Mark Ellis of The Columbus Dispatch provides great coverage of why flipping the right way for profit takes patience in cold market:

The chill in real-estate sales hit Larry Dickson in June when he tried to sell a North Side home. After running into “the coldest market,” he waited only 30 days before pulling the house that he had renovated. Dickson doesn’t renovate and sell houses for a living but has tackled a half dozen houses in Clintonville in recent years. “I’ve always turned a profit and been satisfied,” he said. The practice of buying homes for renovation and sale, usually within a year, is sometimes called “flipping.” The speculative pursuit has declined as the overall real-estate market has slowed, experts said. But prudent and patient investors can still prosper.

“Seeking a good opportunity has never gone out of style,” said Pat O’Neil, of Century 21 C.R. O’Neil and Co. on the North Side and president of the Ohio Association of Realtors. “It’s still out there. It’s not being done nearly as much.

“You’ve got to know what you’re doing.”

Dickson, who runs transportation services for Battelle, invested about $25,000 in materials and long hours of work in his house…

The house went on the market for $334,000, but Dickson came up empty and withdrew the house. He figures he missed the boom market by about four months.

He was contacted later in the summer by real-estate agent Kevin Sullivan, of RE/MAX Premier Choice in Worthington, and put the house on the market again, asking $319,000. The current asking price is $269,900, and the house is in contract…

Investors in today’s market must be prepared to hold properties longer and must be able to absorb the extra costs of holding a house, Ford said.

Holding costs are typically about $100 a day, said Ralph Roberts, a Michigan real-estate agent and author of Flipping Houses For Dummies (Wiley, $21.99).

“When flipping houses in a down market, you want to stay in the business,” Roberts said.

The market will improve, he said.

“It’s still the best investment anybody can make.”

But slow the pace, he advised. “If you flipped six houses last year, maybe you flip four houses this year.

“Don’t let the inventory grow on you,” he said. “You’ve got to have a plan B. Rent it if you have to.”

To read the full version of the article, visit The Columbus Dispatch

My apologies for sharing this information so close to the time it’s scheduled to occur, but in about 30 minutes I will be interviewed by Matthew Bronson, host of AM 920/WMEL’s “At Home” in Melbourne, Florida, about flipping houses. If you have enjoyed my writing and would like to know what I sound like, or if you’d like to hear more about the tips, strategies, and warnings covered in my new book, Flipping Houses For Dummies, you can tune in at around 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time this morning by visiting 920wmel.com.

For an archived version of Saturday’s interview, visit Matthew Bronson’s Featured Programs for Replay page, and click on the “Missed a show or want to hear it again” link.