Last week I created a post about
writing my assignment in first person wondering if I might get discredited for
doing so. Also, I thought it rather
challenging to come up with 750+ words (I think I ended up with 753) Not only
did I receive full credit but a comment from my instructor said that he had
been entertained. That was a bonus as it
had not been my intent to entertain. Perhaps
I'll touch more upon it following the comments for this week's assignment which
may take more than one post as I have several examples and well over 750
words. I had actually started out with
eight different examples, but felt it best to revise my assignment in order to
keep it to less than 1,000 words.
So here is a rough outline accompanied
by mostly personal examples - though I did start out by mentioning the A&E's
former television series called "Sell This House" and ended with the
mention of HGTV's "Property Bros" and
"Fixer Upper". There
are many many ways to use real estate for investment purposes. Here are some:
Resell and Flipping
Today's American
Dream seems more than just owning property, but to make money from property
investments. Purchasing houses at a low
market rate, fixing them and flipping them appears to have become a hot investment
commodity. There are some who have the knack
for it and some who don't. I DON'T HAVE
THE KNACK.
1. Realtor's get a commission on what they
sell. Some realtor's won't even bother with the type of housing that Roland has
often listed - but he has worked with many investors who are willing to flip
the property. They will purchase the
"fixer upper" for less than 100,000 and end up selling it for almost
three times the amount - depending on the neighborhood, the timing of the
market and so forth. They end up with
more money in their pockets than did Roland.
Thus Roland decided to hop on the bandwagon of real estate investments. Fortunately he had partnered with someone for
each, but still . . . I didn't enjoy it overall.
2. I remember four properties having been
purchased for "Flip" purposes.
The first and third are the ones I remember best. Both in Midvale. The first was a shared driveway and hidden
location. I think the hardest part about
the property was the land itself. Lots
of overgrowth in the way of weeds and trees, etc. Roland decided that it would be a family
project and we would spend weekends going out to clear the land. What was he thinking? None of us are landscapers.
I remember clearing out items in house
number 2. I liked the house itself and
had considered living there, but we couldn't afford it. Jenna was just a baby and the outside deck
included about a million steps. I was
afraid of each of us trying to walk on it during the winter months. I didn't particularly like the area where the
house was located. I never even saw
house number 4 (his partner did everything and spent too much money; it was our last "flip"
House number 3 provides the most
horrible memories. I refer to it as the
Nightmare on Oak Street. Unlike the
first house in Utah that was hidden from the average driver's view, the house
on Oak Street could be seen from a high traffic area. There was always interference from the
city. I could not take Jenna as I was
afraid of her falling into a hole or something.
I think it was listed as a one bedroom
house. There was a garage that Roland
had wanted to convert into another bedroom but after it was gutted, a wind blew
down the outside wall and created a more costly expense. This is the house that we had been working on when I posted this
story.
My next three posts are Property
Management, real estate and what I like to call "Gravy Investments"
- which I will explain. And possibly
I'll reminisce my first assignment but not post the assignment itself. Though my instructor says he was entertained,
I reread and was bored with it. So if
this subject doesn't interest you, you may just want to wait until next week
before continuing with reading this blog.
But hey, thank you for tuning in.
