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Understanding and Beating Today’s Real Estate Market
By Vic Hurlstorm | October 1, 2008
Worried about the future of the current real estate market? For the investors who understand how the market is today, it is a great time to make money in real estate.
Real estate is cyclical and always has been. There was a large national article published that stated Las Vegas real estate had completely capped out and there was no place for it to go but down. Ironically, that article was published nearly half a century ago! Has real estate gone up in value in Las Vegas in the last 50 years? You bet, and not just a little! Am I saying that real estate values will increase like they have in the past? Don’t plan on it, however I’ll explain the benefit of this type of media coverage and how it is invaluable.
- The fear it creates scares a lot of people keeping them from investing thereby, creating more opportunity for you.
- It eliminates aggressive scam investments (as we saw rampant with builders in Florida and Las Vegas the last few years).
- This creates more flexible sellers because peple begin to question the value of their property.
This is something to think about: I don’t know any successful real estate investors who are afraid of flat or falling house prices? Quite to the contrary, knowledgeable investors understand when markets are flat or down it just weeds out beginning investors, makes people panic and means more opportunity.
What’s important to understand is just as real estate is cyclical, so are the amount of buyers and sellers in a given market.
You just don’t buy houses and hope the value will increase in the future. That’s not investing, that’s speculating! Future growth which you’ll depend on is almost entirely out of your control. That’s a conventional mindset and will not work in flat or declining real estate markets especially in the short term. Like every business, you need to make well calculated business decisions. In real estate, that includes making creative, risk free offers and setting up your exits appropriately for the specific investing circumstances.
There are also better creative real estate strategies for down and soft markets like wholesaling, flipping/assignments, lease options, foreclosures, short sales, and “subject to” investing. But even when doing rehabs or fixer uppers (which are not usually recommended in down markets) there are still good ways to make a good profit with the right system and proper planning, such as factoring in depreciation and extended selling possibilities.
This is why faster, lower risk, more creative real estate investing strategies like wholesaling houses are better to use during market declines. The point is market conditions should not determine whether or not you make money; it’s how you approach it and what is appropriate for the circumstances. You will never have to worry about real estate market conditions if you make calculated decisions and structure risk free deals!
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