Up until a few years ago when the financial and housing crises slammed so many of the US like a brick wall, consumers were pocketing nice profits flipping real estate at all price brackets. Reality TV shows popped up all over showing the rags to riches stories of constitutional families who started small and ended up running large interstate companies flipping homes and teaching others how to do it.

Those wonderful times are pretty much done, but not absolutely gone for good. If you know how to go get the correct houses, and if you can get financing – or use your own hard money- there are still fantastic deals to be had, and money to be made.

In reality, this is in all probability the best possible financial climate in which to buy a house you want to flip. With foreclosures and short sales available on almost every block, it isn’t too far fetched to believe you can buy flashy, invest a little, and flip for decent if not big bucks.

Too many people in the past had huge ideas of wealthiness and had no clue how to go about it. They would invest every penny they had into an overpriced proportion that needed little or no upgrades, but they would then max out credit cards on top of getting a mortgage they could barely afford to pay for more than a month or so, and add improvements and upgrades far too expensive for the area or neighborhood the home was in.

Bad idea. The paragon flip isn’t buying a good house and trying to make it better to get more money. Over-improving a property is a waste of money. If you’re in a low income townhouse complex where countertops are typically laminate, and floors are cheap tile, there’s no sense in adding expensive granite and hardwood in order to entice buyers. You’ll never get your money back.

True flips are the homes that need work to begin with. Perhaps there was a fire, or it’s so outdated that the owners gave up trying to add the requisite improvements in order to make a profit themselves. So, they were forced to sell at a huge loss just because they couldn’t afford to keep it up to date.

These are the houses that can make you some money in a real estate flip. If you can do the work yourself, or at least most of it, you’ll be even further ahead of the game.