Is the general contractor the real business in a flip, not the investor
A common entry point into flipping runs like this: the numbers on paper beat most other strategies, the investor wants no second job and no hammer, so the plan becomes buy the house, hand it to a general contractor on a fixed price contract, and show up at the end. The pushback worth taking seriously is that this treats the contractor as a vendor when the crew, the relationships with subs, and the ability to sequence a job on schedule are often the actual value being purchased, with the investor functioning as the funding source rather than as an operator. That is not contractor pride; it is where the execution risk sits on a fixed price rehab. An investor who never learns to read a scope of work, verify a draw schedule against completed work, or spot padded change orders is exposed regardless of how the contract looks on day one. The paper plan can work, but only if vetting and managing that contractor is the real job.
