Related Links

Bookmark and Share

Featured Links

Recommended Sites
Real Estate Links





Quote of the Day

"Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality."

Salvador Dali



Recommended Products





 


 
Featured Real Estate Articles

Midway Utah Real Estate
Midway Utah is a small town located 46 miles north of Salt Lake. It is adjacent to the popular cities of Heber and Park City. This nice high alpine valley city sits on the Wasatch Front between thick forests and beautiful lakes. The beautiful mountains ...

New Mexico Real Estate - The Mystical and Mysterious State
New Mexico is the state of metaphysical influences and unidentified flying objects. Fortunately, there is no mystery about New Mexico real estate. Prices are exploding. New Mexico With mountain ranges and desert areas, New Mexico is a popular state with ...

Oregon Real Estate - Going Hip and Green
Located in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon is hip state that gets a lot of rain. This rain results in a beautiful green state, but doesn't put a damper on the real estate market. Oregon From the stunning Crater Lake to Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon is ...

4 Ways To Get Rich in Real Estate
 
1. Find foreclosures

If you have enough cash you can buy homes at the foreclosure auction. Most areas require you to pay cash the day of the auction. The problem with this strategy is that you might run into title problems and many times you cannot see the inside of the home prior to the auction.

My personal favorite is to find people in foreclosure and work a deal with them prior to the auction. This does not require you to pay cash and many times you can buy the home with seller financing.

This situation can be beneficial to both parties. You are helping someone keep a foreclosure off their record and also buying a home at a discount.

2. Pay retail and hold for the long haul.

Paying retail for real estate has worked very well lately. The Sarasota, Florida real estate market, like many areas of the country, has been booming. You could have purchased pretty much anything within the last few years and made money.

There has been alot of talk lately about a real estate bubble. It wil be interesting to see if recent home buyers will keep their price gains. I believe prices to stabilize in areas that are forecasted to have large population growth, like Sarasota, Florida.

In my area almost every property has a negative cash flow if you purchase using a mortgage. I cannot find one property in my area that produces a positive cash flow with any kind of financing.

You have to focus on the time value of money when looking at the long term benefits of real estate. Let's say you buy a $200,000 house today and the home appreciates at a modest 5% a year. After 20 years that home will be worth more than $530,000! At a 10% appreciation rate for 20 years the home will be worth over $1,345,000! Let's be negative and say that real estate will only appreciate at 3% a year for the next 20 years. At this slow appreciation rate the home you paid $200,000 for would still be worth $361,222 at the end of 20 years. Keep in mind that at the same time you or your tenants are also paying down the mortgage. Can you imagine if you had 10-20 good long term rentals? After 20 years there is a good chance you would be a multi-millionaire.

3. Buy in depressed areas

Find areas that are depressed but have some redeeming quality such as proximity to the beach or waterfront, a thriving downtown or some other desireable place. Many depressed neighborhoods need a pioneer. Someone to come into the neighborhood, pay retail, either tear down and build or rehab the old homes. This kind of activity will eventually attract other investors or home owners with money. Once the money starts rolling into the neighborhood it changes and starts to become a more desireable place, which ultimately attracts more money.

I purchased a home in a depressed neighborhood on the water in Bradenton, Florida. A developer is buying my house and other depressed homes in the neighborhood to build high rise condos. The redeeming quality of the house I purchased is that it was on a river, with a gorgeous view and was convenient to a changing downtown.

4. Fix up houses

As a Realtor I have worked with hundreds of buyers over the years. There are people who just won't buy homes that need work. They either don't have the time, patience, knowledge or desire to buy an outdated home and fix it up. This is where the handyman or contractor can make some good money.

I have made money in the past by fixing up and flipping tired homes. However, I have always purchased them at a discount from normal market values. Make sure you either get the house at a good price or have a way of adding some value to the house. Usually, the investors who get their hands dirty make money doing this. I see many wanna-be investors get into this game by purchasing homes at retail or slightly below, contracting out all of the fix up work and then trying to sell above what the market will bare. These are the investors who tend to make little or no money in relation to the time and risk associated with the project. Would you want to lay out $30,000 for a downpayment and $40,000 in fix up costs over the course of 6 months to rehab a house only to make $10,000?

About the author:



Marc Rasmussen a Realtor/investor selling Longboat Key real estate.





Google
Real Estate News


The Premier International Source for Luxury Real Estate Launches ...
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
PRINCETON, NJ, Nov 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Unique Homes, the leading worldwide source for luxury real estate, today announces the launch of a newly ...

Investment Regimes for Indian Real Estate Sector Explored
MarketWatch - 11 hours ago
Just as water seeks its own level, global investment, too, is gushing into real estate in India; its meandering path is revealed in detail in the following ...
Research and Markets: THE OBTUSE ANGLE: Kshitij Investment ... MarketWatch
all 12 news articles

UPDATE 1-Commercial real estate markets to slow into '09-NAR
Reuters - 44 minutes ago
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The economic downturn will slow commercial real estate markets into 2009, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday ...
Commercial Real Estate Miami Daily Business Review
New Trend Shows Home Sellers Looking to Save on Real Estate Services Emediawire (press release)
all 4 news articles

Realtors Say Foreigners Hold Key to Real Estate Revival
FOXNews - 16 hours ago
By Phil Keating American real estate agents say there's a surefire way to help the country's plummeting real estate market: Let foreigners retire here after ...

Real Estate Market Slumps, Showhomes Soars
MarketWatch - 19 hours ago
Like many companies in the real estate industry, Showhomes posted huge gains in the housing boom. In 2004, at the height of the boom, Showhomes helped ...

Moody's: Commercial real estate prices rise
CNNMoney.com - 21 hours ago
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Commercial real estate prices increased in September, according to Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices, ...

Telegraph.co.uk

UPDATE 1-Dubai real estate suffers as distressed sales rise
Reuters - 4 hours ago
The once-booming real estate sector of the emirate is showing signs of collapsing due to the global credit crisis, as prices fall sharply and buyers ...
Dubai's Palm property prices fall 40 pct - brokers guardian.co.uk
Dubai's Palm Jumeirah sees prices fall as crunch moves in Telegraph.co.uk
Dubai distressed property sales rise as crisis bites Reuters
all 24 news articles