Flipping houses is a great side hustle, but analyzing a deal can be hard. This is because most investors don’t have access to the MLS. However, FlipComp promises to put an end to this madness. Read on to learn our take on this real estate investing platform.
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Why FlipComp?
Flipping houses for profit is one way real estate investors make money, and in the first quarter of 2019, we saw the highest home flipping rates since 2010. That’s impressive, as only 15% of Americans currently investing in real estate outside of their primary residence.
Video Source: Product Demo from the FlipComp Youtube Channel
Both seasoned investors interested in working smarter and people who are ready to start investing can simplify the property research process with software, but with so many to wade through, it’s tough to know where to start.
But FlipComp seeks to change this, and claims it’s able to find real estate deals for you so you can focus on the investing piece. We’ll dig deep into FlipComp and show you the features, plans, and pricing you get with this software.
Plus, we outline a few problems we had that might help you decide whether or not FlipComp is right for you as an investor.
What is FlipComp?
FlipComp promises to connect you to your local MLS, allow you to search and track property listings, set up special search criteria, analyze deals and potential profit, get listing alerts, and access public property information, all from one dashboard.
FlipComp was founded in 2011 by Curt Ranta, a real estate agent and investor with nearly two decades in the industry. The company grew from a vision he had for software.
He wanted something that could simplify and improve the process of hunting and analyzing houses with the potential to flip for a profit. FlipComp was acquired by Realeflow in 2014 and is now run by Greg Clement.
FlipComp Features
The company boasts the features like MLS integration, auto-alerts, and search functionality. However, the real value of the platform is the deal analyzer. Using real-time and historical data, you’re able to analyze deals on a number of levels. Here is a list of our favorite features:
Full access to MLS listings
FlipComp connects you to your local MLS when you sign up, showing you property listings in your area that may make great investments. If you already have MLS access, some of the features below might still make FlipComp useful for you.
Deal analyzer
Get adjustable estimates on the sell price, acquisition price, net profit, cash needed, any additional construction or repair costs, permits, taxes, closing costs, and financing of any property listing with the deal analyzer feature.
These transaction fees and expenses have to be factored in by investors in order to estimate possible profits and total expenses. However, it isn’t as simple or hands-off as it sounds.
In order to get accurate estimates that won’t mislead you, you’ll have to enter and update your own average values (how much you usually pay in repair costs, closing costs, etc.). This is a hurdle for new, inexperienced real estate investors to jump over.
Make sure to check out our guide on “after-repair value,” a common metric used by many real estate investors.
Set custom property alerts
Cut down on browsing time and make sure the properties you’re interested in land straight in your inbox or sent to your smartphone with custom property alerts. You can adjust how often these alerts go out, from several times a day, once a week, or never.
Search by keyword
You’re probably looking for properties that feature specific keywords that let you know it’s an investment property, like “handyman special” or “fixer upper.” You can filter a search with all the typical criteria (city, state, etc).
But you can also search the property descriptions for any keyword you’re targeting and save that search to use again.
Sort by profit potential
You can arrange your searches to show you properties with the highest profit potential. As we mentioned above, the profit potential estimates won’t be accurate without your input of average values for costs and fees involved in the buying transaction.
Even if the estimates aren’t spot on, they can still help you determine a rough idea of how much money you’ll spend and how much profit you can make when you flip the house.
Public property data access
Access to public information about each property is included with a FlipComp subscription. Property taxes, past repairs and construction, liens on the property, mortgage information, neighborhood data, previous sale prices, and land descriptions are all found in public property databases.
You can imagine how not having this information could result in some unpleasant surprises during closing (like outstanding property taxes, a declining neighborhood, or repeated repairs for an ongoing issue). That’s what makes getting this information so important.
Customer support
If you have issues using the software, FlipComp offers customer support online through Kayako, live chat, email, and telephone.
Online: https://flipcomp.kayako.com/
Email: support@flipcomp.com
Toll Free: (888)-292-9606
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9am-8pm ET
FlipComp Plans and Pricing
We found two current pricing options available. FlipComp has a single plan but a quick search led us to a “secret” deal that includes FlipComp and access to the Lite version of Realeflow for a bundled price.
Searching “FlipComp” also presented us with a page that promised a 30-day free trial, but it appears that deal is no longer valid. The website homepage mentions an option to “Learn more about our affiliate program” but that offer was invalid, too.
FlipComp Standard $149.00
As you probably guessed, this is the standard platform with the standard features. Upgrades are available, but an entry level investor wouldn’t need anything more than these features:
- MLS listing access
- Deal analysis
- Property alerts
- Keyword searches
- View profit potential by property
- Public property data access
This is a recurring monthly subscription that will be billed to your credit card.
FlipComp + Realeflow Deal $198.00
Includes all FlipComp features above, plus one month of access to the Lite version of Realeflow:
- 1 user
- 1 lead generation website
- Nationwide lead access
- Direct mail engine access (print, stuff, stamp and send)
- Pre-approval letter
- Submit a property loan application
This is a recurring monthly subscription that is billed to your credit card.
FlipComp Customer Support Flop
We reached out to customer support via live chat during business hours to get an idea of how quickly a representative would respond and answer a genuine question about the software.
While the live chat window indicated the team usually responds in under 20 minutes, we waited more than 1 hour for the message status to change from “Unread” to “Seen.”
When we still didn’t get a response to that message 5 minutes later, we sent another message — it, too, was “Seen” without receiving a response. In fact, we never received a response of any kind from them. Keep this in mind if you’re considering using FlipComp and if fast, friendly customer support is important to you.
- Message 1 sent: 9:05am
- Message 1 seen: 10:07am
- Message 2 sent: 10:12am
- Message 2 seen: 10:12am
That said, I know many sites use bots to automate customer service. This is a great strategy, but you need agents on the other end of the computer answering when they can. I believe chat bots are only a stop-gap to give answers fast.
However, if you have a chat feature on your site, users expect quick answers, and to let two messages go unanswered for over an hour does not instill much confidence in the company.
Is FlipComp Worth a Try?
Without a free trial available, it’s important to learn as much as possible about FlipComp before signing up. Once you sign up, you’re a monthly subscriber and are billed automatically at the same time each month unless you cancel in writing via email.
If you do find a property you’re interested in buying, FlipComp provides the name of the listing agent, but it’s up to you to locate the agent’s phone number and email address.
This is from their FAQ page: “Although we do not provide the listing agents contact details, you can search for the agent’s phone number and email address based on the details we provide.”
We found a lot of broken links and special deals and rates that are no longer available, but still on the website or appearing as a top result in search. It is unclear whether the affiliate program or 30 day free trial are actually unavailable or if there’s an issue with the links themselves.
We reached out to FlipComp via live chat and email for answers and still hadn’t received a reply at the time this review was published.
The Bottom Line
FlipComp hasn’t made sure the information about the company online is accurate and up to date. They should offer more support to users who are moving forward with purchasing a property and provide more than just the listing agent’s name.
I found it odd that you can’t use the demo without signing up for the service. While it may be a good platform, it was hard to determine this because I could not see the platform in action without actually signing up.
Also, their customer support failed our test and left vital questions unanswered. These drawbacks outweigh any potential real estate investing benefits this software could have offered.
If you can’t get in touch with the team to ask a simple question, change a setting, cancel your subscription, or even see the demo without signing up, you’re better off using different software.
