh, and the 250 will be a bad memory. Remember, you'll be dealing with the public, and we all know what assholes they can be. And you're doubling the equation as you'll be dealing with asshole sellers and buyers.
Save yourself a lot of money and smack yourself in the head three times a week with a 5# sledge for a month and you'll get the same feeling, except you'll be 250 thou to the good.

 

I did it for 3 years or so. Like someone said the market went to pot a few years ago and I went back to my real job. As far as what buyers prefer, WHO CARES! If you have what they want at a price they're willing to pay they will buy. PERIOD. I made great money while I did it. DO NOT try and middleman someone elses stuff. You don't need a silent partner.

You make money buying them right. Buy what will sell not what you like. Sell whole cars. Steer clear of parts unless it's a really high end rare something. Shipping and extra time will eat you up. PM me if you want any more info.

 

Ask Squigy ; )

 

Hard to do right now, we do it as a hobby business and it's all deadbeats lately, no one has any cash, they either want to pay pennies on the dollar or they just want parts. Even fairly desirable pieces are just sitting, I picked up enough parts to put a Model A pickup together and had one bite on it, then he had to "think about it" and I haven't heard anything in weeks. I need to scare up a car frame and put it together and paint it, I figure like the last one I had that would make it sell a lot faster.

And I know we're not the only ones, the stuff I've seen end up in the junkyard this summer has been scary - for a while there every time I went there was at least one new car that I know I could have easily sold for more than the scrap price just by advertising it around a little. I've posted it before so I'm not going to list them out again, but if you had the property to stash stuff and some money to invest it would be a good time to buy stuff because you can get decent things for dirt cheap, and worst case even if you junk them yourself you should be able to break even, but if the economy picked up again you could make a bunch of money in a hurry.

 

But I like.....no love them all.....that would be my problem. And has been

 

In Florida there is a law that you can sell up to six cars a years without a dealers license. The D.O.T. and other state agencies are cracking down on people,Flippers selling cars not in their name,so as far as an answer to your question no. I buy and sell parts at swapmeets,estate sales etc. but its not that profitable.

 

I do it.....All with cars built between 1990-2002 priced under 5 grand. there isn't a big enough market for older cars to make a big enough profit.

 

I have a hard time passing up a good deal on a car that is not appreciated ... wasteing away in its tracks. If I have the time money and room (and the wife's ok LOL) I will drag home a car , clean it up and square away the title and then try to find it a good home . I do about two cars a year, on and off, for probably the past 30 years.... I dont ever lose money doing this, which is a good thing ... but on the flipside I dont make any either ... but thats not the point because it is a labor of love.

I cant imagine doing it for a living ... the rare barn finds are few and far between and even those take big buck input to sell for big bucks.

 

I know of a couple of guys,but their in the classic European sports car market.They do well,but their market is generally rich people so not effected by economic times.

my weekly metal work blog www.themetalsurgeon.com

 

This reminds me of the quote about auto racing but could apply to this conversation. "the best way to make a small fortune in racing is start with a big one"

 

I usually do 2 or 3 deals a year. I use to do resindential roofing estimates. You'd be suprised what people have sitting in their back yards. I've actually done roofing in trade for cars. The market may be a little soft but those with money are still buying cars.

 

I do it all the time.. buy high..sell low, can't make any money!

 

A guy I used to be friends with owned a buy here-pay here lot at one time and sold it, but he continued to buy cars and sell them from his home, which was right along a major road. He had a wrecker and advertised for junkers, but sometimes would find ones good enough to fix and sell.

He was a horse trader from way back and wasn't shy about charging top dollar, even to his friends, (Which is why I said we WERE friends ) However, he did make money at it and every time we would go out for a drink he would have a wad of cash in his pocket that would choke a horse.

Like anything else, there are guys who make money doing it and guys who lose their shirts.

Don