Selling a home can be very nerve-wracking, so you may be tempted to take the first offer that comes along. Be careful! Potential buyers can be problematic if you don't know what to look for.Not all offers are created equal, so if you jump at one too soon, you could end up breaking the law, tying up the sale of your home, or seeing your home sale fall through.

"Flipping houses" sounds as easy as 1-2-3: 1) Buy a house significantly below market value, 2) fix it up, and 3) sell it. However, when you actually try to flip a house, you soon realize that it's tougher than it sounds. The beginner faces several hurdles, not the least of which is tracking down properties with potential and buying them for cheap.

When most people think of flipping houses, they immediately envision a process of buying a ramshackle house on the cheap, fixing it up, and then reselling it for more than they've invested in it. That's certainly the underlying theme, but the actual process of flipping houses spawns a tool shed full of choices and questions, including the following: Are you going to live in the house while fixing it up?

When renovating a property that you intend to flip, don't get carried away. Some home flippers hire top-of-the-scale contractors and insist on the highest-quality building materials from the nearest suppliers. To help you avoid that trap, here are 11 secrets that can slash your cash outlays and boost your bottom line.

The housing market, like the stock market, fluctuates. Home values can steam ahead, stay put, or spiral down out of control. You make your money when you buy a house at less than market value. By adjusting your purchase price based on market conditions, thus lowering your total investment in a property, you can make money in any market.

Each listing contains a deluge of details about the property, all of which can be very helpful in your search for a flippable property (see the a sample listing). Some of these details, however, are more useful than others. Focus your search on the following golden nuggets: List price: Now that you’re looking at listings of only those homes in your price range, examine the list price (found in the upper right corner) and compare it to that of other comparable houses in the same area.

Many eager, ill-informed investors become overenthusiastic about the big picture and lose sight of the critical details that can make or break a deal. They pay too much for a property, underestimate the cost of repairs and renovations, fail to inspect a property or research the title, or sign contracts that they don’t fully understand.

The first step in the house flipping process is the most crucial to your success — finding a property or properties with profit potential. Following are some ideas of where to look: Look for dontwanners in your neighborhood — vacant, unkempt homes the owners "don't want." Search on Auction.com. Read local foreclosure notices, available through your county's sheriff's office or register of deeds.