Real Estate Genius Investment Software Blog

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By L. Winslow

Consumer Confidence has literally tanked due to the fall-out in real estate and the credit crunch. These hard times in real estate are affecting the stock market, retail sales and small business. However, in chaos there is always opportunity - Always! So where is the opportunity in real estate, how can you make money on this bubble bursted collapse?

Well, it just so happens that the other day I was streamlining my library and chucked some books into a box going to the Goodwill, then I grabbed one, and thought well maybe I should re-read a few chapters in this one, scan the material once more. Interesting indeed, the book in question:

“A Fortune at Your Feet - How you can get rich, stay rich, and enjoy being rich with Creative Real Estate” by A.D. Kessler - 1981.

Do you have what it takes to make money in real estate, using A.D. Kessler’s creative methods? We all know A.D. Kessler as a real estate guru, late night infomercial hype guys and this book is an extension of that type of methodology. Secure real estate with no money down, make deals, find foreclosures, make negotiations and build wealth. A.D. Kessler was one of the first real estate guys of this type and had a very successful magazine on creative real estate, and trained many real estate professionals to use his system and methods to achieve wealth.

With the real estate market crashed and foreclosures running ramped his books and advice are now becoming very popular once again. How do you find the best properties to buy? How do you find tax lien sales, how do you find properties that are distress sales? A.D. Kessler’s book discusses all this and more. If you are ready to do a little homework, you might find yourself in a position of opportunity during this drastic time of chaos in the real estate markets.

L. Winslow is an Economic, Political and Technology Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur http://www.worldthinktank.net Currently Mr. Winslow is planning a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico and in Spring across the US from San Diego to Virginia Beach to raise money for charity. Previously he was a track star athlete, private pilot, involved in politics, community volunteerism and a Franchising Founder. Mr. Winslow has chosen 100 titles of Books he wishes to write and has completed ten thus far. The subjects include; Community Planning, Future Tech, Franchising, Small Business, and Third World Issues.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=L._Winslow
http://EzineArticles.com/?Chaos-Begets-Opportunity—Even-in-Real-Estate&id=813119

The Only Three Reasons To Be In Real Estate
By Dave Lindahl

There are only three reasons to be in Real Estate, if any one tells you any differently then they don’t understand real estate investing.

The three reasons to be in real estate are Cash Now, Cash Monthly and Cash Later. Let’s take a closer look at each one of them.

Cash Now. Let’s face it, we need money to live and pay the bills. With out this cash we would have to go back and work for “the man”. If you’re not a full time investor, this is a reason why a lot of people are afraid to quit their job and work for themselves.

Cash now is the money that you get from “Flipping” properties. Whether it be from Wholesaling, Rehabbing, Subject To, Lease Option or Pre-Foreclosures we need the cash from each of these investing models to put food on our tables and clothes on ours (and our children’s) backs.

Cash Now is good. Having rehabbed over 450 properties in just a seven year period, (I use each of the above methods to acquire my properties) I’m used to those big checks coming in. But then I realized that if I didn’t continue to get Cash Now through flipping properties, then I would not have any cash coming in at all. Which meant I was not as free as I thought I was.

So I changed my strategy. While those big rehab checks were coming in, I put some of money in my account so that I could live, and then I started to put the rest of the money in Apartment Houses.

Owning smaller Apartment Houses is virtually the same as investing in single family houses. If you’re doing your marketing, you run across Apartment Houses all the time. If you are like most investors, you probably just ignore them and continue to search for the next single family deal.

Apartment Houses will give you greater Cash Monthly. In just a short time, you can build yourself a substantial passive monthly income just from your Apartment Houses. That’s how Robert Kyosaki does it in Rich Dad/Poor Dad.

Cash monthly will give you freedom. Freedoms to do what ever you want when you want. I’m not telling you to stop buying and flipping single family houses, that’s Cash Now. I’m saying to get Cash Monthly (Apartment Houses), use some of your Cash Now (single family flips) and buy yourself some freedom!

Pretty soon you will be building an empire. You’ll have enough Cash Monthly to be able to take a month off in the summer or what ever else your freedom desires! If you were only flipping single family houses and you took a month off in the summer, you wouldn’t have any income coming in.
Do you see how Cash Monthly will give you freedom?

You can get some Cash Monthly from owning single family houses long term but not as much and not as fast as owning smaller apartment houses. And it’s a lot riskier to have all of your money in single family houses.

What happens if you lose your tenant in your single family house? You loose all of your income. You’re going to have to dip into your own savings to pay the mortgage until you get a new tenant. That hurts!

If you loose a tenant in a three family house, you’ve only lost one third of your income. The other two floors will cover your mortgage until you get another tenant. That’s just one of many reasons that owning small apartment houses is smarter that owning single family houses, but that’s another article all together.

Now that you have Cash Now and Cash Monthly, Cash Later takes care of itself. It comes when you sell, exchange or refinance those apartment houses somewhere in the future.

You see, with apartment houses you have an appreciating asset. No only is it appreciating every month but your tenants are paying off your mortgage. So between the appreciation and the mortgage pay down, your equity just gets bigger and bigger!

You can sell your property and get a boat load of cash. If it’s creating a lot of Cash Monthly, you may want to keep those checks coming in. If so then you will want refinance to get you cash out.

Not 100% of your cash, which will only get you in trouble. You should take out about 75% of your cash leaving 25% equity in the building, that way if there is a down turn in the market, your protected. Not only that, at 75%, you should still have a decent positive cash flow. Did you know that you do not pay tax on any of the money that you take out during a refinance?

Now take that money and go buy some more apartment houses and get some more Cash Monthly! In doing so, these apartment houses will start appreciating and the tenants will begin to pay down your mortgage for you. You’ve just increased your net worth because you have increasing equity in one or two more buildings instead of the building that you started with.

Can you see how your empire is being created? Can you see how it can be created in a short time? Holding single family houses will make you money. Holding apartment houses will make filthy stinking rich! Which do you prefer?

David Lindahl, also known as the “Apartment King” has been successfully investing in single family homes and apartments for the last eight years. He is the author of many popular, money making home study courses. He can be reached at dave@real-estate-fortune.com and http://www.rementor.com or 781-878-7114.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Lindahl
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Only-Three-Reasons-To-Be-In-Real-Estate&id=728231

Anatomy of a Subject-To Deal
By Jeff Tumbarello

Recently I made contact with a guy who is in the process of going south financially. Nice guy, I think this is a temporary setback for him not armageddon. He owns a four-plex by the Red Socks Stadium. Here’s the skinny on deal. He agreed to deed to a land trust. The Payoff was 134,000.00 plus code enforcement liens. I comped the property at 256,000.00. I had to get expert help involved as realquest gave me comps from 60,000 to 300,000. I thought that in this instance her guess would be better than mine

I did a walk through on property. It needed 20,000 to 30,000.00 worth of rehab. The property was condemned by the city of ft Myers for paint and window glazing. Window glazing seems to be the latest kick by code enforcement if anyone knows why please share this with me.

So here we are

• 256,000 minus the costs of sale( 8 percent, that’s either realtor commission or paying buyers closing costs plus the sellers inherent closing costs)

• 232960 left over after costs of sale; notice I did not use market value.

• 30,000.00 rehab times 1.2 equals 36,000.00 rehab

• 196960 is now left over

• Balance of 134,000.00 (since property is in foreclosure add 5,000 to it as the foreclosing attorney needs a custom set of ping irons for his golf bag) 139,000.00

• 57960 is projected profit minus holding costs and also factor in that at least 1,000.00 will magically disappear at the table, it always does trust me on this

Sounds like a home run Huh?

It was until the title search came back, a recent 400,000.00 dollar lien kills the deal. Now, I was excited but I knew to wait until the title came back clean before I mailed reinstatement to Foreclosing Attorney (who was shopping for his new golf clubs I’m sure). Moral of this story is to have your ducks in a row. Here is what you need to do a subject-to deal.

1. A deal

2. A method to value the property. I use www.realquest.com, club members get a 20 percent discount.

3. Obtain a recent Payoff, every time the Foreclosing attorney or one of his minions picks up the phone, this goes up. Also what is the monthly PITI payment and how much to reinstate the mortgage? Maybe you can hold and cash flow. The above deal would have thrown a 1,000.00 a month (utopia) cash flow.

4. Perform a quality walk thru to determine rehab needs.

5. Order title on the property

6. Pay attention to property taxes are they behind?

7. Last and foremost a trip to county or city to see if there are any open permits or violations.

As Jim Werner puts it ask the little questions like is this house scheduled for Demolition? It’s not a joke that has happened recently.

I am very conservative on my numbers. I learned that through hard lessons (my checkbook).
Good luck and good hunting!

Jeff Tumbarello is a Real Estate Investor, Speaker and Loan Originator with Union Savings Bank. In 2003 Jeff and 3 other SWFL RE Investors Founded the South West Florida Real Estate Investment Assoc. This now has over 400 members. He has materially participated in rental properties, waterfront spec homes and buy & flip transactions. Jeff has originated over 1,000 mortgage loans. Jeff is also veteran of the USMC and served in Dessert Shield and Dessert Storm as an Infantryman with First Battalion Third Marines. Jeff is from Stuart Florida. Jeff is married to Cristina and has 3 children ages 10, 8 and 6. Jeff is currently working with Union Savings Bank and buying cash flow properties in Central Ohio. Jeff is available for speaking engagements about Union Savings Bank Products, Real Estate Investing and Marketing for Real Estate Pro’s and investors
for more info Email jtumbarello@usavingsbank.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Tumbarello
http://EzineArticles.com/?Anatomy-of-a-Subject-To-Deal&id=728404

The Most Profitable Investment In Real Estate
By Dave Lindahl

Having rehabbed over 520 properties and owning over 1100 multi-family units, in my real estate career I have and continue to do it all!

When I first started in the real estate business and got my marketing going, I knew that every potential seller meant a possible $20,000 profit for me. I also quickly realized that there was many different ways to do a deal, and some deals could only be done a certain way.

If I hadn’t learned the technique needed to do a particular deal, then I would wholesale it.

I’ve never liked wholesaling (even when I can make a quick $10,000 – 20,000 doing it!) because I always knew that there was a much bigger payday waiting down the road and I wanted it. Why give up the cow only to go searching for more milk?

So I became a “Transaction Engineer”. I learned how to Rehab, how to do “Subject To”, Lease Option, Short Sales, Pre-Foreclosure, buy, flip and hold Multi-Families, Master Lease Options, Equity Share, Tax Credits… I wanted the big paydays and I was willing to learn what it took to get them.

The more and more deals I did, the more I realized that I was getting much bigger paydays from doing a particular transaction that was far more profitable than anything else I was doing.

All of us want to get wealthy quickly and easily and if it could be done by doing less deals, that’s the way I wanted to do it.

That’s when I came to the realization that there were certain deals that brought me in 10 times the amount of profit as the other deals, even though I was doing the same amount of work and taking the same amount of time.

From the fattening of my bank account I realized that there is one investment that is far more profitable than anything else in Real Estate investing.

The most profitable investment in Real Estate today, is buying, selling and holding Multi-Family properties.

Did you know that you could buy a Multi-Family building using the same no money down techniques that you use buying single family properties. I’ll bet you didn’t know that there were even more creative ways to purchase Multi-Family properties than there are for single families!

Think about it. When you dealing with single family properties, you’re usually dealing with the home owner, someone who is emotionally attached to the property.

When your dealing with a Multi-family property, your usually dealing with an investors. Just like you, investors care about the numbers. Would you now agree that investors are more apt to do creative deals?

Successful people profit from the mistakes of others. I learned that doing a Multi-family deal took just as much effort as doing a single family deal, but there is one big difference…there is an extra “0” at the end of the profit check when I closed the deal!

That means that the single family property that I flipped and made $20,000, with the same amount of effort I was flipping multi-family properties and making $200,000!

As soon as I realized this phenomenon, I focused more of my marketing on multi-family properties!

When you start getting those big paychecks you’ll realize that you don’t have to work so hard, you’ll have more time (a lot more time) to do what you want, where you want, when you want and with who you want!

Most people have a goal of making $1,000,000. If you were flipping single family houses with an average profit of $20,000, you would have to flip 50 houses ($1,000,000/$20,000) to reach your goal. How long do you thing that would take? A year? Two Years? Five years?

If you were flipping multi-family properties, you would need to flip only 5 properties ($1,000,000/$200,000)! How long do you think that would take? Certainly a lot less time!

And remember, it takes just as much work to flip a single family house as it does to flip a multi-family but as you can see by the numbers, it really is going to take you 10x the amount of work and time if you want to earn a million dollars flipping single family houses!

Here’s the another bonus, sometimes when you flip a single family property you hit a home run and make anywhere from $40,000 - $100,000 and more. When you hit a home-run with a Multi-family property your profits are in the $400,000 - $1,000,000 and more range! That’s one deal….same amount of work! How many of those do you have to do before you stop worrying about your retirement?

A student of mine, Rose Morris from Columbus, Ohio is going to profit over $2,000,000 on her first large multi-family deal! One deal.

Justin Anderson from Augusta, Georgia will profit close to $900,000 when the sale is complete on multi-family that he’s flipping!

Does this mean if you’re flipping single family’s that you stop immediately and go after only multi-family properties? Heck no! You can if you want to bu I still flip singles…not as many as in my early years…why do I continue to do it?…because I can!

I’m not one to pass up any good deal and I like getting those small chunks of cash coming in for $20,000 - $30,000 a pop but I focus most of my time on multi-family properties because I learned the more multi-family deals I do, the more and better choices I have as to how I can spend my time!

Head these words, the faster you start flipping Multi-Family properties, the faster you’re going to become wealthy. I will already say “Your Welcome” in advance for those of you who take the advice of someone who has been there and done that!

David Lindahl, also known as the “Apartment King” has been successfully investing in single family homes and apartments for the last eight years. He is the author of many popular, money making home study courses. He can be reached at dave@real-estate-fortune.com and http://www.rementor.com or 781-878-7114.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Lindahl
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Most-Profitable-Investment-In-Real-Estate&id=728242

Here’s a detailed explanation of How to analyze a real estate investment. Nice basic explanation of the process used by the Real Estate Genius real estate calculator.

By Roger Beattie

Your hard work and expense may lower the market value of a property you wish to sell. Surprised? Don’t be. Generally people believe that by really dolling up a property they will maximize their sales price. That is frequently untrue and problematic at best.

The majority of real estate owners improve a property being prepared for sale. The problem is that many of them make decisions regarding the improvements they choose based on their personal tastes, preferences and the things that would be important to them if they were buying. Unfortunately those things may be more of a stumbling block than a stepping stone to the sale.

First; opinions on what is important and appropriate differ from person to person. The colors you pick to repaint may clash with a buyer’s vision for the property. The new basic tile you install may be a negative for buyers who want to do something unique after their purchase. The new appliances you buy may hinder a sale because a buyer may have contacts where they can buy appliances at a deep discount thereby reducing their overall costs. The new roof you put on may be a conflict with the color of stucco that buyers may want to do. The new carpet you put in the hallways may conflict with a buyer’s design elements. In all these cases, your work and expense will hinder the sale, not help it.

Second; this does not mean that you should not prep a property for sale. I’m just suggesting that you do it right. Here are three simple rules that you can follow to make your investment in time and money are penny wise and not pound foolish.

1. Stick to basic earth tones and colors that are non offensive. There is a reason that virtually all spec homes are painted off white inside. It makes the rooms look bigger. It looks clean. It also allows buyers to easily paint over the walls they wish to personalize without the need of putting on two coasts of primer first to hide a darker incompatible color. Carpets that are earth-tone hide dirt. Enough said.
2. Do not do any major replacements of appliances, FFE or HVAC units unless they are out of commission. Better to give concessions on things reflecting personal preference and tastes than in replacing them prior to sale. These include cabinets, carpets, bath and kitchen fixtures, etc. Buyers want everything in working order and understand that they will be bringing their own influences to bear in the property after purchase.
3. No matter what you do, leave some room for an increase in value for the buyer. Let the buyer know that they can do the improvements themselves and thereby increase their value (either competitive market value or the real financial value based on and increased NOI with higher rents and lower expenses). People are far more likely to buy a property where some of the profit is left in the deal for them, than they are in stretching into a property that may take years for its value to increase enough to cover the costs they will invest after purchase.

So, in closing, when it comes to improvements, do only what needs to be done and do it wisely. It will save you time, effort and money. In most cases, you’ll walk away from the closing table with what you would have if you had done the improvements yourself.

Good Luck in your career.

Roger Beattie is a real estate broker, investor, owner and operator. He is also the founder of Middle Class Millionaires, an association of investors helping each other succeed in real estate investment. Middle Class Millionaires has an excellent blog with investing articles and industry news.
www.MiddleClassMillionaires.com/blog

He also recently co-authored a report instructing how to lower the risk in many real estate investments.
Real Estate Risk Reduction Techniques

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roger_Beattie
http://EzineArticles.com/?Thinking-of-Selling?-Be-Careful-What-You-Improve&id=629690

By Joe Ponce

Of course, none of us can be everywhere at the same time (at least no one I have ever met). So many people see Real Estate through their own single portal and only those deals that they see come by can they act on. This is very limiting and restricts many investors. The message in this article is a bit mixed. You have to see enough promise or profits to choose the path you like and therefore are more likely to learn and stick with.

I once heard someone speak of stepping over thousand dollar bills as an analogy to people who could not see a deal staring them in the face. At least that is what I thought he meant. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it other than it was a cute way to look at the inexperience of many investors. As my investing career grew, I realized just how right this was. The ground, so to speak, is littered with thousand dollar bills and the dilemma becomes just which bills to pick up.

If you are new to the business, you probably cannot wait to see more thousand dollar bills than you can pick up, but they are out there. Ask anyone who is really looking.

Early in my investing career I tried just about every type of real estate investment you could buy a book or a course on. I tried each one once or twice and tried to make as few mistakes as possible. I did a few foreclosures, short sales, rehabs, flips, rentals, waterfront condos, mobile homes, commercial and residential land, and an RV Park. I even tried to buy a golf course one time but couldn’t raise the capital in time. There was a lot of frustration as I worked through many of the unique issues to each strategy.

Man, I figured there had to be one of these strategies that appealed to me. The thing was, I liked them all a little bit, but not one a lot. So what to do? Keep trying other deals until you figure something out right? Well, let me just say that I spent a whole lot of time stepping over thousand dollar bills.

If I had actually sat down and listed some of the skills I had and matched them up to some of the things I liked doing, I probably could have had a 5 year head start on myself. I am cursed with being as curious as a cat and interested in nearly everything. My wife of 15 years has long since given up on some of the conversations in which I try to engage her. I can’t really blame her. If our roles were reversed, she would constantly be telling me how a new type of thread was made especially for wedding dresses in the color of purple. She would go on and on about the number of twists in the thread per inch and how that affected the strength when a particularly stressful moment for the dress occurred such as laughing or pumping iron. I probably sound that crazy to her.

Today I work toward another model entirely. I am a visual person and realize that it is impossible to be good at everything and you will usually end up being just plain dangerous if you try.

So I pick a few lanes that interest me and try not to leave them. Here is what happens visually. The field is littered with thousand dollar bills. One row seems to have a few more on it and you head down that row. You find that the farther you go, the more bills you see in the distance until you focus completely on vacuuming up everyone in sight. As your skills in this lane or row expand, so does your ability to “see” these bills that are there for the taking. In short, you are no longer stepping over what you cannot see.

I suppose I could have abandoned all the chit chat in this article and stated “don’t get too spread out, stay focused on what you like and are good at.”

That is a bit cliché though. I prefer my visual model. I remember the days when every course or book I read was the next great path to financial freedom. People will attempt to lure you down these paths with promises and do you know what? Most of them are true! If you really became engrossed and took action in the niche you were studying, you would very likely be very successful.

So what is my favorite type of investment? Well let’s see what I like and don’t like.

I like the technical, mechanical, and creative side to investing.
I dislike the repetition, doing the books, filling out forms, and the tedious stuff.

Others folks are just the exact opposite.

Well, I threw all my efforts at mobile homes…surprised? I used my technical skills to develop a database that made investing very simple. It is very rare that a contractor pulls the wool over my eyes especially with air conditioning or electricity. I was able to structure deals creatively using only 20% and usually less of my own money.

Like any business it has its ups and downs but I am in my comfort zone and can do many more deals in a shorter period of time. I collect most of my leads over the Internet, there is little competition, and I can spend time outdoors.

I “see” the thousand dollar bills in my niche because I am good at it. I don’t see the thousand dollar bills in tax lien certificates for example although I am sure they are there.

This business has hundreds of niches and sub-niches that are growing all the time with some of the great creative minds out there. Do yourself a favor and learn a little about yourself while you are attacking that latest course. It will pay huge dividends down the road and put you on the right track. Don’t forget to come back from time to time and re-examine some of the niches that you thought you would not like. Above all do not be intimidated by people who are really cranking it up in their own niches. It does not mean it is a right fit for you as well.

Only you can choose the path that fits with your personality and style. Once you find it, watch those bills start to appear right before your eyes!

Joe Ponce is a master real estate investor and full-time Chief Information Officer in the U.S. Army. He has purchased or controlled over 500 properties and is largely considered to be one of the area’s foremost experts on manufactured home investing and internet marketing. His latest ventures, http://www.WealthAddress.com and http://www.Homes2Go.Com educate new investors about the power of successful internet marketing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Ponce
http://EzineArticles.com/?Stepping-Over-Thousand-Dollar-Bills&id=612996

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By Preston Guyton

The world of investing in real estate is simply a highly lucrative one. With more people making more money on real estate than ever before, everyone wants to try their hand at making the big bucks. However, so many people jump into this world without proper preparation and find themselves floundering and not being able to afford the upkeep of their properties. As with any form of investment the first thing you need before making a run at it is a good, solid foundation and the knowledge of what is going to work and what isn’t. It’s kind of like buying stocks blindly. you would not dream of buying stocks without first researching them and the companies. find out what they stand for and how they have performed over time. The same holds true with real estate.

There is really no point in investing in something if you don’t know what you want from it and what hurdles you have to jump along the way. Investing in real estate is a bit more difficult than simply mortgaging or purchasing a property and renting it out or flipping it. Television is a main culprit in the mindset that investing is just that simple. What you don’t see on those investing shows is all the legwork and planning that go into a typical purchase. Trust me, there is a lot more that goes into an investment than can be covered in 1 hour minus commercials.

Investing is all about having a game plan with failsafe’s built right in. Let’s look at a couple of things that you may want to consider in making a real estate investment.

Location - This is incredibly important. If you are planning on making a long-term investment then you will be looking for an area that offers a lot to residents. Areas with schools, shopping centers, recreation facilities etc. It is more difficult to rent a home in the boonies than it is to rent a home in an urban area. If flipping a home is your plan then look for areas that are hot. New developments, condos and town homes are great places to look for this kind of thing. Talk to your realtor and find out which area of the city is selling fast, that is the kind of area you want for a flip.

Cleanliness- The key factor of almost any real estate transaction. Nobody wants to rent or buy a dirty home. renting will be dependant on keeping the property in good condition for some time so as to be appealing to renters. Also being attentive to the needs of said renters is important. An ignorant or careless landlord attracts tenants of the same caliber. Bad tenants can be a nightmare that no landlord wants to deal with so be sure to get to know people before they rent your property.

Finances - An investment should never have the ability to break you financially. This is where the failsafe’s come in. Make sure you have the funds to look after the property if you cannot immediately find renters or if the home take longer than anticipated to sell. If you build yourself a financial buffer then you can be properly insulated from taking a loss if things do not go according to plan.

Invest smart and don’t rush into things. You are making a big play for your financial future so it is not something to be taken lightly. Make sure you make the right decisions and always be prepared in case you make a mistake.

Preston Guyton is a professional Realtor® serving the Myrtle Beach real estate market. For more information on Myrtle Beach homes & properties, contact Preston today or visit http://www.prestonguyton.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Preston_Guyton
http://EzineArticles.com/?Investing—Starting-With-A-Good-Foundation&id=620741

By Tom Wood

Real Estate Auctions have been used to sell properties successfully for many years. Do they always work? No, but if done in the right way, they ALWAYS attract attention. They ALWAYS make a property stand out from other properties on the market.

There isn’t a magic formula that will always sell a property, except price. An auction gives you the ability to use price as a way to attract buyers. However, the majority of buyers that you attract are expecting a deal. So, unless your property is in a hot real estate market or is unique and highly desired, you need to expect to sell at a discount. You should expect to discount at least 10% and many times more.

If you’re considering selling by auction, you need to realize that you will probably be giving up some equity for the convenience of selling fast. However, time is money, and it still makes sense for many sellers to use this method. Not to mention, there have been many auctions that have received bids right at, or higher than market value.

When should you use an auction?

1. On any property that you are willing to take at least a 10% discount. The bigger the discount the better chance for success.

2. On any property in a hot market. If you’re in a market where multiple offers are common for any listed property, take advantage of that excitement and let buyers bid against each other in an open format.

3. On any good investment deal. If you have a property that needs to be rehabbed, income producing property with good cash flow, or any other type of good investment property. Investors buy based on numbers, show them the numbers!

Up until a few years ago, seller’s who wanted to sell by auction usually held a “live” auction on the property. This process requires hiring an auction company and paying hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in fees regardless of whether the property sold or not.

Along came the Internet, and then Internet auctions for “stuff”. Now Internet Real Estate auctions are starting to take hold. One of the advantages of using the Internet is that it doesn’t require people to be on-site to bid. Bids can be placed anywhere a person has access to the Internet.

It’s understandable why real estate Internet auctions are becoming popular. They make this successful method of selling real estate accessible to many more sellers and investors.

Written by Tom Wood - Real Estate Internet & Investor Auctions http://www.reiauctions.info based in St. Louis, MO. (877) 234-6706.

Tom Wood is a real estate broker & auctioneer in St. Louis, MO. He owns and operates REI Auctions an internet auction site for real estate investors. For a copy of a FREE Report on 6-ways to benefit from auctions visit http://www.reiauctions.info

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