Even with the rough spots in the housing markets these days, ‘flippers’ are still buying houses. These folks buy houses in poor condition, fix them up and sell them at a profit. Home buyers often like them because flippers need to sell their houses as fast as possible to avoid paying more than a month or two on the mortgage. If a house isn’t selling, flippers can get nervous and lower their prices.

But flipped houses aren’t necessarily good buys for homeowners that plan to stick around. If you’re shopping for a new home, there are a few reasons to skip the flip.

1. Flippers limit costs when fixing up houses. Not all flippers go for the cheapest building materials, but they do try to minimize costs wherever possible. To bring a house up to your standards, you might wind up tearing out some of a flipper’s work and paying for an additional remodel.
2. Flippers focus on the visible. Most flipped houses have awesome fixtures, beautiful paint jobs and other accents that convince buyers that the house is a beautiful piece of work. But slapping a fresh paint of coat on a wall doesn’t repair cracks or bring wiring up to code. And it’s the non-visible problems that can mean expensive repair work down the road.
3. Flippers do as much themselves as possible. Most flippers aren’t professional electricians or plumbers, but odds are they’ll try their hand at some wiring or plumbing, just to keep from having to call in a professional. That doesn’t mean that their work is bad but there won’t be any sort of guarantee.

If you’ve got your heart set on a house that was flipped, there are a few things you can do to protect your investment. The first is to check with the local permit office. If a permit hasn’t been closed, walk away. That means that the inspector doesn’t think the house is ready to sell. In some locations you can even get a copy of the inspector’s notes. You might also find that no permit was taken out. Maybe the flipper did only cosmetic work — maybe the house only needed some touch ups. But it’s more likely that the flipper went without a permit, which is illegal. That also means the work isn’t up to code and could be dangerous.

You can also ask your real estate agent to help you check out this particular house flipper. What other houses has he or she sold? Are the new owners happy with their purchase? A house flipper’s reputation is a good indicator of the work you can expect. Make the effort to learn about the house flipper in question. If necessary, ask them to show you around the house and give a detailed explanation of what work was done. Give them a chance to prove that their work really is worth an extra $50,000 or however much on top of the previous sale price.

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