Randy,
I think it's great that you want to do something for yourself, but I am not keen on the idea of your flipping houses. Maybe things will be a little better in nine months, but I don't know.
I bought, renovated, and sold six homes in the last two years as a part-time effort, so I know a little bit about this.
You're correct that it's a great time to get bargains in real estate, and it goes to reason that homes needing work will represent even bigger bargains.
The problem right now, though, is that it's not very easy to sell these homes once you're done with them. Because you're just starting out, you're likely going to be dealing with lower-cost homes, probably the kind of homes that a first-time buyer would be looking at.
The thing is, you can't sell a house if you can't finance it, and right now the mortgage market is all but dead. The 100% LTV loan is all but dead, and the loan programs that could overlook things like bad credit or weak income are gone, too.
If you're talking about buying these houses to rent them, that's another thing...but to "flip" them? I don't like your odds.
Also, I would never take investment advice from an agent or Realtor unless that person has made serious money in the business doing what you're talking about. The sad fact is that most agents and Realtors know very little about the business of real estate investment, especially renovating and rehabbing houses. And because they are often wildly optimistic about what a house will be worth, and have little idea as to what it really costs to make these repairs and upgrades, your projections are probably going to be way off.
Do you have any actual experience in this sort of business? If not, I'd read a few books on the subject, and stay away from the "no money down, no credit required, too good to be true" stuff.
