If you’re about to become a real estate investor and you’re thinking about taking out a hard money loan to buy a property, you need to first account for all possible expenses – because flipping houses isn’t free. If you don’t plan properly, you could end up wasting money you don’t need to waste. And that means you need to consider holding costs. What Are Holding Costs? The term holding costs refers to the amount of money it’s going to cost you to hang on to a property that hasn’t sold yet. Holding costs include: Property taxes Insurance Utilities Maintenance