Selling Houses in Down Market

I attended a seminar today hosted by our local newspaper. They certainly stand to gain ad sales by hosting a motivational speaker to speak to 250+ real estate agents for free. The newspaper is certainly an efficient means to reach potential buyers quickly and at once. The speaker named Joe spoke about how much of the problems sellers are having is within themselves, and not the market. He correctly pointed out that house sales are down about 15%. Which in reality, is not that big. In fact that means that there are still 85% sales intact. His speech echoes what I have been saying all along. This is not a bad market. In fact it is a great market. If you are investing in real estate, you can snatch up all sorts of deals. The key to your success is getting in contact with the right people and listening to what they want rather than trying to sell them what you have got. His marketing technique for his own house was rather novel. He took a picture of his house and added an elephant image to the front yard and a roller coaster to the back yard to emphasize the large front and back yard. I thought that was a great idea. Anything you do to make your property stand out needs to be done.

When do you make your money in real estate?

I believe that an investor makes his money when a house is purchased, not when it is sold. If you don’t buy the house at a good price, you will never make a profit when it sells no matter how nice it is. So, your goal is to purchase the house for a low price. It is very easy to spend money on a house making it more marketable. Unfortunately, you may not get what you put into it back out. So, the key to making a profit is in the purchase, not the sale.