Can You Still Flip Houses in 2026? We Asked Someone Who’s Done It 60+ Times

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Everyone’s got a take on flipping right now. Half the internet will tell you the math is dead, margins got squeezed out, rates broke the model, and you should move on. The other half is posting check photos on Instagram.

Somewhere in the middle is the truth. And the truth sounds a lot like Leka Devatha, a Seattle-based investor who left a corporate career at Nordstrom to flip houses full-time and has closed over 60 deals in one of the country’s most unforgiving markets.

We put her in the “Texting With” hot seat and asked the questions most investors are actually thinking but are too polite to ask in the group chat.

“How Do You Even Find a Flip That Pencils in Seattle Right Now?”

You get closer to the deal than everyone else.

Leka’s exact words: “Off-market relationships, speed to close, and knowing your rehab numbers so you can see margin where others see risk.” When every serious buyer is running the same MLS search and submitting the same offer, the edge lies in the prep work you did before the listing ever went live.

The people who say the math doesn’t work in Seattle are usually running the math on someone else’s deal. The investors still closing are doing it because they underwrite faster, move faster, and trust their numbers more than the competition does.

“What Kills a Flip? Walk Us Through the Autopsy.”

Scope creep. Every time.

You budget for cosmetics, and when you demo the kitchen wall, behind the wall is a problem that has been living in that house since the Clinton administration. Now your light refresh has a structural component and a permit timeline. 

As Leka puts it, “What looked like a cosmetic project reveals structural or systemic issues mid-demo, the schedule stretches, carrying costs stack up, and by the time you exit, you’ve eaten your margin in holding costs, overruns, and a slow market.”

The honest fix: Build contingency in from day one, and price scope discoveries before they price you out.

“If a New Flipper Had $100K and One Shot, What Should They Actually Buy?”

Leka says, “A dated but structurally sound single-family in a proven resale neighborhood.” Cosmetic-only scope. Purchase price low enough that your $100K covers the down payment, rehab, carrying costs, and a buffer you actually intend to use.

The ARV needs to be defensible, with “comps that closed in the last 90 days,” not from 2022 that you found just to make the spreadsheet look better.

The first deal is not supposed to be the one that retires you. It’s the one that teaches you what carrying costs actually feel like, what real scope creep looks like mid-demo, and whether you have the stomach for it before you go bigger. A boring deal with a real profit beats an exciting deal with a negative lesson.

“How Do You Actually Fund a Flip Today? What’s the Stack?”

Hard money is still the backbone, typically 70% to 75% LTV on purchase with rehab draws built in. It’s running 10% to 13% today, which is not cheap, but as Leka says, “The speed is worth it when you’re competing for a deal.” 

Having a lender you’ve already closed with matters more than the rate on paper. They pick up the phone. They move.

Hard money rarely covers everything, so private capital fills the gap: down payment, equity cushion, and closing costs. “This money moves on trust, not underwriting,” Leka says, which means you need to earn it before you need it.

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A business line of credit or a HELOC on an existing property is what Leka calls “your dry powder.” It’s not the primary stack; it’s what makes you competitive when something shows up fast. Close clean, then refinance or sell before the line comes due.

And here’s the part most people skip. Leka’s take: “The stack is less important than knowing your all-in cost of capital, timeline, and exit with precision. Every day you’re wrong on any of those three, your projected profit shrinks.”

“You Left Nordstrom to Flip Full-Time. What’s the Part Nobody Talks About?”

Leka says, “The income gap nobody prepares you for.”

Not just financially, but psychologically. At a corporate job, you get a paycheck every two weeks, whether the quarter was good or bad, and as Leka describes it, “your self-worth gets quietly tied to that stability.” When you flip, you can do everything right and still wait eight months to see a dollar.

Her reframe on the whole thing: “The leap isn’t really about courage; it’s about rewiring how you measure progress when there’s no external validation telling you you’re on track.” That part takes longer than most people think, and it doesn’t come up in the YouTube videos about your first flip.

“You’ve Done 60+ Flips. What Did You Use to Obsess Over That You Don’t Even Think About Anymore?”

Comps. Early on, Leka would agonize over every sale within a mile, second-guess the price per square foot, and build elaborate spreadsheets trying to “science my way to certainty.” Now she can walk a property for 20 minutes and land within a tight range of what it will sell for.

Because, as she puts it, “The real comp isn’t a spreadsheet. It’s 12 years of watching what buyers actually do when they walk into a room.” 

That kind of pattern recognition doesn’t come from a course. It comes from closing deals when you’re scared, losing money once in a way that stings just enough, and showing up again anyway.

The spreadsheet is still there. It’s just not running the show anymore.

Leka Devatha is a Seattle-based real estate investor and flipper with 60+ transactions and a track record in one of the country’s most competitive markets. Follow her on Instagram: @leka_devatha

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