[techweenie]

It's probably instructive to look at the markets farther along in the curve than your area.

In So Cal, most neighborhoods have been speculated, flipped, whealt & dealt to death. Houses that don't sell immediately (usually because of greedy pricing) sit forever.

The backup plan is to be able to profitably rent the house if the flip doesn't work. In SoCal, virtually every qualifiable buyer has bought a house, so you're renting to people who are pretty far down the scale in terms of credit scores... and that can spell trouble. I've also seen rents soften as the market chases the available renters.

There's a show I was recently tipped off to (on TLC?) called "Property Ladder." Along with having some pretty attractive women flipping & advising, it shows what can happen when a 12-week 'flip' turns into a 6-1/2 month project. A rising market masks all mistakes. But no market can rise forever.