Foreclosure Investing – a Smart Strategy

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:43:59 +0000

Foreclosure investing is a form of real estate investment. It is one of the best investment options as far as returns on investments are concerned. Foreclosure investment opportunities are normally created when homeowners default on monthly installment payments and the bank confiscates their property. The property is then sold at a foreclosure auction. Foreclosure investment opportunities are also available when a homeowner tries to sell the property directly to the ready buyers, before the foreclosure is announced. Information about such auctions is readily available on the Internet. You can use the information to invest in properties that have the potential to maximize your investment returns, in the next few years.
It is a buyer’s market
The foreclosure investment market is often called a buyer’s market because buyers are in a better position to negotiate the price of the property and other related terms and conditions in a deal. A homeowner, who has not made timely payment towards a mortgage loan, is usually aware of the fact that the property will be confiscated and he will not be able to profit from the sale proceeds. To avoid foreclosure, homeowners try to sell their property and use the proceeds for applying for new mortgage loans or buying new properties. Generally, owners who want to avoid the impending foreclosure have only 60 to 90 days to sell the property, before it is evaluated at a public trustee sale. According to certain state laws, homeowners are even given the option to reclaim their property within 360 days. Homeowners, who do not use this option, if available, will not be able to stop the lenders from foreclosing the properties and eventually selling them at a public auction.
Cheap and low risk investment option
Investing in foreclosure properties is probably the cheapest way of maximizing your investment returns. If you conduct a thorough research, you can easily identify and buy properties at very reasonable prices. In the past, there have been properties that were sold at discounts as high as sixty to eighty cents to a dollar. The foreclosure investment market is considered a low risk one, since land is a scarce resource. The value of the land will definitely rise, even if the real estate market witnesses a downtrend.
Other benefits
There is no dearth of foreclosure properties in the market. In order to buy a foreclosure property, you may not even have to apply for a bank loan. You just need to identify a suitable buyer, who is willing to pay the right price. Foreclosure properties are either sold at auctions or the buyer sells it directly.
As compared to the regular real estate market, the foreclosure properties market has a fewer investors. This makes it a lot easier to find and buy properties below the existent market rates. It is anticipated that the foreclosure properties market is set to grow at a steady pace in the next few years. The investment thus made is worth all the initial effort and patience applied. The foreclosure investment market offers real value on the money spent and re-evaluation of the property always reveals that the price paid was well below the existent market value.

Creative Real Estate Investing for Flat and Down Markets – Beating the Bursting Bubble!

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:43:28 +0000

I find the current media coverage about the “Bursting Real Estate Bubble”to be priceless for those of us who are investors. They talk about falling house prices which will only bring gloom and doom for homeowners and real estate investors a like. I can understand where they are coming from; having little or no knowledge about investing and that is OK, because it just creates more opportunity for you and I. Real estate is cyclical and always has been. There was a large national article published that stated Las Vegas real estate had completely capped out and there was no place for it to go but down. Does that sound familiar? If so, you may want to think again. That article was published nearly half a century ago! Has real estate gone up in value in Las Vegas in the last 50 years? You bet, and not just a little! Now does that mean real estate is going to keep going up like it has the last few years? I wouldn’t plan on it, particularly in the short term, however that’s what makes this media coverage so invaluable. *It creates fear that scares off a lot of people from investing (creating more opportunity). *It eliminates aggressive scam investments (as we saw rampant with builders in Florida and Las Vegas the last few years). *It makes people question the value of their properties (creating more flexible sellers). Here is something to consider: do you know any ultra successful real estate investor that is afraid of flat or declining house prices? Quite to the contrary, knowledgeable investors understand when markets are flat or down it just weeds out beginning investors, makes people panic and means more opportunity. What’s important to understand is just as real estate is cyclical, so are the amount of buyers and sellers in a given market. When markets are up, you’ll have to spend more time finding motivated sellers, but you have the benefit of appreciation on your side. When markets are down, you can’t depend on appreciation, but you’ll have a lot more motivated sellers to work with. In fact, when markets are down, you usually have to let “good” deals go, so you can take advantage of the “best” deals! We’re not just buying properties and hoping that they will appreciate or go up in value. That’s not investing, that’s speculating! Your completely dependent on future growth that is entirely out of your control. That’s a conventional mindset and will not work in flat or declining real estate markets especially in the short term. Like any business, you need to make well calculated decisions. In real estate, that includes making creative, risk free offers and setting up your exits appropriately for the specific circumstances. There are better and more creative real estate investing strategies for down and soft markets like assignments, lease options(as a seller or a “sandwich”), foreclosures, short sales, wholesaling and “subject to” arrangements. But even when doing rehabs or fixer uppers (which are not typically recommended in down markets) there are still good ways to make a good profit with the right system and proper planning. For example, let’s say you are in a market depreciating at 10% a year, you would need to factor in the time to make the rehab repairs plus the time to sell (with a cushion), then subtract market depreciation during that time. So if an area was depreciating at 10% a year and you had a property that would take 2-3 months to fix up and 2-3 months to sell, you would want to subtract an additional 5-6% from the retails sales price when making your offer to a seller. There’s really no issue with doing rehabs of fixer uppers in down markets, you just need to factor in depreciation accordingly. This is why faster, lower risk, more creative real estate investing strategies are better to use during market declines. The point is market conditions will not determine your success; it’s how you approach your market and do what is appropriate for the current trends. When you structure risk free deals and make calculated decisions, the market conditions will never be a determining factor of whether you make money or not! Copyright © 2007-9 Creativerealestatehelp.com. All rights reserved.

Advanced Option Strategies » Foreclosure

Foreclosure Investing – a Smart Strategy

Creative Real Estate Investing for Flat and Down Markets – Beating the Bursting Bubble!