Real Estate Investing Blog

Earlier, I was reading an article discussing divorce and the housing market; the article was from a newspaper in NH, and basically was delving into the fact that these days, the housing market is posing a number of challenges.

According to the article, the housing slump is creating a situation in which couples who would otherwise file for divorce are trapped under the burden of a home; with many situations leaving homeowners owing more on the property than its value, neither party wants to take on the responsibility of the house and, in many cases, neither partner can fully afford the home on their own.

This is why divorce is a topic of discussion for real estate investors: if more real estate investors were aware of these situations, they would be able to start negotiating with the bank and arranging for a short sale of the home. A real estate investor could step in and ensure that, while divorce is never pleasant, moving the home from the market and enabling the couple to pursue their divorce can help to end things smoothly.

By focusing at least some of your real estate investment marketing efforts on reaching out to those couples on the brink of divorce, you just might find that there are plenty of great opportunities just waiting to be discovered.

Divorce isn’t something that many people think of as a good thing - for the most part, even when parents stay close to one another and co-parent, there’s always someone who gets hurt. For that matter, when it comes to talking about divorce, in most cases, the only people who ever seem to really benefit from it are the divorce lawyers.

However, what you’re likely to discover after you’ve been involved in real estate investment for a while is that divorce creates opportunities. While you may not feel good about divorce in general, when you’re able to keep an eye on legal notes that include divorce filings, in many cases you will find something that’s beneficial to you as a real estate investor: motivated sellers.

When homeowners file for divorce, there are going to be some cases in which everything is amicable and one party gets the house and the other takes the car and the boat. More often than not, however, when homeowners file for divorce there is going to be a point in time in the not too distant future when they decide to act quickly and to liquidate their shared assets - and that’s when the real estate investors start to benefit.

Keep in mind that the best deals that you will find as a real estate investor happen when the sellers are motivated. If the parties looking into a divorce are focused on splitting everything or they simply need to liquidate the property to cover the expenses associated with the divorce, it’s possible for you to jump in.

Below is an email I received a couple days ago from one of our subscribers and I wanted to share my response to her and see what your comments were too.

From: Ami Gomez
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 4:20 PM
To: Michelle@InvestorWealth.com
Subject: Case Scenario

Hi Michelle,

First, thank you for the valuable info I’m receiving from you via email. I’m gaining knowledge and wisdom from it being an investor.

I’d like to ask for advice on exit strategy on this scenario:

My Uncle is 70 years old, Retired from Navy and Civil Service
Assets: Home worth $700,000 paid off (Bought at $46,000)
Savings/Checkings/CDs: $40,000
Fixed Annual Income: $40,223

His wife of 49 years wants a divorce, currently in process. Wants to get half share of the community property. So, here’s the debating question: Sell or Hold the fully paid off home?
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