Invest to Realty - Informations for investing

With the popularity of reality TV shows following real estate investors fixing houses for profits, many people would love to do the same. However, media reports on the housing bubble, too many houses for sale, and dropping prices make many wonder: is it too late to make money fixing houses?

Seasoned real estate investors understand how to make money fixing houses in any market. They’ve been playing the odds and making wise investments for years. Just like the stock market, real estate has its ups and downs. But the downs haven’t been as bad as the stock market because people always need housing.

If you’re thinking about real estate investing, you can learn from following the practices of wealthy investors. Like most investments, no guarantees of profits come with real estate. You must learn as much as possible about the business before you risk your money. Some inexperienced investors lose money buying houses that just don’t turn a profit.

The key to making money with fixers in a buyer’s market is to get in and out fast. The real estate market could go down in value. Usually, this takes some time. You should understand your local economy so you’re prepared. Here are five tips to help you make a profit.

1. Buy low and sell for market value.
2. Buy a home that you can improve in value. If homes in the neighborhood in excellent condition only sell for a few thousands more than fixers, look for another neighborhood to invest in.
3. Plan your changes during the buying process. Be ready to fix the house right away.
4. Fix the home for a home owner who will live in the house. Profile your target buyer and select interior design details that speak to this buyer. Make your home outshine other homes for sale with extras that don’t cost much like window coverings for privacy.
5. When you’re ready to sell, price the home right. Make a business plan to sell with marketing psychology.

Each geographical area comes with its own economic conditions and possibilities. Learn about your economic outlook and explore your possibilities.

You might not make as much from a fixer this year as you could have made last year, but you can still make a nice profit. Last year, investors frequently made over $100,000 on one fixer. This year, the same investor might expect to make only $40,000 on a similar house, which is still a good paycheck for part time work.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Free Real Estate Investing Information, teleseminars, and reports for beginning real estate investors from author Jeanette Fisher. Get a free ebook: The Truth about Making Money Flipping Houses at http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com.

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When it comes to setting up a real estate agent Website, there are several options. They range from “do it yourself” to complete solutions where all you have to do is change some text and upload your listings. Some vendors even include marketing activities with their solutions. The price tag, of course, varies accordingly - the more you do yourself, the less it costs you.

Realtors who have the time and inclination can save a lot of money by rolling up their sleeves and creating a Website themselves. Most hosting vendors offer free templates that can easily be modified to create a basic agent Website of a half-dozen pages or so. Inexpensive real estate Website templates can also be purchased and customized to build a more elaborate online presentation. You even get email accounts that include your domain name. The benefit of this approach is two fold: 1) start-up costs are usually under $100, and 2) ongoing website costs are under $10 monthly. If you have a little technical acumen, you can even use this approach to create a sophisticated Website. For a free ebook explaining how to “do it yourself,” go to www.renewsletter.com/Free_ebook_Website.htm.

In the middle are solutions that provide a fairly elaborate real estate Website solution, usually for about $30-to-$50 monthly with a start-up free around $100. These allow you to choose a standard design template and provide tools to easily customize your selection to include your photo, name, contact information, logo, etc. They include not only your own domain name and email accounts, but also lead generation tools (e.g., mortgage calculator, newsletter subscription form, visitor information capture, local data, etc.). They also support IDX/MLS interfacing so that both your personal listings and access to your local MLS are offered. Tools for search-engine optimization and listing your site in real estate directories are included as well. You will find good support behind these comprehensive solutions too. RapidListings.com is a good example of this class of turnkey real estate Website vendors.

At the high-end, a new class of real estate vendors has emerged. These take online marketing one step further by offering more hand-holding for real estate agents and providing more online lead generation mechanisms. Z57.com is typical of this new breed of real estate Website solutions. They actually provide a “customized” email newsletter as part of their service, along with additional lead generation and capture/notification tools. If you want an online marketing solution that involves as little work as possible, this approach may be for you. It’s relatively expensive, however. Expect to pay several hundred dollars in start-up costs and the ongoing monthly fees can range from $60-to-$300.

No matter what approach best fits your situation, expect to be involved to some degree in the initial Website set-up and its ongoing maintenance. As with all marketing, decisions must be made about Website content, look and feel, adding listings, offering incentives and essentially all the ingredients that go into a successful online campaign targeting buyers and sellers.

About the Author

Al Kernek is a marketing consultant and the author of Creating E-Mail Newsletters - A Practical Guide for the Real Estate Community, a step-by-step guide written for Realtors that explains how to successfully create and promote a low-cost email newsletter. Realtors can learn more about Internet marketing and find supporting tools at his Website, http://www.renewsletter.com

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Unit investment strategy to get your renovations done for free!

I want to share with you a very creative way a friend of mine is using to get all her renovations done on a new investment property for little or no cost. What Debra is doing is very creative and will only need to be monitored by her with everyone else doing all the work and paying for the costs.

Debra has bought a block of units in a capital city that are in need of major renovations. In all there are ten units. Debra has secured the units on a long settlement with the vendor happy to allow her to start renovating them immediately. What she has planned to do is call this project the Pot of Gold event.

She has approached local charities to see if they would be interested in taking over the renovation of one unit each. They will co ordinate and do all the work. Meanwhile Debra has approached local television stations to see if they would be interested in televising the whole project from start to finish. The television will be used to promote the sponsors who donate the materials to be used in each unit and also to promote open days where the public is invited in to view the progress.

When people visit the unit site they are asked to donate a gold coin as an admission charge. This gold coin donation goes into the pot of gold. It is planned to have five open days. Each open day will be the focus of a particular stage of the renovation. The open days will be for the whole week end, to give people a chance to get there if they work on the saturday. So in a a capital city you can imagine there will be a lot of people attending. The pot of gold will be worth a lot of money by the time the project is finished.

The charity that is judged to have done the best make over on their unit will win the pot of gold. The public will be asked to judge who is the winner. They will be able to view the progress of the units renovation at the open days and also on the television. All round every one will be a winner. The charities will have the chance to win the money, the material suppliers will get valuable TV and press exposure, the TV station will get better ratings, Debra will get her renovations done for little or no money and Debra plans to use the units for a safe house for recently divorced women who have an income, but need a safe place to settle in and get back on their feet. The rents on the units will be a a reduced rate under the local median average. This will be Debra’s way of helping out people in need.

At time of writing this article Debra had eight charities interested and a TV station ready to come on board. Debra also plans to approach the local minister of housing to apply for a reduced rate on the governmant stamp duty. I think the chances of this happening will be good as Debra plans to outline how she will be helping to house women who are going through a difficult time and what Debra is doing here is assist the government with short term housing. Any assistance from the government will be looked upon favourably by every one. All in all this will be a win/win situation for everyone.

Debra will be able to renovate the units while the investment property is settling, then there will be women waiting to rent the units because of the TV exposure. The amount of interest this will create will have real estate agents calling Debra and wanting her to do the same on other real estate investment properties they have on their books. Debra will be real estate investing for profit and using little of her own money. I feel this strategy leverages your time and resources. It is a quick way to achieve capital growth.

To your investing success
Leo Love

PS If your family or friends are interested please pass this on to them

www.therealestateinvester.com

http://www.therealestateinvester.com

I am an experienced and passionate investor. I buy typical mum and dad type houses that give me cash flow and capital growth. My website offers helpful tips and ideas for any type of investor to help you with your wealth creation. Using my site will help to prevent you falling into the traps the inexperienced investors do.

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