Housing slump may trip flips.

One thing I dread about the cooling housing market is that we'll probably soon see the end of all those television programs about house flipping.

In case you've missed them, the shows feature some independent risk-taking type who buys a run-down house, quickly fixes it up and sells it for an outsized profit.

There are several such shows. One's called "Flip This House." Another is called, not so ingeniously, "Flip That House." Los Angeles homes regularly pop up on "Flip That House," which isn't surprising since Los Angeles has been a capital of house flipping.

Regardless, the shows end with an annoying graphic that shows how the flipper bought the house for, say, $500,000 and spent $50,000 and three weeks prettifying it, then lists it for $700,000, which means he stands to profit by $150,000.

I'm annoyed by the graphic because it makes me feel guilty. I'm looking at some person who was smart enough to make $150,000 in three weeks--and being glorified on national TV, no less--while I'm sitting on my cushy davenport, you know, watching TV and laying waste to another evening.

I take some bitter solace in the fact the shows misrepresent reality. For one, the typical show ignores the weeks or months the flipper must've spent to find a home to buy at such a deep discount. (Real estate people are fond of saying smart flippers make money when they buy.) And the shows disregard the real estate agent's commission, which really chops into any profit.

But I can't help myself. I'm fascinated by these shows, as is apparent by now. And I'm already getting wistful because the shows surely will end soon. Flippers depend on rising home values, and now that the housing market's cooling decidedly, flippers and shows about flippers appear as doomed as the career of Mark Foley. Flipping activity already dipped big in the second quarter.

Here's why I think I'm drawn to flipping: The shows are only marginally about houses. They're really about the entrepreneurial spirit.

Think about it. The woman or man who becomes a flipper usually is an independent, self-motivated, visionary type who's unafraid of hard work and willing to take a risk. Those are the qualities you find in Henry Ford or Bill Gates or the Google guys.

Furthermore, house flipping is open to anyone who has some guile and guts. A flipper needs no special degree or inheritance or union affiliation to join. So long as the flipper can get the financing, his only requirement is to find the flinty within him to take the plunge.

Another thing I like: Flippers make money or lose it largely because of the business decisions they make. Too much travertine and granite in a house in a modest neighborhood means lost money. But if the flipper buys a run-down house at a deep discount in a great neighborhood and repairs it quickly and beautifully, well, that flipper can afford to send his kid to Harvard University.

Yes, those flipper shows misrepresent reality and yes, those graphics can fill me with guilt. Still, I'll miss flippers and the shows that glorify them.

After all, you can just sit on your davenport, switch on the TV and get a great little reminder that American enterprise is thriving just down the block.

Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [e-mail].