No flipping at all for me. I already have a job lol. I buy about 1 to 2 houses a year, which allows me to be really selective and buy better deals instead of buying at volume like flippers do.

So I try to buy houses under market value, fix them up to create equity and then rent them out. Eventually you refinance them.

Great example, bought a townhome for $170k cash directly from the owner (no realtor). It was worth $220k at the time but worked a great deal out for the seller. Rented it out for about $1200 a month. 6 month later it was worth $240k.

I refinanced and got a check for $170k. My rents also went up to $1300 a month with a loan payments and other expenses at $900 a month. So now I can go use that same $170k and buy another property while creating $70k worth of equity that continues to increase in value while the loan decreases and giving me tax shelters. If I could find that every year it would be amazing.

Nearly impossible to get that type of return in the stock market with astronomical risk.

I've been a licensed financial planner (series 7 & 66) for 15 years. We aren't any better than just investing in low cost index funds. I tell this to my clients also. I invested my own money for years and grew it to about $100k. Then I learned how to invest into real estate and grew my portfolio to $1.3m. Learn how to buy real estate and use the proceeds to buy index funds. That's the best way to retire. I'm 40 now and feel like I could retire off real estate income tomorrow