Have you thought about flipping houses? First you need to know it’s not as easy as they make it look on T.V. Sometimes it will lead to a divorce, or worse, yes there are actually documented cases of “worse”. It’s the stress couples go through when combining work, family and a house remodel which can basically take up your life for months. Real estate investing isn’t just about looking for a good deal, it’s also about keeping a close eye on the markets, identifying market trends and deciding when to make your next move. Your first best move when investing in Real estate is to talk to the expert, a licensed realtor familiar with flipping properties. Most Investors I know buy bank owned and auction properties, and you need to make a lot of offers before finding the money maker. You don’t make money when you sell real-estate, you make money when you buy it. In the last year or so I wrote over 100 offers on auction and bank owned homes I did get a few tied up but ended up closing on just one home for a sales price of $104,300. So, after all that I received one commission check for $3100.00. I figured out I made $7.36 per hour for all that effort. Tough call on this, do what I love and starve or do something else? I thought about that saying “love is more important than money”. Love is more important but love won’t pay the bills. I know this for a fact because I tested this theory randomly by trying to pay my bill with a hug at a gas station in Sandy, not only will the female checker slap you she will in fact call the cops on you.
Greg Rosen is a Realtor with Pacific Pioneer Real Estate and is licensed in Oregon. His real estate columns have been in the Pamplin group Newspapers and others papers for years. If you would like to talk with him he can be reached at [email protected]