I am 45 have recently quit my $120K job sold my house and moved into a rural area in NY (catskills). Although I’m in a rural area I am located within 25-40 minutes of 5 Good size towns. The area has a substantial 2’nd home market thanks to the City Folks (3-4 hours away), and many distressed farm houses as well as village homes. Land has been rapidly rising and there is not much land inventory available. Casino’s are anticipated within next few years approx. an hour to an hour and half away. In General, the local folks struggle here, so I am anticipating alot of ave.-bad credit, none to little deposit money situations.
I have a credit score of about 670, $130K in Cash, $35K in mutual Funds, $50K in 401K retirement mutual funds, Own my own home which I am now selling-$250K, and have no Debt. It costs me approx 20K per year to live. I have kept 2 property management financial jobs(1 day/mth) where I earn about 15K per year to cover most of my living expenses. So I’m currently operating at a 5K loss per year.
I did this because i learned life is too short and figured that its time I did what I wanted to do. I have traditional Real estate Experience which has gotten me this far but now want to concentrate on doing some real deals to further increase my cash base. I’m not opposed to risk as I also currently play the currency markets (Vegas has nothing on them except free drinks…lol).
I was wondering where I should start (Foreclosures, Rehabs, etc.) I prefer not to hold any property for any real length of time. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
(some posts were removed by moderator as they were “contact me” type posts rather than informational)
The average home in the area is about 70-100k, all have about three bed and 2 bath. Most of these foreclosures are not listed in the conventional places, I located them using a pay site on the web. Most of the homes are in need of minor repairs, carpet, paint and new fixtures. Some are worst then other but all in all, not bad. Most families around here are military and for one reason or another have foreclosed on them and left.
Located a good property two days ago, asking 45k and comparable homes in the area have sold for 81K in the past two months. Would much rather re list them to sell, an average of 1200 soldiers and their families arrive every month in this area.
I am almost in a similar situation. Here in Florida there are a lot of pre-construction opportunities and the market is moving so fast you can almost double your money when the entire subdivision or condo tower is complete. Problem is it’s expensive to get in on it. I’m wondering if the pre-construction idea would work in a smaller town. Do you have something like this up there?
The area I am in is growing constantly, new condo’s and townhomes. My mother in law moved into one about a year and a half ago and it is already up by 30%. I cant say that that is something I have ever looked out just for the fact of the out of pocket expense but it an idea.
It helps to live in the place that you’re going to buy the pre-construction because that way you hear the buzz of who’s building what and where and you register for an invitation to the grand opening. You get first selection and the lowest price. After the public is invited then the prices start to rise. Does this same thing happen in No. Carolina (or the Catskills)? Are you able to find out about the new developments early on?
IwinUwin,
One of my clients only buys Single Family Homes and this could work for you, as you may already have the selling marketplace (NY City dweller’s who always wanted that 2nd home!).
What he does is buy, fix & lease/option the house to the eventual new owner. Collect a reasonable down pay, like $2,000 or $3,000 and charge market rent + $250 per month extra.
Let’s say you can buy for $50k, fixed up it is $90k
Market rent is $900, you charge $1,150, $250 credit back toward fown pay on $90,000 purchase in 24 months. $250 is credited if they pay ON TIME and do all repairs up to that $250 level! Get rid of your management headaches, have a built in buyer and if they walk away, do it again!
This guy has like 25 properties going now. I am abouit ready to duplicate what he does!