All real estate agents are not created equal. When you are investing in real estate, you want the best of the best. Here are some of the qualifications you should be looking for:

•           A REALTOR®;: Not all agents are certified REALTORs®;. REALTORs®; are held to a code of ethics and much higher standards than your average agent.

•           Full-timer: Part-time agents tend to do real estate as a side job and may not have the time, energy, and enthusiasm of a full-time agent.

•           Experience: An agent with several years of experience is generally preferable to an agent with little or no experience.

•           Productivity: Productivity is a sign of quality, and busy agents are generally better than those who have little business. 

•           Availability: Although you want an agent who’s busy, you also want the agent to be available and responsive to your needs.

•           Your comfort level: How do you feel in the presence of this particular agent? Can you see yourself working with this person? You don’t need to be bosom buddies with your agent, but you do need to have a rapport that enables you to communicate effectively.

Contact Paulette Zuena directly to learn more about her experience and qualifications.

What You Stand to Gain by Teaming up with an Agent

 

Investors who think they are saving loads of money by not using an agent usually haven’t done the math or considered the following benefits an agent offers:

•           An agent can put you in touch with a reputable mortgage broker who can help you secure low-cost financing for your investments.

•           An agent can help you find and evaluate investment opportunities.

•           A listing agent can help you sell your home for more money and in about half the time, on average, as you can sell it yourself. (When you consider that holding costs are about $100 per day, every month your investment property is on the market costs you $3,000.)

•           An agent can protect your back by making sure you do not overpay for a property and by helping you avoid the most common pitfalls of buying and selling real estate.

•           When the time comes to close on the purchase or sale of a property, your agent can help you navigate the closing to ensure that it proceeds smoothly.

•           An agent can help you determine which repairs and renovations will deliver the highest return on your investment dollar.

•           An experienced agent keeps his or her finger on the pulse of the market and can help you deal with market fluctuations.

•           An agent can refer you to contractors and subcontractors who do quality work for reasonable rates.

•           An agent who knows about real estate and mortgage fraud can help you avoid becoming the next victim of or unwitting accomplice to fraud.

 

Real estate investors who flip houses often try to trim costs and boost profits by handling everything themselves. After all, if you can buy directly from the homeowners and sell the home yourself, you can probably save at about 10 percent on real estate commissions alone (a few percent if the sellers agree to share their savings with you and six to seven percent when you sell).

Cutting out the middleman may make sense sometimes, but when you’re investing in real estate, cutting costs by forgoing the services of real estate professional is usually penny wise and pound foolish, especially for the novice investor. By doing so, you expose yourself to more risk, limit your opportunities, and may even decrease your profits.  To learn more about your risks as well as your opportunities for investing in real estate in Andover and North Andover Massachusetts contact me, Paulette Zuena at ReMax Partners in Andover.

 

 

Can "anybody" fix-up a run down home and resell it for profit?

The following list describes the most basic qualifications you need to get started:

•           Nights (or days if you work the night shift) and weekends off: Flipping houses is like moonlighting at another job. Part-time flippers, often called weekend warriors, can succeed as long as they are committed to treating flipping as another job.

•           Financial stability: You should be paying all of your bills on time, including the mortgage on your primary residence, before you consider taking on another financial burden. Don’t look at flipping as a way to solve your financial difficulties – you may end up digging yourself into a deeper hole.

•           Energy: Couch potatoes need not apply. You need plenty of energy to work on a home while fulfilling the responsibilities of your day job.

•           Ability to function in a crisis: Flipping a house is more complicated than it seems and always more of a challenge than it looks on TV. If you commonly feel overwhelmed already, taking on another burden may not be prudent.

•           Organizational expertise: With flipping houses, time is money, so you need to execute the flip as quickly as possible. This requires an organized mind. You have to act as contractor to make sure all materials are delivered on schedule and that your subcontractors aren’t tripping over one another.

•           Basic math skills: To be relatively certain that you will earn a profit, you need to be able to crunch some numbers. Overestimate expenses and underestimate profits to give yourself a safety buffer.

•           A supportive family: If you’re married, make sure your spouse supports this new venture. Otherwise, you will not only be fighting the world to flip houses for a profit, but you will also be fighting your partner. This often leads to failure both with the new venture and with the relationship.

Most real estate investment gurus will tell you that “Anybody can do it.” “Anybody can flip houses and earn a hundred thousand dollars in their spare time, buying, fixing, and selling run-down homes.” Well, that’s not exactly true. If it were as easy as these gurus claim it is, everyone would be doing it. Unfortunately, the sheer number of people who have tried to become wealthy real estate investors and have failed proves that not everybody has what it takes to succeed. 

Our current market offers many opportunities for investing in real estate.  For the most up to date information about your real estate market,  contact me at ReMax Partners in Andover, MA.