A politician once proclaimed, "All politics is local!"
The same is true for real estate. If you live in Southern California home values are climbing towards the sky. The real estate market is hot!
At the very same time there are many areas in the Midwest where there has been no job growth, no increase in sales activity and no increase in home prices for over 5-years. If you are in one of those markets you find real estate investing is an entirely different ballgame.
Here's a good example of picking your sweet spot… something you, as an investor, should consider when planning your investing tactics.
Technical Olympic USA is home builder. The company very carefully selects the areas where they build homes. Right now they are in ten hot markets:
Florida
Texas
Tennessee
Maryland
Pennsylvania
Arizona
Virginia
Colorado
Nevada
Delaware
This builder avoids the crazy areas like San Diego, Loa Angeles and Boston.
They look for areas where employment has grown steadily for the last 5 or 6 years and where second-time home buyers are moving to homes in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.
They've learned that these buyers are in there 30s and 40s, have kids and want 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2,800 to 3,000 sq ft of living space and a two-car garage.
Yes, it would be nice if we could all do some research and move to an area where investors are having the most success. Don't fret. Time and again the truly determined have proven that you can make money in any real estate market… sweet or not.
If you are an investor living in the Midwest you cannot just buy any rental home and count on its appreciating value to provide a profit. Home prices are not going up.
Yet, you can still make money in Midwest real estate. The key is to always buy or option at a price at least 30% below market value. You have less room for error than those investing where home values are increasing by 1% to 3% per month.
In Southern California there are at least 5 real estate investing seminars being presented every week. Investors of all skill levels are swarming like locust over every square foot of ground. Competition is fierce. It's not quite like that in the Midwest.
Another key is to only invest in homes that people want to buy. A good target is what Technical Olympic has found to be its sweet spot... those homes near 3,000 sq ft. They will be easier to rent to the best class of tenants... and they will sell more quickly for the best profit. In your area the most desirable homes might have other characteristics, but you get the idea
The bottom line is that there are geographical sweet spots... and there are local sweet spots... even neighborhood sweet spots.
Stay in front of demand, buy carefully, use creative techniques like leases, options and "subject to", and you will find investing opportunity no matter where you live.
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