Real Estate Opportunities

 Deals-Deals-Deals everywhere I look. There are some fabulous real estate deals out there. If you ever wanted to invest in real estate? There has not been a time this good in thirty years or more. Here are a few deals I found looking in just one zip code (78201) in about three hours of looking. I was looking for REO properties (real estate owned, or bank repos).

Sunday afternoon I Looked at a 4000 sq. ft. house listed for $141,000  It had a tax value of $500,000 and needed about $150,000 to get it there. When I checked on that house this morning there was already a deal in the works on it, so I am now on the back up list just in case it falls through.

Down the street was an even better deal to my way of thinking. A four unit apartment building on a corner lot. Listed at $114,000 I will look at it tomorrow. Then I found a house for $56,000 and another for $24,000 listed by the same REO agent, they are located in other zip codes. All these properties need work but at these prices you can hire the work done and still make money as a landlord until the market turns back up.
Let us look at one of these deals

A four unit building selling for $114,000 consisting of four, two bedroom, one bath apartments.

The repairs and make ready estimate is $50,000. For a total of $164,000 ($41,000 a unit).

To get financing you need a 20% down payment or $30,000

The loan amount will be $130,000 at 6% interest for 240 months.

Payments are about $960 add taxes and insurance of say $400 gives you a total of $1,400 a month.

Rent each unit for $600 or a total of $2,400 a month.

This building will cash flow over $1,000 a month on a $30,000 investment. That is better then a 33% annual return on invested cash.

 I put in an offer on a five unit apartment property at $77,000 on December 22, 2009, 10% down, five year balloon note at 5%. We shall see what happens next week. My plan is to accumulate several such property to put into a multi property partnership. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I will be buying very soon and then do more buying in the spring. I hope you will be too. I am 61 years young and at my age I am looking for monthly cash flow rather then long term appreciation. So I look at a deal that will make money as a long term flip (2 to 5 years) or as a rental with a high cash flow return.