What To Look For In Real Estate Investment Today

Okay, so maybe the real estate market isn’t just declining on a slow hill…everyone has their opinions. Some think the market is rolling down the Grand Canyon with only another Great Depression as it’s stopping point, while others may think it’s just a recession. What we do know however, is that sales are up and buys are down. Housing prices have dropped through the floor and foreclosures are through the roof.

There are some people who purchased their homes at the top of the boom when everything was climbing sky high that actually owe more on their homes than the value of their home. Because of this, many people have opted for foreclosure rather than pay for something that is not worth the money at the current time. The crash in the real estate market is not new. In the 1970s, it was also a very bad market for quite a few years and many people, especially those in the trades, were out of work.

However, the difference between then and now is the interest rates. Back in the 1970s, the interest rates for home mortgages were at 18 percent. People not only could not afford to buy homes because of the bad economy, but also because of the fact that the rates were so high. In the early 1980s, when the interest rates dropped to 12 percent, people went wild. New housing was booming as was everything else. If someone put their home up on the market at noon, they would have it sold by 4 p.m. It was a sellers market through and through and remained that way for a few years. A lot of people made money on real estate investing during those times, especially new home builders.

The real estate market is always coming and going, just like the stock market. You should not be frightened to own real estate. To the contrary, you should be frightened not to own real estate. Real estate is not only a solid long term investment that usually always pays off big, but also something that you actually need. As you need a place to live, it is better to pay your own mortgage than that of someone else.

If you are looking for real estate investments today, look for foreclosures. Or, look for short sales that have not yet reached foreclosure. In a short sale, you can save the owner from going into foreclosure and usually pick the property up for a lot less money than it is worth. You can offer low and even offer to allow the seller to stay in the home, for rent, for a while longer so that they can get their bearings.

You can find short sales by looking on the docket of the county clerk court list. A judge has to issue an eviction notice in order for a foreclosure to commence. This means the bank has already gone through the court system. You can find this information out at the county courthouse. Anything that goes through the court is public record. The judge issues an order for the sheriff to serve eviction papers through the court system.

Another way to find foreclosures is to contact banks and mortgage lenders for foreclosure listings. You'll only be told of about already foreclosed upon property. You can also put an ad in the paper stating that you are looking for people going into foreclosure and work with them in this manner. The short sale is one of the things you should look for when investing in the real estate market today.

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