With low inventories being a regular feature in most housing markets across the country, it has become very difficult for investors to find homes at cheap prices to book attractive profits. If you have the cash, you can choose to advertise about your business or set out to find homes that are available at less than their fair market value. Of course, not every abandoned home is a good choice for investment. But when you can find distressed properties easily, it becomes easier to act and earn profits with real estate investment.
Why do owners abandon their properties? The biggest reason why one finds so many abandoned houses is because their owners lose all kind of emotional attachment with these properties. Other reasons why properties are left abandoned is because their owners grow old and have neither time nor money to look after their upkeep. Sometimes, it is heirs who show indifference to these properties. If you look around, you will notice that the best opportunity for you lies in big homes that have been left behind abandoned by their elderly owners who have moved into small single family homes or apartments in an effort to downsize. Such homes are excellent properties for young investors looking for their chance to invest and earn decent profits. However, investing is possible only when these homes are in areas with strong buyer demand.
Once you have found a house that has been abandoned by its owner or the heir, you know you have won half the battle. You can buy the house at very low prices, but your real test is yet to begin which is to make the house sale ready with minimum of spending. However, you will have the last laugh with all the profit that you will earn once you get to the stage of closing the deal.
It can prove difficult to get down to the owner of an abandoned house. You must ask everyone around including neighbors if they know anything about the owner of the property. If you are lucky, you can get all the records including tax records from the county office. Send a letter to the owner as soon as you come to know his name and the current residence.
Here is a clever technique to find out the owner of an abandoned property. When you fail to know where owner is despite your best efforts, you just put up a For Sale sign in the yard of property despite knowing you cannot sell it as the owner. The irate owner will surface from wherever he is living because he will never like the fact that someone else is trying to sell property. It may be difficult to calm down such an irate owner, but understands the logic behind this technique and often becomes ready to sell the property.
How do you spot an abandoned house? Well, you must look for signs when searching for such properties. One sign that tells you the property is abandoned is the presence of red tapes on utility boxes that are used to prevent anyone from utilizing them. You can tell that a house is abandoned if it has a severely overgrown and wild looking yard. If you see vegetation growing in the driveway, you know that it has not been used by the owner for years.
If you are a busy investor, you can hire someone at low cost to spot abandoned properties for you. Tell them what information you want from them before sending on this exercise. Once you have the addresses and the pictures, you can sit down to work.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
