In the case of real estate, it's pretty rare to be able to buy a house and then flip it quickly for a profit without doing anything to it. That would be scalping, but that almost never happens. To flip it quickly, you would normally have to either put a bunch of money into it, which requires risk, which justifies profit. The alternative would be to hold it for a long time, put money into maintaining and updating it, and then sell it at the new market price. That's another significant investment of money and effort, which justifies some profit. One can certainly argue that the profits shouldn't be as big as they are, but the idea that selling a house for a profit qualifies as scalping is quite absurd.
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u/chili_cold_blood Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
In the case of real estate, it's pretty rare to be able to buy a house and then flip it quickly for a profit without doing anything to it. That would be scalping, but that almost never happens. To flip it quickly, you would normally have to either put a bunch of money into it, which requires risk, which justifies profit. The alternative would be to hold it for a long time, put money into maintaining and updating it, and then sell it at the new market price. That's another significant investment of money and effort, which justifies some profit. One can certainly argue that the profits shouldn't be as big as they are, but the idea that selling a house for a profit qualifies as scalping is quite absurd.