they are an excellent way for a beginner to begin.
they can be good and bad, if you go out there and try to flip the first property you look at, it could be a very bad experience but if you find the right property and have all the steps in place it can be a very good experience with a healthy short term financial gain (4k in 30 days on 1 deal is VERY possible)
i recommend steve cooks course on flipping offered here on creonline and bronchick has a very low priced book i found at amazon.com on flipping (i believe it was $20 or so)
I hope I am not making this to simple for you to use. A flip is just finding a good deal, putting it under contract and selling it as soon as you can. Some times fixing it up, some times selling it for maket price which you paid less for, sometimes changing the use to increase value. I heard of a guy who bought a parking lot in down town San Fransico who sold the spaces like condo’s to local busness at a large profit…I think the big thing here is not holding the propert to make money renting or waiting for the neighborhood to improve but rather buy at whole sale to sell at retail as soon as you can…hope this helped and best of luck.