I’ve been flipping houses for five years. I can’t believe I’ve lasted this long. It’s a great way to earn a living, provided you know what you’re doing. A few times, during my first couple of flips, I was ready to throw in the towel. In this business, every mistake, every problem, costs you money. You run into enough problems or make one mistake too many, and you’ll lose your shirt on a house. The trick is to learn all you can from the best trades people along the way, so you can spot some of the costly problems before you buy a property. You also need to learn about the construction commonly found in your area. That knowledge allows you to make realistic renovation timetables with accurate cost projections. In this area, I run into a lot of homes with boiler systems as the primary heat source. The way a boiler works is by heating water which gets conducted through radiators, radiant floor systems or a coil. These older boilers scare off buyers who see them as being inefficient. It is true that with an old boiler some of the energy used to heat the boiler is lost in the process of conducting. So, I always budget for the installation of a high efficiency boiler designed to trap any escaping heat and direct it back into heating the home. It becomes a big selling point. My real estate agent knows to tell clients that boilers over 10 years old have low efficiency ratings and waste fuel, but the new boiler installed in the renovated house is twice as efficient and half as much to run. For a lot of buyers, knowing they won’t have to deal with major heating repairs or high heating bills, seals the deal.