Flipping Houses: Bargains, Distressed Houses, and Fixer-Uppers Explained

If you're interested in making money flipping houses, it still can be done in a slow real estate market. In fact, many investors are looking for other ways to make money so the competition isn't as fierce. Also, sellers become more anxious every day their home sits on the market.

Flipping houses for money success doesn't depend on an active real estate market or in thirty percent appreciation. Your ability to make money in real estate depends on your ability to buy a bargain property and to sell it or rent it for profit.

Bargain Houses Have Distressed Sellers

Real estate investors make money when they find a bargain property which they can purchase for less than market value and resell or rent for profit. The key may be a "distressed seller" who needs out right away because of overwhelming problems like financial difficulties (pending foreclosure, lack of money to pay bills), divorce, death, addictions, job loss, or transfer. Sometimes a seller wants to use the money to purchase another property or start a different business and is willing to offer a bargain price to move on.

Distressed Houses Are Fixer-Uppers

A "distressed house" is one that needs help to bring it up to saleable condition--a fixer-upper. Owners of fixers are not always distressed sellers. They might not be in foreclosure or facing financial problems. They may just lack motivation or know-how to fix up the property and haven't sold it because most home buyers want a house in good condition.

You can make money buying both bargains and fixers. It depends on whether you want to work with houses in good condition or fixer-uppers. Some investors only buy houses in prime condition from sellers who are willing to discount for a fast sale. In today's market, you must know how you're going to make a profit before you purchase a house. If you know the market is still active in your area and you have a strong chance of reselling in a couple months for full price with the right marketing strategy, you can make an offer that gives you plenty of margin.

If you want to turn a fixer into a new owner's dream home or rental, you must know how much the house will cost to fix. Many investors buy fixers with rehab funding and don't risk their own money. After fixing the house, they refinance and rent, take some profit out, and have the tenants make the payments. House flippers fix and sell right away for fast cash.

Of course, if you want to fix houses, you want to find a fixer-upper that is also a bargain property for the highest return on your investment--money, work, and time.

By: Jeanette Joy Fisher

How To Use Equity to Your Advantage

Once you have purchased a home and are making monthly payments, you are in the process of building equity. The opportunity to use the equity you have built up in your home is one of the benefits of homeownership.

The equity you have built up can be used for many purposes on your advantage. Many people will use this equity to draw out cash by refinancing their house; the cash may be use to finance other major purchases such as second mortgage, making major improvement to your property or to fund their children educational expenses.

If you are in bad debt situation, your equity can be the hero in saving you from bankruptcy. You can pledge your equity to apply for a home equity loan which will allow you to borrow a relatively large amount of money to consolidate your debts. As compare to other personal or unsecured loan, a home equity loan is easier to get approve even you are in a bad debts situation; lenders may be more liberal because they view home equity loan as relatively safe. You can't disappear with your house or hide it if you default on your loan, so the lender has a good chance of collecting the collateral.

Besides using your equity for bad debt consolidation, you may use it for other high-interest rates debt consolidation. One of the advantages of home equity loans are they typically have lower interest. And you could you this advantage to consolidate all your high-interest monthly payments into a single loan which had a considerably lower interest rate.

Typically you are allowed to refinance up to 75%, (sometimes 80%), of the value of the property on conforming loans whereas on jumbo loans you are limited to 70% of the property's value. For example, if your home is now valued at $150,000 and your loan balance is $70,000, you might be able to get a new $150,000 x 75% = 112,500 mortgage. That would allow you to repay the existing $70,000 balance and use the $42,500 for your financial needs.

Another possibility to use the equity to your advantage is home equity lines. Many lenders offers home equity lines for homeowners and allow them to draw cash advances with their credit card or write checks up to certain credit limit.

Before using a home equity loan or home equity credit line for any purpose, you should be aware of the pitfalls of these loans. The main thing is that you can lose your home if you fail to meet the payment schedule required by the loan. Therefore you need to consider it carefully before do a cash-out with your equity.

By: Cornie Herring

How to Quickly Sell Real Estate without Denting Your Pockets

People sell homes for lots of reason: Sometimes homeowners are concerned about the rates in their neighborhood; sometimes they find a better home for sale somewhere else, and sometimes work-related transfers force people out of their houses. In most and usual cases, people ask the help of a real estate agent to sell homes the fast and effective way.

Having a real estate agent though has disadvantages. When you sell homes through real estate agents, they're inclined to take a commission out of your sale. This in and of itself can be very irritating if your home is not that large or expensive to begin with.

However, more and more people are discovering that they can sell homes on their own, without the need of a commission-charging real estate agent and this is through private sales in the Internet. Through free real estate listings, home sellers and homebuyers can transact between themselves and get more value for their money that otherwise would have gone to a real estate agent. With so many free real estate listings on the Internet, it's no wonder homes for sale is on a healthy boom.

Also, some real estate agents do very little beyond putting a sign on your lawn to advertise your home for sale. For that, you could have just sold it yourself. Of course, there are additional reasons why selling your home yourself may just be the right move for you and your family. Here are the top 5 reasons to sell your home yourself:

When you sell home on your own, without the help of a real estate agent, you won't have to pay commissions.

Selling your home on your own gives you more control over the process. You are not forced to deal with many of the overhead hassles that agents may put you through.

Control: you get to decide how much to sell your home for and when to close a deal.

Costs. When you sell home, you are going to have to pay a certain amount of money in getting things rolling, such as transfer costs, mortgage payments, home construction, etc. You will save on doing much of these on your own, as opposed to relying on a real estate agent, since there will always be extra fees when for their services.

Convenience. Selling your home on your own is a great deal more convenient because you are in charge of what happens at all times. From your open house to your home improvements, nothing will get done without your say-so. For homeowners who like feeling in control of situations, private home for sale without the meddling of a real estate agent is a no-brainer.

By: b. thorp