Cheap, Bargain, Real Estate; Good Deals, Below Market, Low Priced Properties Are Available...

By Jody Hudson - Realtor since 1972.

How to FIND and BUY: Cheap Bargain Real Estate, Good Deals, Below Market, Low Priced and Less Expensive; homes, lots, land, businesses, and condominiums.  They are everywhere and easy to find. Here is how to find and buy them from anyone, anywhere.

This article lays out the steps: How to find and buy a Bargain, A Good Deal, in real estate; that is; how to get it real cheap!  Yes, there are ways! 

Nearly every call or e-mail that I get is asking me to find the buyer a bargain. We all feel that way when we are buying as well. All of us want a good deal. We all want to get cheap real estate. And we can all do it.

There is a bit of a challenge however. Every single buyer that I've ever had in my thirty two years of selling real estate has wanted to sell the property they have for more than it is worth. Herein lays our challenge as Realtors -- and of course for you as purchasers.

To get those HOT deals in real estate there are at least three things you must do:

1. First of all as a buyer you must be able and willing to act faster than any other buyer.

2. Second you must be able to know a bargain when you see one.  This takes experience and education in the specific market .  Any assumptions made from other markets, about the subject-inteded market, will sentence you to certain failure...

3. Third you must BUY it. That is write a deposit check and write a contract that will win over the other contracts that may be presented at about the same time as yours.

This group of three steps, sounds simple, but only about one buyer in each ten year period is willing to do these three things in order to get the cheap property they have asked us to find for them!  I have several people, and so do most Realtors, that are the most; ready, willing and able and we call them first!  If you want to be one of the ones called you must be MORE ready, willing and able! 

Recently, August 2002 the waterfront home next to ours was listed for sale for $249,000 and it was worth at the time about $350,000. Kate and I called each of our family members, our wonderful neighbors on the other side (one of whom is a local builder and the other a mortgage broker) and some of our best clients and a best friend of ours, a builder and investor, who had already said he liked the fine home. (Note that property is now worth about $800,000 Sept. 2004).

We explained that the home was going on the market in a few hours and that they must act fast. Our neighbors on the other side, the most knowledgeable of the bunch wanted to make an offer of $180,000 saying they thought that was all the property was worth. They knew better or at least should have and they should have bought it. They just "hoped" they could get it for less and that they didn't have to move fast.  The offer they made was ignored and wasted our time.  They did however get another property in a few days, for a lot more money, that was worth a lot less, as a result of improved alertness and awareness after loosing the one next to us.

Our savvy investor friend put in a couple of offers below the asking price with several contingencies. Meanwhile we are telling everyone to write a contract for full price with no contingencies and calling on both our phones as fast as we could call. None of our best friends or family would pay attention. They were ALL too greedy. They knew the property was far under-priced but wanted it for even less... Lesson: when it's a good deal - ACT instead of getting more greedy and losing the deal totally. 

Then our lovely new neighbors came and saw the property. They also were knowledgeable about similar properties, and had lost several properties they liked by moving slow, writing unreasonable contracts and not paying attention to real values.

This time they did it correctly. In fact they wrote a contract on the spot, with no contingencies, and for MORE than full price so that if anyone did offer full price they would still have the best chance. They paid $5,000 more than the full price on the spot, told the sellers they could have settlement any time they wanted it and before they even heard back from the sellers they arranged for a mortgage of MORE than they needed and asked for the money to be immediately available. They did not ask for a home inspection, a survey, or for the sellers to fix anything. The home is 30 years old and has not had one bit of maintenance. There was a burst hot water tank, a roof that needs replacing and a few HUGE cracks in the foundation. All these problems cost them about $15,000.

They have, as I write this, owned the property for several months and worked on it every weekend, before they could take a break and enjoy it. They love it. If they were to fix all of the things that need fixing, paint the trim and freshen up the yard and landscaping; we could get $900,000 to $950,000 for this home for them in a few months on the market. And, city sewer will be here in a few years, at that point the property will instantly go up another $200,000 and all the people we called knew about the pending sewer too.

The buyers didn't find out about the sewer coming to town until after they had contracted to purchase the property.  The sewer is still not in -- WOW.  They are glad they did the One, Two, Three to make it happen! 

By doing the three things listed above the purchasers of the home next to us have made the wisest purchasing decision thus far in their lives and have one of the best bargains that have been available in the last several years. The sellers are happy too as they just wanted to sell it as fast as they possibly could, due to a sudden and dangerous illness of one of the owners.

I'm writing this article to serve you the reader. But you must know it is self serving as well. Much of our time as Real Estate Agents is spent trying to successfully educate our buyers and sellers. If they would take our advice they could be far, far, more successful in selling or buying. The articles I write here http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/index.html are those advices that I give my customers and clients - if they ask. Most don't and when they do, very few take the advice. Just like in every other profession, we the professionals do what we can to help those who come to us but it's up to them to take the advice.

Bargain homes are always available - but hard to sell. They are homes that are in need of some repair or cosmetic improvement or that are in an area of transition. We have several on the market right now and they are hard to sell. Someone with vision will eventually purchase them, fix them up and perhaps sell them at a huge profit - often to someone who says they want a bargain but won't do what it takes to get a bargain. Funny isn't it, and this sort of thing happens all the time.  It has consistently happened in my 35 years in the real estate business and being a licensed Realtor since 1972.  Just know this, if you want a fixer-upper, so does everyone else, but you need to be very, very, educated and able to spend the time and money to renovate the property effectively and affordably.  And, you need to do One, Two, Three!

If you want a bargain; educate yourself and be ready to DO -- One, Two, and Three. We'll try to help you.

By Jody Hudson  Copyright 2002-2004 www.Kate-Jody.com

Jody Hudson: MrJodyHudson@earthlink.net

Jody Hudson was raised as a farmer in Delaware.  In 1969 he and his father began "planting houses instead of crops" on the land.  It was far more profitable.  In 1972 he got a real estate licencse.  In a few years he became the youngest real estate broker in Delaware history.  In 1982 he was selected by Who's Who in American Real Estate as it's youngest member at the time.  He has created about 40 residential communities and sold real estate in Delaware and across he nation.  He has written several valuable articles http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/index.html for you.  Enjoy!