Can You Flip a House Faster Than Cooking a Turkey?
Updated Dec 6, 2025
Every Thanksgiving, while the turkey slowly cooks and the house fills with that unmistakable holiday aroma, my mind wanders to an odd comparison: How does the time and cost of cooking a turkey stack up against flipping a house?
It sounds ridiculous at first—but stay with me. The answer reveals a surprisingly good lesson about labor, profit, and the hidden economics behind flipping anything, whether it’s poultry or property.
The True Cost of a Thanksgiving Turkey
Let’s start with the basics. A typical 20-pound turkey often costs somewhere between $20 and $50. For the sake of simplicity (because I love clean, round numbers), let’s assume:
- $20 turkey weighing 20 pounds
- Feeds 20 people at roughly $1 per person
For pure calories per dollar, turkey is an incredible deal—especially compared to beef, seafood, or even some plant-based options. From a raw cost standpoint, Thanksgiving dinner is one of the most economical meals you can serve a crowd.
But we all know the turkey doesn’t magically appear carved on the table.
The Real Time Investment: Total Turkey Time
Let’s break down the steps it actually takes to get that bird from the store to the plate:
- Buying the turkey: 1 hour
- Brining the turkey: 1 hour
- Prepping for cooking: 1 hour
- Cooking time: 6 hours
- Carving & serving: 1 hour
Total Turkey Time: 10 hours
Suddenly our economical $1-per-person meal starts to look a bit different when you factor in labor. Even if you’re not Gordon Ramsay, your time has value.
What If We Priced the Turkey Like a Flip?
Let’s say we’re “flipping” this turkey—not just serving it. To be fair, we need to include the cost of labor. Most professional cooks don’t work for minimum wage, and chances are you don’t value your own time that low either.
So let’s assume a reasonable labor value of $50 per hour for the cook.
Ten hours of work × $50/hour = $500 in labor
Divide that across 20 servings, and suddenly our “cheap” Thanksgiving dinner costs:
$25 per person before any profit.
Honestly… that actually aligns with what you'd pay at a pretty nice restaurant. Not bad for a bird that started at twenty bucks.
Okay, But Where’s the Profit?
To call this a true flip, we need to make money—not just cover our time and costs. Let’s say we aim for a clean, simple profit of $4 per plate.
That bumps the final price to:
$30 per person
Our profit? 20 servings × $4 = $80 net profit
Not only did we recover the original $20 cost of the turkey… we quadrupled it.
That’s a 400% ROI.
Not bad for Thanksgiving! But now the important question…
Can You Match That Profit Margin With Real Estate?
House flipping requires:
- Bigger upfront investment
- More time
- Higher risk
- Greater expertise
But the math is fundamentally the same: initial cost + labor + holding costs + profit target = final resale price.
Just on a different scale.
If a cleverly priced turkey dinner can quadruple your money, imagine what happens when you apply the same disciplined thinking—controlling costs, valuing your time, and pricing strategically—to property flipping.
In that sense, yes—you can flip a house “faster” than cooking a turkey… at least financially.
And unlike a turkey, you don’t have to carve the house before you sell it.
Final Thoughts
This silly Thanksgiving comparison does highlight something serious: every flip, whether food or real estate, comes down to understanding time, cost, and value.
When you examine the full picture—not just the purchase price—you see where the real profit (or loss) happens. And that’s a mindset that separates casual dabblers from strategic investors, whether you’re flipping homes or hosting holiday dinners.
So next Thanksgiving, when the turkey is roasting and you’re watching the timer tick away… maybe you’ll find yourself wondering too:
Could this meal have been a flip?
Happy flipping—and happy feasting.