Ask HN: Dev experience buying an existing website?

[wbc]

Anyone have experience buying an existing site from something like flippa and building it out from the developer side?

I heard most of these are scams, but was wondering if there's good methods for finding a site worth spending dev time.

Mental model (knowing very little) about the process is like house flippers that take existing run-down houses, renovating and re-selling for a markup.

Except I'm fine w/ just building the site for long term.

[al2o3cr]

To extend the house-flipping analogy, your question is like a carpenter asking if anyone has experience buying run-down houses and doing a lot of woodworking in them. That's not likely to lead to much financial success house-flipping...

In both cases, the work you _want_ to do (dev work / carpentry) is necessary but not the part that makes you the money: MARKETING