CHARLESTON, SC: As the consequences of recent years’ creative mortgage lending are paid and interest rates rise, it might be easy to say the nation is entering a bad real estate market.
Foreclosures in July were up 16 percent nationwide from the month before, according to date from Foreclosure.com, a foreclosure tracking service.
These properties – plus others that are no longer affordable but not yet foreclosed upon – are flooding the market at a time when new construction is still moving at a heady clip and climbing interest rates are reducing the number of potential buyers.
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the national median house price in July was $235,400, a decline of 4.3 percent from June. Also according to the department’s statistics, there were 556,000 unsold homes on the market at the end of June – near an all-time high.
But the “bad” market that economists and real estate agents are lamenting is a matter of perspective, says at least one real estate entrepreneur. And smart investors will not be scared off by this market.
“The best strategy in the stock market is to buy low and sell high, and it’s not any different when you’re investing in real estate,” said Rob Minton, a Cleveland, Ohio, real estate broker, author and consultant. “With so many homes on the market now and fewer buyers, prices have leveled off and we’re heading into a ‘buy-low’ period. It’s a buyers market, so investors can be selective, make better deals and make a lot of money.”
Minton’s The Home Selling Team Inc. currently works closely with a group of more than 300 client investors who purchase primarily single-family homes in desirable locations. Single-family homes typically have the best rate of appreciation and the highest demand, thus providing steady and sometimes spectacular streams of income.
In Charleston, SC, Realtor Cheyanne Lake has client investors who have capitalized on the same philosophy.
Both Minton and Lake typically warn against “flipping”
“You buy a property for what you think is a great deal, but you always end up putting more money into it than you thought you would,” said Lake. “On top of that, you’re paying your mortgage while rehabbing the property, then you put it on the market and pay the mortgage, taxes and insurance while you wait for it to sell. And right now, you could be waiting a long time.”
Alex Carney of Cleveland is a client of Income For Life, the group of investors guided by Minton and Lake. He is a converted flipper, learning his lesson the hard way.
“At first, I just kept thinking about the profits I was going to be making flipping these houses,” Carney said. “What I really bought myself was another job that began keeping me away from my family and paid a great deal less than my corporate sales career. Plus, the payout was six months to a year when I finally sold the houses. Cash flow became a problem.”
Adopting Minton’s strategy of buying quality homes in quality neighborhoods, Carney has capitalized on a housing market that is ripe with pickings for investors. Just since January, he has purchased four homes selected with the aid of Minton’s brokerage, and he is finally reaping the rewards of real estate he thought he would.
“The numbers blow away any other investment I ever made,” Carney said.
To help other investors capitalize on the opportunities, Lake is offering a FREE workshop for investors. To register simply call 1-843-849-8229
* * *
About Rob Minton: Minton is a CPA who left the world of public accounting to pursue a career in real estate. He has since been a successful Realtor and broker, but he sidestepped conventional wisdom by narrowing the focus of his brokerage practice, The Home Selling Team, to the real estate investment realm. An investor in all types of properties himself, his Income for Life group of investors focus on single-family homes in desirable locations bought and sold with a proven rent-to-own method.
Income For Life’s client base has grown to an international faction, with brokers in 36 U.S. markets and one in Canada establishing the groups of investors in their markets. Using Minton’s proven system, those clients have been able to earn an average profit of about $28,000 on each home they acquire. Minton is author of the book “Income for Life,” and is an expert on all areas of real estate investing and on independent real estate agents. He lives in Willoughby, Ohio.
