is television brainwashing homebuyers?

I have a good friend who just moved into his first home. As a single father, it took him considerably more time to get his finances in order. He's blown so much cash on daycare over the last decade that saving money for a down payment was very difficult for him. Now that he has finally taken the plunge into homeownership, one of the things that he is looking forward to is selling his home for more than he paid.

What?

That's exactly what I was asking myself when I first heard him say this. You see, my friend has been sold on the idea of real estate flipping, and seems to believe that all one needs to do is continually buy homes, reface their interiors a little, and make a bundle to afford the next (bigger) home. While this may work for some people, I think there's a good chance that things aren't always going to work out this way. Why does he believe that this is the way things work? Because he's seen it on television on those silly HGTV programs.

My friend is a bit naive, and it bothers me that these programs are out there brainwashing people into believing that every property out there can be "fixed up" and resold for more. They rarely present cases where people waste a bunch of money fixing up a home, can't sell it, and have to foreclose because they cannot afford the payments themselves.

Perhaps what bothers me the most is that my friend just purchased his first home, and he's already thinking about what he might make when he sells it. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. He hasn't even unpacked yet! He's got kids, too, and I wonder how they feel knowing that Dad is already scheduling the sale of their first home where they each get their own room.

Don't get me wrong - I know that sometimes we have to take "babysteps" to get where we need to be, and that real estate is no exception. But I have been fully aware of *most* of the possible risks before I got into anything. When speaking with my friend, it's as if he feels this is a sure-proof way to make money. And I blame that on television, his naivety, and the fact that he didn't do any kind of research on his own prior to jumping into this venture. I just hope that he can afford the payments.