House flipping on TV not realistic view.

• Position: Home Sales

House flipping seems to be the new American Dream. Television programs on the subject abound, showing individuals how to improve and sell a house (yours or someone else's) or transform one of the ugliest properties imaginable into a fabulous, who-would-not-want-to-livethere dream home. Bookstore real estate sections are bursting with how-to titles that make house flipping look quite easy. Even more intriguing are the friend-of-a-friend stories one hears: a neighbor says his uncle bought two homes and a new boat with the profits he made from flipping just a couple of properties. Sounds great, but is it really that simple?

Absolutely not, say Scott Frank and Andy Heller, co-authors of Buy Even Lower: The Regular People's Guide to Real Estate Riches. The reality TV view of house flipping conveniently leaves out the time, risk, stress, headaches, and failures. "It may look easy, fun, and exciting on TV, but TV is entertainment. The real world can be anything but," warns Frank. "I've found that most of the time people who jump into flipping real estate based on TV shows or hearsay from friends never fully know what they are getting themselves into."

"Most people want to get into house flipping to make a quick buck," adds Heller. "It usually doesn't take them long to find out that while that is possible in real estate, fast profits are the exception rather than the rule--and success rarely comes easy."

To help new investors, Frank and Heller have put together five reasons why buying and flipping property is not usually the cakewalk portrayed on television:

Flipping can be extremely time consuming. "Many first-time investors who choose the 'buy and flip' investment strategy don't expect to spend much time finding the property," notes Frank. "All those fix 'em up TV shows make it look like the properties are abundant, and that most of your time is spent repairing the property and getting it ready to sell. That's actually backwards. In reality, if you want to profit from your investment, you will search and search for a property that you can purchase at the right discount. Then you will actually make the repairs relatively quickly to get the home back out on the market."

Costs can get out of hand. First-time investors come...