Cheap, cheap, real estate; Bargain, below market, low priced properties are available if you know how to buy them. By Jody Hudson – real estate agent since 1972. How to FIND and BUY: Cheap real estate, bargains, below market, low and cheaper; houses, land, land, businesses and condominiums. They are everywhere and easy to find. Here’s how to find and buy them from anyone, anywhere. This article outlines the steps: How to find and buy a bargain, bargain, in real estate; This is; how to get it really cheap! Yes, there are ways! Almost every call or email I receive asks me to find a good deal for the buyer. We all feel the same when we buy. We all want a bargain. We all want to have cheap real estate. And we can all do it. There is a bit of a challenge though. Every buyer I’ve ever had in my thirty-two years of selling real estate has wanted to sell the property they own for more than it’s worth. This is our challenge as real estate agents – and of course for you as buyers. To get those HOT deals in real estate, there are at least three things you need to do: 1. First, as a buyer, you need to be able and willing to act faster than any other buyer. . 2. Second, you need to be able to know a good deal when you see one. It takes experience and education in the specific market. Any assumptions made from other markets, about the target market, will doom you to certain failure… 3. Third, you must BUY it. That is, write a bond check and write a contract that will trump other contracts that may be presented around the same time as yours. This group of three steps sounds simple, but only about one buyer per ten year period is willing to do these three things in order to get the cheap property they asked us to find for them! I have several people, and most real estate agents too, this is the most; ready, willing and able and we call them first! If you want to be one of the called ones, you have to be MORE ready, willing and able! Recently, in August 2002, the waterfront home next to ours came up for sale for $249,000 and was worth around $350,000 at the time. Kate and I called each of our family members, our wonderful neighbors across the way (one of whom is a local builder and the other a mortgage broker) and some of our best clients and one of our best friends , a builder and investor, who once said he loved the beautiful home. (Note that the property is now worth around $800,000 as of September 2004). We explained that the house was going to be on the market in a few hours and that we had to act quickly. Our neighbors on the other side, the most knowledgeable of the bunch, wanted to bid $180,000 saying they thought that was the only value of the property. They knew better or at least should have and they should have bought it. They just “hoped” they could get it for less and didn’t have to move quickly. The offer they made was ignored and wasted our time. They did, however, get another property within days, for much more money, which was worth much less, thanks to improved alertness and awareness after losing the one next to us. Our savvy investor friend made a few offers below the asking price with several contingencies. In the meantime, we’re telling everyone to write a full-price contract with no contingencies and call on both of our phones as soon as possible. None of our best friends or family would care. They were ALL too greedy. They knew the property was way undervalued but wanted it for even less… Lesson: when it’s a good deal – ACT instead of getting greedy and losing the deal altogether. Then our lovely new neighbors came over and viewed the property. They also knew of similar properties and had lost several properties they loved by moving slowly, writing unreasonable contracts and not paying attention to real values. This time they did it right. In fact, they wrote a contract on the spot, with no contingencies, and for MORE than full price, so that if someone offered full price, they still had the best chance. They paid $5,000 more than the full price on the spot, told the sellers they could get a settlement anytime and before they even got a response from the sellers, they arranged a mortgage for MORE than that. they needed and asked for the money to be immediately available. They didn’t ask for a home inspection, investigation, or for the sellers to fix anything. The house is 30 years old and has not had any maintenance. There was a burst hot water tank, a roof that needed replacing and some HUGE cracks in the foundation. All these problems cost them about $15,000. As I write this they have owned the property for several months and worked on it every weekend, before they could take a break and enjoy it. They adore him. If they were to fix all the things that need to be fixed, paint the trim and freshen up the yard and landscaping; we could get $900,000 to $950,000 for this house for them within a few months on the market. And, the city sewer will be there in a few years, at which time the property will instantly increase by another $200,000 and everyone we called knew about the pending sewer as well. Buyers only learned of the sewer coming to town after they had committed to buying the property. The sewer still isn’t there — WOW. They are happy to have done the One, Two, Three to get there! By doing the three things listed above, the home buyers next to us have made the wisest buying decision so far in their lives and have one of the best deals that have been available over the years. of recent years. The sellers are also happy because they just wanted to sell it as fast as possible, due to a sudden and dangerous illness of one of the owners. I write this article to serve you the reader. But you should know that it is also selfish. Much of our time as real estate agents is spent trying to successfully educate our buyers and sellers. If they followed our advice, they could have much, much more success selling or buying. The articles I write here [http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/index.html] are these tips that I give to my clients and customers – if they ask me. Most don’t and when they do, very few follow the advice. As in any other profession, we professionals do what we can to help those who come to us, but it is up to them to follow the advice. Cheap homes are still available – but hard to sell. These are houses that need repairs or aesthetic improvements or that are in a transition zone. We have several on the market right now and they are hard to sell. Someone with vision will eventually buy them, fix them and maybe resell them for a huge profit – often to someone who says they want a bargain but won’t do what it takes to get a good one. affair. It’s funny, isn’t it, and this stuff happens all the time. This has always happened in my 35 years in the real estate business and as a licensed real estate agent since 1972. Just know that if you want a fixer, everyone else does too, but you have to be very, very educated and able to devote time and money to renovate the property in an efficient and affordable manner. And, you have to do one, two, three! If you want a bargain; educate yourself and be prepared to DO – One, Two and Three. We will try to help you. By Jody Hudson Copyright 2002-2004 www.Kate-Jody.com Jody Hudson: [email protected]
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