Thinking about a house to flip

I've been looking for a place that I like in an area that I like. I've even made a few offers but nothing has been successful. I've been renting and don't really care much for that as it's not a place that's all that useful. We've had numerous realtors working and the problem has been more a matter of inventory than ambition. (They can't create our perfect property out of thin air, either it's for sale or it's not.)

I have no desire to spend another year renting a spot and living in a tin can... er... I mean RV. I'll do it if I have to but I'm tired of this.

And so I got to thinking, why not explore buying a place with the full intention of flipping it? I'm no stranger to fixing places up. I have some skills when it comes to remodeling.

Of course, the people on TV that do such things make it sound like it's as easy as falling off a log to make big profits flipping houses, buying a dump, pouring in 50 grand, and extracting 50 grand in profit. (I just made the numbers up.) I suspect there are some things about flipping houses that they never tell.

Bringing it back from fantasyland, I know there are people who do flip for profit. It's hard work and there are times when they don't make a whole lot. But there is money to be made. There are a lot of things that I am perfectly capable of doing myself that wouldn't require hiring contractors at $100/hr. There are a few that I may need some help with and I understand that. As much as I dislike the term "sweat equity", that would be what I'd be looking to build.

Even if the profit were to turn out to be a big fat zero, and there was no actual loss, it would save me something on the order of $500/mo for every month I don't have to rent a place to park this tin can... er... I mean, RV. I had a piece of property some time back that ended up being something very much like that.

Maybe it would be a project for the winter that has the potential to actually build a little equity and, perhaps, give me a bit larger down payment towards either another similar property if we still can't find what we're looking for next year, or THE place we think will be the place we can settle down for a while.

Although I wouldn't likely find a flip type property that would come close to what we're actually looking to settle on permanently, I would be thinking in terms of having enough land to be useful to me for at least some gardening and such, and at least some privacy, just in case we ended up being stuck there and unable to move, like if the economy dropped out from under us and nothing was selling at all. In that case, we could at least hunker down as best we could and hopefully have at least a few resources. That's the thinking anyway.

Nothing is decided. It's just something I've been mulling over. Any thoughts? Wanna talk me out of it? Wanna warn me about pitfalls? Wanna encourage me to do it right? I'm interested. Like I said, nothing is decided, it's exploration.

Thanks

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Thinking about a house to flip