Buying Real Estate in Today's World

With today's economic climate you need to buy better. That means buying lower. Why? Not only to make money, that is why we are doing this business, but because in my neck of the woods (Central Valley of California) prices continue to drop everyday. In fact the median price of a home in Stanislaus County fell 10% from October to November, one month. That is after a full year of price drops. That shows the extent of Foreclosure crisis in the Central Valley of California. I saw a article in the Central Valley Business Journal(December 2008) stated "...72% of closed escrows were bank-owned. The rest were short-sale properties and traditional sales." With that many bank-owned homes being sold each month, the price of those homes will continue to go down until all the property that banks own is gone. And banks are still foreclosing on property everyday.

So that tells us that we need to buy better and buy lower to keep pace with the drop in home prices. We are making a lot more offers for lower prices. We are getting a lot more "Nos" than ever before but it is a numbers game. We will continue to look for motivated sellers who need to sell to help them out of their situation. But if you are buying based on today's price you may be upside down by the time you close escrow because the bank owned property down the street cut the price to sell quickly. Plan your sale several months in advance and discount your price accordingly. Or you may be holding property longer than you plan.

Now the good news is that the property will most likely cash flow because the price is so much lower in California. This is a great time to be an investor looking for the long-term. In fact if you want to own rental property that has a positive cash flow call us, we have several properties that fit that description. We can show you how you can be making $200 - $500 per month positive cash flow right now. We can even help you manage it.

So go make offer for all the property you can; remember to have your private money ready and close as quickly as you can so you can rent it or resell it in as short a period of time as you can, Good Luck.

See Ya,
Mike