Archive for February, 2010
How to Profit by Buying and Selling Homes
Some people choose to do it as a profession, others do it as a hobby, but one thing they all have in common is the desire to profit from it. `It` being the buying and selling of houses, or as some term it – house flipping. In other words – speculating.
So, with the current downturn in property prices, and the upturn in foreclosures, is it a good time to invest in property? What factors should you bear in mind if you are thinking about buying and selling houses?
Consideration of the following, though not an exhaustive list, should give you some guiding principles to help you before jumping in to real estate.
From what source will you find the funds to purchase the property? If it is going to be a bank loan, consider the rate of interest you will be paying the lender until the loan is repaid, usually at the point of the sale of the property. If it is your own money you are using, how much interest will you lose on it being in a bank? Might you need that money in an emergency?
How much are you prepared to buy the house for? The higher the value, potentially the greater the profit. Set yourself a ceiling, particularly when first starting out. Where will you look to locate the ideal property you wish to buy? From an auction, through a realtor, or even privately, are some of the more obvious options.
Once you see a house you think you could do things with, check how much similar properties go for in that neighborhood. Pay too much and if you can`t make sufficient profit you are wasting your time, and you could even lose money on the deal.
Will you be carrying out repairs, or remodelling, yourself, or, will you have to bring in contractors to do the work for you? If you do the work yourself, do you have the necessary expertise to carry out the work safely, and do a proper job? What about family commitments, will you have the support of those closest to you? If you can do the work yourself, or at least the majority of it, you can save yourself a lot of expense. But, you need to consider whether you can afford to take the time off work with the possibility of losing wages. You need the commitment to see the job through, and set a realistic time scale for completion.
It is absolutely essential to calculate how much profit you will receive after taking into account the initial cost of the property, interest on any loan needed to fund the purchase, selling costs (realtor fees, legal costs etc.), your own wages for the time spent on the house, and costs of materials and possibly employing a contractor to do any work needed to add value to the property.
If you have ticked all the boxes and feel confident that buying and selling houses is for you, then you could be on the road to making money in the property market.
Geoff Cummings
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/how-to-profit-by-buying-and-selling-homes-723326.html
Purchasing Property – Your Property Buying Tool Kit
Your Property Buying Toolkit. As with any task in life, it pays to be prepared and have the right tools to hand when evaluating prospective property purchases. So what do you need in your property assessment tool kit? Here is a list of basic tools that will be helpful :
Have a good Pen or two, you need to make notes.
# A Notebook is better than loose-leaf paper, it keeps your notes together.
# A Clipboard helps when making notes in difficult places, it is best to get one with a cover in case you are out in wet weather.
# Some kind of distance measuring device; a tape measure is good, but if you can afford it the laser or sonic measuring units make the job a lot easier.
You will need to know the size of the rooms to estimate any refurbishment costs.
# Have a Spirit Level along too, even a small pocket size one will do. You should know what surfaces are not level or true and might need further investigation.
# A Damp Detector is an essential piece of kit as most kinds of internal damp will point at a potentially large problem elsewhere. These pocket size units are not expensive and could save you a lot of money.
# A Torch is a good idea for poking around the loft or basement and when visiting properties in the dark that may have no external lights or even no current power supply.
# A Calculator is also very helpful in case you need to work out figures on the spot to make an offer, work out commissions or estimate repair costs.
# A Camera can be useful to record any problems or simply as a memory aid, if you view several properties in one day they can sometimes all blend into one memory. A photograph of the outside will at least distinguish between the different properties. A digital camera is ideal so you don’t have developing costs. Polaroid cameras are very good too, so you can get an instant photo on the spot.
# Utility Tool. Something like a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman style multi-tool can be very handy if you need a screwdriver, knife or some other implement to complete you property examination.
# Gas and Electric Meter Cupboard Key, it can be helpful to check what kind of meter is installed and what the current readings are. Some properties have Pay As You Go card meters.
To tie all these tools together you should have a comprehensive Homebuyer Report or some kind of Checklist. It is easy to miss things when walking around a new property, make sure you check as much as you can on your first visit and note it down in a format that means you can compare it with other properties that you have assessed.
The above list is just a suggestion of tools that may be useful when assessing any property for purchase. You never know what you are going to run into so it pays to have a good toolkit along every time. There may well be other tools that you like to carry or have found useful in the past, but it pays to make your toolkit as compact as possible, so that you aren’t lugging a huge toolbox around with your all the time. /www.homes-seekers.net“>Buying and Selling Checklist
Once you have decided on your purchase things can get pretty exciting and everything starts to move very fast.
Several months down the track there will be a lot of information that you will need and no one else is going to collect it for you, some of it may even have disappeared or changed by that time. So it is important to know right from the start the information that is going to be needed later on and make sure you collect it as soon as possible. It is even more confusing if you have a number of properties being bought and sold at the same time, so make sure you have an effective filing system and make us of it.
Maurice
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/purchasing-property-your-property-buying-tool-kit-93823.html
