House hunting for REO’s and Handyman specials are still abundant. The economy is still not where it needs to be. So, buy your investment homes as low as you can get them. But not so low that you have more rehab work then you can handle or use our rule of thumb, never have the rehab out cost the price of the home you just purchased. This is just common sense and a physical and time saver for the ‘smart’ investor.
Usually, the richer the investor, the less rehab work he does. It is part of the that rule of zero time and work equals more money that many billionaires use. As seasoned investors, we have now begun to look more and more for properties that need very little work and time put into them in order to have a quicker turn around time to earning a monthly profit. In fact, we have even considered some finished homes for rental or quick flip just to see the money come in faster. Can you still make money this way? ABSOLUTELY!!! Do you make as much if you compared to a home you worked on for 2-3 months? Not as much on some occasions. Yet, the time saved will always outweigh the money earned. Time spent with family or going on vacations rather than on working homes for several months in between your main job as many investors first start out and do. The other reason for doing this is to shorten our time in flipping homes so that we can move on to more projects even faster thus making more money in the long run than a flipper who does only 1-2 homes (average payout $10,000 per home x 2) a year compared to doing maybe 4-6 homes ($4,000 x 6) a year. Hmmm—-do the math.
Your cheapest deals will be in the fall to winter months for many reasons. Your competition on bidding for homes goes way down. Secondly, it is a great time of year to check out how sound your home really is—does it leak in rainy/snow season? for example. Cooler months to work in compared to summer heat and the expense to cool a rehab home compared to heating it. Last, the best selling and renting time is around mid-March until mid-June, giving you a 2-3 months time to finish all rehabbing and sell it faster.
Crissy