Remember when times were good? You could turn on the TV and it seemed like every channel had at least one or two or ten shows about house flippers who would buy homes, fix them up, and sell them again. But with today’s turbulent economy, is that even possible?

If you are curious about real estate investing, you probably have questions going through your mind like “Can I make money in this market?”, “Aren’t housing prices off?”, or, “Won’t it cost way too much to repair?”. In today’s economy, these are valid questions. And the answer is: House flipping isn’t dead. If done correctly, there are ways that you can grow a successful flipping practice even in an economy that is in meltdown.

In fact, with the right system, it’s possible to make great money even in down markets. That’s because the down market itself is helping you. Here’s how:

In good times, people can sell homes for top dollar so flippers are forced to buy homes at high prices then fix up the home to be even nicer and sell the home again, thus “raising the bar” and making the home a high value home. Let’s use an example of a home selling for $200,000 in a neighborhood of homes going for $180,000 to $220,000. The flipper buys the home for $200K and fixes it up really nice and puts it back on the market for $220K to $250K. Their profit is made in improve the value.

In tight times, many people are facing foreclosure and just want to get out of a bad situation where they cannot afford their home. Perhaps they’ve lost their job, or perhaps their mortgage rate adjusted to a higher price than they could handle. Either way, they may be willing to part with their home at a discount. So, for flippers in tough market conditions, the secret is to get homes at a discount and sell them quickly at a discount to someone else. For example, if a home is valued at $200K, the flipper might be able to buy it at an extreme discount – say $100K – and then turn around and sell it for $120K to someone else with very little work in between.

That’s the secret to flipping when the market is down. People facing foreclosure are motivated sellers and willing to sell for massive discounts just to get out of a home they can no longer afford.

Of course, there are many other tips, tricks, and techniques to real estate investing in times when the market seems disastrous, but the bottom line is: flipping is not dead. Good money can be made easily with the right system in place.

As the creator of Virtual Wholesaling, Cris Chico is helping investors realize their dreams of financial freedom through his proven & guaranteed method of finding & flipping properties in hot markets (whether you live there or not). To find FREE information about how YOU can “Invest Everywhere from Anywhere”, visit http://www.VirtualWholesaling.com today!
 

1.    Repairs needed. If the homeowner knows right away that there are repairs needed, that is an unstated red flag to you that the price can be lowered.
2.    The age of the roof. Roofs get old and when they get old they not only leak, they also lose their curb appeal. Find out how old the roof is and even if a home’s roof doesn’t yet leak, an older roof will need to be repaired soon.
3.    Furnace and AC. Ask about the age and condition of the furnace and air condition. These units are expensive to remove and replace so if they are original to a home that is a decade old or more, it could mean an easy way to shave a few thousand off of your offer.
4.    Electrical system. Ask the homeowner about whether the home uses circuit breakers or fuses. If the home is still on fuses, that is a sure sign that the electrical system is outdated and in need of an upgrade.
5.    Plumbing. In some neighborhoods, steel pipes were used in the initial construction. The problem is, steel pipes rust and need to be replaced with PVC pipes. Ask about the plumbing and find out what it is made of.
6.    Unusual construction. This may require a little more legwork and experience within a single neighborhood, but it will pay off: if you find a home that is slightly different in some way than the rest of the neighborhood – say, a metal roof in a suburb of shingled roofed homes – you should be able to negotiate a lower price because the one home is not like the others.
7.    Speed of the deal. In many cases, you offer an advantage over the seller listing, presenting, and selling their home on the market: You offer a fast, guaranteed sale (compared to a slow sales process that might fall through if the home is listed on the market). In a way, this is a kind of “service” that can be attractive to motivated sellers.
8.    Cash payment. In regular economic times, we rarely pay the full amount up-front for a home. We use mortgages and loans. But a seller who has fallen on hard times will respond positively to a full cash payment of the home’s selling price, and that is a sure way to secure a discount.

No matter what the economy is like, getting a discount on a home is an ideal situation for real estate investors. These 8 tips are just a few of the many techniques you can use to lower the purchase price of your investment which will ultimately give you a better return on your investment.

Although I have many techniques and secrets, I’m happy to share a selection of them here with you.

Secret #1: Start with the end in mind… and keep it in your mind. When you’re putting together a deal, it doesn’t matter what part of the process you’re in, be sure to always keep the end of the deal in mind. This is why I use a questionnaire, even after 300 successful real estate flips. I use a questionnaire I developed to always keep my mind focused on the future potential buyers and providing them with as much information as I possibly can. And everything I do, no matter what part of the process I’m in, I’m always thinking about how to make the sale go quickly for the seller and I’m thinking about how to flip the home quickly and efficiently to sell to someone else.

Secret #2: Frame everything in the interest of the seller. When you approach sellers, you’re often approaching them at a time when their finances are melting away and their home is at or near foreclosure. The situation, for most of them, is difficult and embarrassing. These people just want to take care of their families, the want to salvage their pride, and they want to be treated with dignity. When offering to buy the home from them, I usually tell them that I will take care of the closing costs for them. But I don’t just say it like that. I say it in a way that will really resonate with them. For example, I might say, “Mr. Seller, I know that selling a home can be work-intensive and costly. I’ll happily take care of all of that legwork and expense for you, at no cost to you, just to make the sale go quickly for you.” When you keep the seller’s best interests front-and-center, they will respond to you.

Secret #3: Learn; adjust your course; repeat. I have a number of systems and strategies in place and I’ve been doing this for a long time. But I’m never content with the way things are. I’m always testing and learning from my experience. Once I’ve discovered a new and better way of doing something, I adopt that as my new “best practice” and I continually test and adjust. For example, my popular questionnaire is what you might call a “living document”. It’s always changing and evolving as I learn new and better ways of doing things. With this approach to everything I do, I’ve been able to uncover new opportunities that I never thought were possible!

There are lots of so-called experts and gurus out there. But I’ve been flipping homes for a long time and proudly boast over 300 successful flips in all kinds of markets. My track record is what separates me from the so-called experts. Use my secrets to become a successful investor!