Is House Flipping Worth It in 2026? What Flippers Make, and Why Ryan Pineda Stopped

By Neil Barrett · Last Updated: November 12, 2026 (Price & Content Verified)

Ryan Pineda says he’s done “almost a thousand deals of flips and wholesales” in 11 years.

A thousand deals. Most people can’t finish a thousand-piece puzzle.

“I got into flipping houses in 2015,” he recalls on his own podcast.

Then, in October 2026: “I just announced that I was shutting down my house flipping wholesaling business.”

So the most experienced flipper in the room just left the room.

Short, fair answer: house flipping can still be worth it for some people. But 2025 returns were the thinnest since 2008, and the guy who sold the coaching just walked away.

Why Most Real Estate Coaching Sucks

Is house flipping worth it in 2026?

The case for it: ATTOM counted 297,045 flips in 2025, and the typical one still showed a gross profit.

The case against, from the same report: that was “the fewest home flips recorded in a year since 2020.” Gross ROI fell to 25.5%, “the lowest rate recorded since 2008.”

2008. Not the year you want to be compared to.

And Ryan? Asked “Should everyone quit real estate?”, he answers: “I think there’s a lot of people who should.”

Not exactly sales-page copy.

To be fair, he also says: “I don’t think you can’t make money flipping or wholesaling. I think there’s plenty of people still doing it at a high level.”

At a high level. Remember that phrase.

How much do house flippers make?

According to ATTOM’s 2025 year-end report, “the typical flipped home netted $65,981 in gross profit, down from $77,000 in 2024.”

$65,981 over the 163 days ATTOM’s average 2025 flip took is about $405 a day.

Gross profit is not your profit

ATTOM’s gross profit is resale price minus purchase price. It leaves out “rehab costs and other expenses incurred, which flipping veterans estimate typically run between 20 percent and 33 percent of a property’s after-repair value.”

On the median $325,000 resale, that’s roughly $65,000 to $107,000 of rehab.

Take the low end off the $65,981. You’re left with $981.

Nine hundred eighty-one dollars. Before the lender says a word.

Then the lender says a word. Crestmont Capital, a lender, says hard money “typically” runs “9.5% to 13.0%,” with “origination points ranging from 1.5 to 3 points.” Their guide is here. Plug those into the house flipping calculator and watch the profit line slide off the screen.

The trend is going the wrong way

ATTOM’s Q2 2026 report puts the typical margin at “21.5 percent, down from 25.7 percent in the previous quarter and 27.6 percent at the same time last year.”

Margins once “consistently exceeded 50 percent, even reaching 61.1 percent in 2012,” per ATTOM.

So today’s margin is about a third of the 2012 peak. The party was in 2012. You’re the guy showing up to help fold the chairs.

And the “buy it cheap” strategy? “Homes acquired for $50,000 or less generated a typical loss of $15,000, representing a negative 38 percent return,” ATTOM reports.

That’s not a flip. That’s a donation with a lockbox.

Even Ryan Pineda quit flipping

“For the last uh call it 3 years, it’s been mainly wholesale. Like I got away from flipping, mainly just wholesaled,” Ryan says.

2022 is why. “I was sitting on 50 house flips that uh were all going negative,” he recalls. “Yeah, and I was going to lose millions, and I did.”

Fifty at once. Most people panic about one leaky faucet.

He’s lived the slow market too. “We were selling houses in 3 to four months when things were super hot to then taking 9 months because the market had shifted,” he told a 2023 stage audience. Same talk: “I’ve had to put over a million bucks into one deal of my own money to make sure that we could protect the investors.”

One deal. Yikes.

Credit where it’s due, though. “We always paid back our investors,” he says, and “I personally took the hit.” That’s a damn good look.

And 2026? “The last two quarters this year in 2026 um have basically like broke even slash lost depending on how we do the the finances,” he admits. “Rates ain’t coming down.”

His summary: “It really is like couch flipping at this point.”

Couch flipping. From the guy with almost a thousand deals. That’s not a hot take, that’s a retirement speech. The full version lives in why Ryan Pineda quit real estate.

When house flipping can still work

Fair is fair. Going by the numbers above, the flips that hold up buy well under the 70% rule, not at the national average of roughly 67% of ARV that Kiavi reports. They keep rehab at the low end of ATTOM’s range, sell fast and keep cash reserves for the year it goes sideways.

That’s the “high level” from earlier. Told you we’d need it.

It’s also a lot of “ifs.” Ryan’s own question: “why would you fight a falling knife essentially.”

If you’re thinking about paying someone to teach you, check what Wealthy Investor costs and its refund policy first. Reportedly $8,000 to $20,000, and the terms say “All sales are final.” Ouch.

What I’d do instead

Every flip has the same shape: buy, fix, borrow, wait, sell, start over. Each step costs money before you see a dollar.

The model I’d point you to is digital real estate: a website that ranks on Google for a local service and gets rented to a local business that wants the calls. No purchase. No rehab. No 11% loan ticking while the house sits there looking pretty for 161 days.

Ryan’s own podcast had a guest, Luke Van Der Veer, who rents websites to local businesses. Asked about a rental property versus renting websites: “Oh, my website. It’s not even close.” More in the Wealthy Way podcast breakdown, and the full picture is in my Ryan Pineda review.

Show Me What I'd Do Instead

You found this page on Google. That’s the proof. The video walks through how it works.