Comet Settlement Real Estate

As Bulgaria readies for joining the European Economic Community in 2007, many investors are looking to see if there are real estate bargains to be had there.

Other countries have had a big run up before and shortly after joining the European Economic Community. Bulgaria’s prices for commodities are amongst the cheapest in Europe, and if you can find similarly priced property values, you could do very well.

Most people will want to look at Black Sea properties, or in ski resorts like Bansko, but the real deals are to be found in the interior of the country, in rural areas. In a recent visit properties on the Black Sea were fully priced, but inland properties could be had for 5-15,000 Euros – cheap!

There are many online companies offering pre-construction, or off-plan opportunities as well as completed units. Property management is easily available as well.

Discover one of Germany and England’s favorite holiday desitinations.

Make sure to do your homework though. All sellers will make the property they are selling seem easy to buy, easy to rent, and headed for the moon! Different areas have different appreciation prospects, and rental prospects as well.

A unit in a residential area of a city like Varna will not generate anywhere NEAR the revenues that a Black Sea resort property in Golden Sands will.

With the recent run-up of properties all across Europe, Bulgaria, just escaping the grasp of communism, appears ripe for property appreciation.

Andrew Larder Bulgaria Real Estate

FREE REPORT – How To Buy Property With Nothing Down, available by sending a blank email to monopolyinvestments@getresponse.com

Tags: bulgaria, bulgaria real estate, bulgarian, eastern europe, invest, investments, real estate investing

Ugly houses can be great investments, but we don’t buy them. We understand that there are lots of valid ways to make money investing in real estate. Buying and rehabbing ugly houses is certainly a good one, but we’ve chosen a different strategy. Our strategy is to buy good homes that are ready, or nearly ready, to move in. It has worked well and generated consistent profit deal after deal.

Can’t imagine getting a good deal on an attractive house? Believe it or not, there are bargains to be found because nice houses do go into foreclosure, people do move, and people still need to sell fast for a lot of different reasons. Sure, not every house we buy is beautiful and has an immaculate lawn. But you would be surprised at how many “ready to sell” houses are available at below market prices.

Like anything else, it takes work and know-how to find good houses. Here are three good reasons to look for clean, attractive houses.

1. Rehab and marketing time is greatly minimized. In many cases, you can show the house even before you buy it. In fact, if a house is clean and ready to show, we insist that we be able to show it during the time between signing the contract and closing on the house.

We are closing on a house in Chattanooga, TN this month that we sold before we even bought it. How did we do that? The seller was motivated because they had already purchased another house. We actually put a contract on it with the contingency that we would have it sold before we bought it! Our system of selling almost all of our houses on lease-to-purchase contracts keeps our average marketing time down to a week or two, so the contract with contingency was still very attractive to the seller.

The house was ready to sell. We only spent about $500 to fix it up. We sold it through a lease-to-purchase contract before we bought it, and our profit is $14,400 on this deal.

2. There are few rehab surprises. In our experience, no matter how carefully you examine a house before you buy it, there are always unexpected expenses in the rehab phase. It’s just hard to foresee some things until you begin remodeling. Of course, we prefer to keep these surprises minimized. Nice houses with little or no rehab are great for minimizing the surprise.

Incidentally, this is a good reason to have a home professionally inspected before you buy it. It’s also a good reason to budget some contingency funds for houses that do require remodeling.
3. Free up your time. You may enjoy the rehab and remodeling, but the path to true wealth in real estate is in finding and making the deals. If you are buying nice clean houses, then your time is spent in the deal making, not in managing the remodel projects.

Because we’ve made the choice to buy attractive homes, our profit margins may not be as extraordinary as some rehab deals might appear. We don’t have any stories of buying a house for $35,000, investing $35,000 in rehab and then selling for $100,000+.

Instead, our path to wealth has been through buying nice homes from motivated sellers at below market prices. We sell these houses through lease-to-purchase, or “rent-to-own” contracts at market or slightly above market prices. Our profit is generally $15,000 to $20,000 per house and our marketing time is usually less than two weeks.

You can do the math and see that buying nice houses can be very profitable for an investor. In our case, we prefer to handle more deals with these consistent profit margins, than work through the added stress of ugly houses.

Blake Watson is an active real estate investor,author and coach with Lucky 7 Seminars, a real estate investment training company headquartered in Chattanooga, TN.

email: blake@lucky7seminars.com
website: http://www.lucky7seminars.com

Tags: investment real estate, investor real estate, real estate, real estate investment, ugly houses

You’ve bought a fixer upper home you can make some money on. Where do you start? What improvements and repairs are most important? Actually, you need to know this before you buy. Always start with the end in mind, and have a plan to get there. Whether before and after you buy, though, there are some simple rules for analyzing possible fixes.

Return On Investment

Years ago I was a real estate agent sitting across the kitchen table from a very disappointed young couple. I had just told them there house was worth $110,000. “But we just put $40,000 into remodeling the kitchen!” they told me. I looked around, and it was nice. Maybe they added $10,000 in value to the house by spending that $40,000. There’s was a classic example of a bad return on investment.

With fixer upper homes, you need to do things which give the most “bang for the buck.” Try aiming for a three-to-one return on improvements. Before you resurface the driveway for $1000, ask if it will raise the value of the home by $3,000. Even if it’s a guess (especially if it’s a guess), keep this three-to-one formula in your head, if you want to invest safely.

How To Fix Fixer Upper Homes

With new curtains, flowers, ceiling fans and such, you can’t really estimate the increase in value for each item. Instead, group together the many small repairs and improvements you’re considering, and imagine how the house will look when you are done. Then estimate whether you will increase the value enough to justify the cost.

Often it’s in the small details that you’ll get the best return on investment, so look at these first. New mailbox, flowers on the porch, a raked yard and trimmed trees – $35 total if you do the work yourself – can make a big difference in the first impression potential buyers have. First impressions are important.

Other small investments that more than pay their way include shiny new switch covers (less than $1 each), shelves, a birdhouse, new doorknobs, new light fixtures, curtains, new rocks or wood chips on outdoor paths, new faucets, new woodstain on decks, and general cleaning. Stand out in front of the house and imagine what it might look like with all the various small improvements (flowers, wood-rail fence, birdbath, etc.).

Big Fixes

Of course there are things that just have to be repaired. Basic systems must function. Improvements, however, should be subject to the three-to-one rule. You can get creative here. A friend of mine once had a simple wall put up, and for less than $1000 created a new bedroom, probably raising the value of the house by $8,000. That’s a good return on investment.

Bathrooms and kitchens are important to buyers. A $1000 updating of a bathroom can add $4000 in value to a home. Spend $2000 wisely in the kitchen (New fridge, re-finish the cupboards, add a garbage disposal, etc.), and you can add $8000 to the value of the house. Look for the changes which are most universally valued (don’t paint the kitchen pink because YOU like that color), and be sure you get a decent return on investment.

Depending on the fixer upper homes you look at, there are many types of potential improvements that may be worth doing. These include adding carports, new doors, fences, gazebos, sheds, painting, carpet, benches, a new closet, a new toilet, a new stove, a shower/tub surround, and trees or bushes. The bottom line is the bottom line: be sure anything you do returns more than you spend, preferably three times as much.

Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To learn more, go get your free real estate investing course at: http://www.MakeThatOffer.com

Tags: fixer upper homes, fixer uppers, real estate, real estate investing