Simplytagging

Like many real estate investors, I got my first exposure to the field by buying a home. I was looking at a house for sale by owner in an area that was somewhat depressed. It seemed like property rates were just starting to creep up again, but the area had a bad reputation. Nonetheless, I could see potential in it. There was a big drive to revitalize the downtown, an active citizens watch, and fewer crimes reported in the previous six months than in the six months before that. Although the owner could not get out of there fast enough, I was every bit as eager to get in. I had never really been able to smell a good investment before, but I was smelling one then. On some level, I knew that I wasn’t just buying a home. I was buying my first of many residential properties for sale.

Of course, it was a long time before I could turn that property for sale into a profit. The house was pretty decrepit and broken down, and I had very little experience in fixing things. Nonetheless, through perseverance I made it into a beautiful home. Sure enough, as I predicted, property rates started going up and up. People who had bought properties for sale at dirt cheap prices in the last six months patted a themselves on the back, while those who had recently left bemoaned the fact that they hadn’t waited a little bit longer to get out.

Talking to my neighbors from that area, it is amazing how many of them became real estate investors after that. For most of us, it was one lucky break. We were in the right place at the right time, buying residential and commercial properties for sale right before the downtown skyrocketed. Nonetheless, it taught us an important lesson: through the right real estate investments, you can make a lot of money in very little time.

A lot of people take to narrow a view of real estate investment. Either they end up buying properties for sale in the interest of developing them, or in the interest of holding on to them for a short time and then selling them off. In my opinion, you don’t really have to make the decision right off the bat. It is never a bad idea to improve a property, and it is rarely a bad idea to sell a property for more than you bought it for. Start by finding the good deals, then figure out what to do with them.