Watching the great transformations — and resulting profits — from house flippers on HGTV is fun. In real life, people are buying discounted houses, fixing them up, and reselling them at a profit every day. Even though the profit margins are slimmer in Dallas-Fort Worth than they once were, house flipping still presents an income opportunity, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

The North Texas housing market remains one of the hottest areas for house flipping. In fact, house flipping increased by 18.7 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017. This growth rate is much higher than many other regions. A total of 7.1 percent of all homes sold in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area were home flips. The national average is 6.7 percent of single-family homes and condos.

Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, was quoted in the Dallas Business Journal as saying the increase in Dallas/Fort Worth’s house flipping statistics indicates a strong market. "That increase stands out because flippers generally buy homes at a deep discount, rehab the property and sell it at full market value," Blomquist said. "In Dallas, flippers are only buying at a 3.4 percent discount to market value because it's such a red-hot market." 

Nationwide, most house flippers buy houses at a 25 percent discount, which creates maximum profits after a bit of property rehab. In Dallas’ hot real estate market, those kinds of great discounts are practically non-existent. Dallas/Fort Worth house flippers are benefitting from the rapidly increasing home prices. The profit margin after rehabbing houses bought at a discount is about 14.8 percent.

 Typically, house flippers see much higher margins. "Typically, you want a margin to be 30 percent and above, but they are competing like everyone else," Blomquist told the Dallas Business Journal. "There's still opportunity in the Dallas market, but there isn't a lot of inventory."

The average gross profit for a flipped home is $48,175 in North Texas. Nationally, home flippers see an average gross profit of $64,284 per house.