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I think many have some animosity towards flippers because of the belief that they contribute to artificial, speculative bubbles. Therefore, if you are not a homeowner and are looking to buy, the flippers and speculative bubbles, esp. in the more bubbly areas, create a good deal of uncertainly and added risk for a homebuyer.
When you add in 20-30% of speculative buyers to a market, it drives the prices up, and in housing, that cycle historically has lasted around 7 years, getting hotter and hotter in the last 2 years.
But any rise in assets driven by speculative activity is going to end. In many ways, it's like a Ponzi scheme, it relies on "new speculative money" to keep growing. That cannot continue forever. In the bubble areas, 30-50% of the price of a house is not "real," it is the "speculative" component of the price. When the speculators withdraw from the market, that part of the price also gets withdrawn out. It just takes a few years.
Anyways, that's why some have animosity towards flippers/speculators. Different people are in different stages of life, and if you are one just starting out, buying a first house, etc. in a bubbly area in, say, 2004, 2005 or 2006, flippers have contributed greatly to making your life more difficult and your homebuying more risky.
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