Is House Flipping Dead?
In today’s market, we’re watching the values of properties and portfolios hemorrhaging before our very eyes. We look at the value of the Dow, and then moments later we look at it again, the numbers can be dramatically different. Everything, it seems, is sliding down.
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!
8 Secrets to Discount Home Prices for Real Estate Investors
Are you a real estate investor in search of great deals? Even in today’s economy, there are profitable opportunities for investors. The secret is to buy homes that people are trying to get rid of because they are facing foreclosure – and to buy these homes at a substantial discount. In this article, we’ll look at 8 ways you can negotiate a more favorable purchase price on a home simply by asking the homeowner a few questions.
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.
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!
