Have you noticed that folks are making money in every aspect of the real estate market? LOTS of money? We did. And moreover, our observation was that many of those folks making a lot of money were (and are) morons. Heck, how could we do worse than they? It just didn't seem possible to lose.

Well, we were wrong about that. It is possible to lose, and lose BIG. We'll spell that out in another chapter. But fortunately for us (and for you, benefiting from our experience) we were (and are) not morons and we were not trying to get rich in a day, a month, or even a year. We simply figured that we had the minimal skills and tolerance for risk that it would take to try out the whole "home flipping" phenomenon and make a few bucks.

Craig's day job includes consulting and an Internet business. Jim's day job is that of a pastor and regional director of a Christian youth organization. We are not professional contractors or real estate specialists. What we collectively brought to the table in terms of abilities was this.

• A love of adventure and a tolerance for risk
• Loving, supportive wives who were willing to trust us with our family assets
• A great friendship, high trust level in each other, and enjoyment of each other's company
• A shared ethic of honesty and integrity
• The belief that God would honor a hard day's work
• Flexible day-job schedules
• Some business savvy (mostly Craig)
• Some mechanical ability and experience with home improvement (mostly Jim)
• The ability to laugh at ourselves (and, on occasion, others)
• The desire to make a few dollars to help with college funding, vacations, and appreciating our wives

There you have it. You probably have more assets than that. It was hardly an impressive resume, but it worked out wonderfully.

We found a realtor (much more on that later), and she found us a nightmare of a property with good potential in a nice part of a bad city. We worked really hard for two months, sold it in five days, and netted $50,000. We were stunned to make that much money. Our original projection was that we would net perhaps as much as $15,000, which was a ton of money in our eyes. We made mistakes, learned many valuable lessons, had our core values affirmed, enjoyed the work, and made more cash than we ever dreamed we could. And pretty soon we decided to incorporate and see if we could do it all over again. Almost to our surprise, we found that we could.

C & W Renovations LLC has averaged a net profit of over $40,000 on each low/mid range project we have undertaken. If you count high-end projects, the average profit climbs impressively. Do not count on replicating the results of our initial project on your first try. We don't bank on making that kind of money on every project, even with all of our experience! We are having fun, making money, and enjoying the ride. You can, too.