Can't Sell Your Home – Start Investing In Real Estate!

So you’ve been trying to sell your home for quite a while, with no success. Oh, sure, you’ve had a few people through, maybe even a lot of people, and every time your life was disrupted… all for nothing. No offers, not even a nibble. It’s getting frustrating. Since life has given you some lemons, why not make lemonade and use this as a springboard to start investing in real estate? You may be wondering, “How can this be an opportunity for me to start investing in real estate?” Glad you asked. Since you’re having trouble selling your house through conventional means, maybe now’s the time to go a bit unconventional, and learn a creative real estate investing technique in the process… a technique that you can use over and over again to create wealth for you and your family. If you use this technique to sell your home, you will be following in the footsteps of thousands of other homeowners who have followed this same strategy to start investing in real estate. I’m talking about the lease / option method of selling your home. What is a lease option? Simple… instead of selling your home outright, you’re going to lease it to someone, and at the same time give them the option to purchase it at a fixed price within a fixed period of time. Why does this work? How can this allow you to sell your home faster and easier? The answer has to do with the type of people that will respond to your “lease with the option to buy” or “rent to own” ad. They will be people with bruised or damaged credit, but don’t let that scare you. Often these are good people who are back on track after a tough period in their life. They’re not deadbeats… at least not the ones you’ll be putting in your home, because you’ll be carefully screening them. You’ll want to check their story, and verify employment and income. Trust your gut, but verify everything. Select carefully, and realize that it may take two or three tries before you get to the end result you’re looking for- a tenant who becomes a buyer. The other great reason to use the lease/option technique is price- you can often sell for full market value… even more! What a great way to start investing in real estate. There are three important terms you will need to negotiate with your tenant/buyer in order to enter into a lease/option agreement with them… price, option term, and monthly rent. Once you’ve learned to do that, you’ll be well down the path many others have followed to start investing in real estate. Price is the price you will sell them the house for when and if they exercise their option. The option term is the length of time the option to buy is open to your tenant buyer. This is often one year, but could be longer. It’s up to you. I’ve seen option terms as long as five years, but in my mind that’s too long, unless you just want to be a landlord. Finally, the monthly rent should be enough to cover your mortgage, taxes, and insurance, plus something left over to give you a positive cash flow every month. After all, there is a little hassle involved, so you should get something for your trouble. Now, here’s the icing on the cake. You can and should collect a non-refundable option fee from your tenant/buyers, and you should get it upfront. The amount is negotiable, but generally about three percent of the value of the home is appropriate. So, on a $150,000 property, the option fee would be between $4,000 and $5,000. This shows good faith and commitment on their part. Hopefully by now you can see that this is a great way to both get your home sold and start investing in real estate. You make money three ways… when you collect your option fee, when you sell the house, and every month in the form of positive cash flow. Plus, the home remains in your name until they exercise their option, so you still get all the tax breaks associated with homeownership. Listen, I know there’s a lot more to say on the subject of lease option, and there’s certainly a great deal more on how to start investing in real estate. This is just a primer, but hey… we’ve all got to start somewhere, right? Want to start investing in real estate? Try http://www.dealfiles.com. Tom Dunn is a successful real estate investor and author of the popular DealFiles Real Estate Investor Stories free newsletter. © 2007 by Tom Dunn.