Real Estate Investing Advice & Information

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Browsing Posts tagged apartment building

Real estate investing has many opportunities, even in a depressed economy. Many new investors automatically look into the prospects of buying single family homes or land and completely miss the very lucrative apartment building market. Most find themselves intimidated by the prospects though as the details of buying and apartment building are very different than they are with a home or piece of land. Single family homes, comparatively low cost, and apartment buildings are a much heavier investment. Selecting the right apartment building can also be a daunting prospect and the thought of maybe becoming a landlord can be distressing.

There is a fundamental difference however between the two. When you buy and sell a house or piece of land, your profit on that deal is a one time thing and you will have to go look for more deals to continue to make money. With an apartment building, once the deal is closed and your building is occupied, the money comes in on a regular basis for as long as you own the property. If you have no interest in the day to day operation of your property it is simple to turn it over to a management company and let them do the work will you reap the profits. continue reading…

What constitutes a good deal is determining your exit strategy. This could mean something different every time your property scenario changes. For example, say I buy a property that is in very poor shape and I do not plan on being a landlord. A good deal would be getting this property under contract for about 70% of its as is value and wholesale it to another investor for a fast cash profit. Another example is say I find a 30 unit apartment building for a huge discount of 75%, if my exit strategy is to not be a landlord this is not a good deal because few wholesale buyers want this type of property due to rehab.

A major equation that determines what a good deal is to you is your financial resources. This includes cash and credit you have available. For example, a good deal for someone that has no cash and bad credit would be, finding an owner who will finance you with no money down if you pay one hundred percent of the value of the home. Now this is a good deal if and only if you can still rent this property resulting in a positive cash flow. However I don’t recommend you begin with deals like this one until you take a few landlord training classes. continue reading…