House flipping has been a hot trend in real estate for years, bolstered in part by glossy TV shows featuring charismatic personalities who earn big profits in just one 30-minute episode. However, flipping houses is a serious business: It requires knowledge, planning, and savvy to be successful. Common mistakes novice real estate investors make are underestimating the time needed to renovate a house, under budgeting the money required, overestimating their handyman skills, not knowing enough about the market to be profitable, or buying the first house they see without making an informed assessment.