Real Estate Investing Blog

When you are investing in real estate as more than just a hobby - when real estate investment is your business - you’ll find that there are a number of steps involved in evaluating deals. Some of these steps are simple and straightforward; others just seem like they should be:

(source)One important thing you should do if you bid at tax auctions is inspect the properties. Especially in Baltimore it is important to make sure there is actually a building there. A case in point, this last weekend my partner and I were out looking at properties. We saw a property in a very nice single family home neighborhood. It was assessed at $100K but the neighborhood is worth double that. It would be a very desirable neighborhood to own or do a rehab in. There is just one problem. It was an empty lot. Clearly the building had just been demolished because we could see fresh grass seed growing.

There was a $900 lien on the property. Without looking at the property it would be easy to bid $50-100K or more.

When you are involved in real estate investing - whether you are buying bank notes, investing in tax liens or purchasing physical properties - it’s important to evaluate the deal before you make it. It is essential that you look at the properties that you are thinking about investing in (or at least have someone else check it out for you) to see whether or not everything is as it appears to be.

The above example is a good one: when you take the time to do your research and look at a property before making an investment, you just might find that you are able to save thousands of dollars in the process.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Evaluating Deals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.