Flipping Real Estate: A Different Form of Investing

“Flipping” is a trendy way to “invest” in Real Estate.  TV shows and infomercials advertising FREE SEMINARS are everywhere!   I suspect that many people are making lot$ of money telling others how to flip houses and wonder how many of these “coaches” have done even one flip.

Flipping expands on the old mantra: buy low; sell high and adds a critical “make it or break it” step.  Unless you are lucky and can buy something below market value and then sell it without doing any work, you have to renovate flips to make money.  Therein lies the unknown.  You paid a specific amount and there is likely a ceiling on your eventual selling price:  you have to fill in the blanks!

The old-fashioned way of investing, buying rentals and becoming a landlord, has lost some of its appeal to many for a variety of reasons although there are still opportunities.  Flipping allows you to get in and then get out, hopefully with a return that justifies the investment and risk.  Some flips will be homeruns while others will be singles.  Serious flippers do volume and can handle the ups and downs.  Many stop after trying one.

Flipping is a multi-stage, interconnected AND interdependent process. You have to check all of the boxes to make it work.  Success requires hiring a competent agent to identify, negotiate and acquire opportunities, access to money, the ability to properly evaluate what a property needs to maximize interest, the ability to complete the work in a cost-effective manner, the ability to RATIONALLY assess an eventual selling price and patience if the rehab and/ or the marketing take longer than expected.  If you use your own funding, this may be easier than paying someone else although using an equity loan as some do has inherent risk.

While many have done quite well, others have failed, some miserably.  If you overpay, under-evaluate what is required, overspend on the rehab, over-estimate a selling price and/ or pay too much for your “seed money”, you will have issues.  The market itself introduces a degree of uncertainty so timing is important although not a science.  A number of incomplete renovations always end up on the active Real Estate market looking for someone to finish the job.

This is truly NOT the time for inexperience, empty promises OR false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: we are not all the same.

Advertisement

Multiple Offers: To Disclose or Not?

Real Estate offers many opportunities to peer into the personalities of people with whom we work.  Sometimes what we find is not what we expected.  As a professional I have laws and a Code of Ethics to guide me as well as my integrity and value system.  My clients have the same except for the Code of Ethics, of course.  One topic that brings this into focus is that of “multiple offers”, meaning that more than one buyer is actively interested in buying the same piece of Real Estate.

Some buyers are so interested in a specific property and so willing to compete for it with others that they will plunge into the deep end of the pool to do whatever they can to win.  They may start with their “highest and best offer”.  Others, despite being interested, are either risk-averse or perhaps distrusting of others when told there is competition.  Some may wish to avoid competition to prevent over-spending or they may need to meet a deadline for finalizing a move (meaning that they cannot go back-and-forth).

One of my favorite analogies is comparing buying and selling Real Estate to “playing poker”:  each party wants to know more about the other than is readily obvious.  Buyers may want to know whether there is competition for a specific property.  Some people, including licensed agents, may think the answer a matter of courtesy or simply being honest.  However, the PAR listing contract is the governing document.  The language in paragraph 13 (“Additional Offers”) states that “Unless prohibited by Seller, if Broker is asked by a buyer or another licensee(s) about the existence of other offers on the Property, Broker will reveal the existence of other offers”.  A separate matter is whether the actual terms are confidential or not.  Absent a signed “confidentiality” agreement, the terms of an offer should not be considered confidential.

Let’s assume that the word “existence” means written, executable offers and not the mere expression of interest from someone.  If the seller permits this disclosure, the listing agent must say “yes” or “no”:  they have to answer truthfully!  If prohibited from answering the question, the agent must respond with words to the effect that they are not authorized to answer the question.  Is providing knowledge about competition in the seller’s best interests?  How important is the “if asked” aspect?

One of the primary reasons that a seller should hire a professional is to rely on our knowledge and insight.  The Internet and your friends and family may or may not provide a great deal of data and information but a professional can put it all together.  I tell my seller-clients that I assume that I AM PROHIBITED from making this disclosure and discuss my thinking with them.  I may ask them to change that later but I have never had a seller disagree.  Which is more likely:  a buyer will make an offer when they know there is competition OR a buyer will walk away when they do not know?

Taken literally, if not prohibited from answering the question, a listing agent would have to disclose the existence of low offers which may not interest their seller-client.  Does that make any sense?

Unfortunately, many buyer-agents do not even ask if there is competition.  I am told that many listing agents are allowed to disclose the existence of other offers and think it a great strategy but should they disclose that without being asked by the buyer’s agent?  Many buyer-agents do not even make the effort to confirm that a property is still available.  Bright MLS allows listing agents 3-business-days to update the listing status so an “Active” property may not really be available.  Can a buyer be harmed by their not knowing that someone else purchased the property?  At the very least, time was wasted preparing an offer.  Even worse, perhaps their showing should have been canceled!

Strategies may differ but it must be noted that the seller is the boss and makes the decision about disclosing.  An experienced agent can advise but is compelled to abide by their client’s wishes.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember:  HIRE WISELY!  We are not all the same.

Bright MLS Quarter 1, 2019 Housing Report

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Report for single family homes for the first quarter of 2019.  In today’s podcast I will discuss the results for Delaware County Pennsylvania.  If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

The report compares the current results to one-year ago, same quarter.  As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true.  First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County.  Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block.  There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market so, whether you may be looking to buy or sell, please contact me for details about your areas of interest.  I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market.  Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables.  I posted an article on that topic on my web site AndrewWetzel.com that offers several ideas to consider.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data is stale.  While a sale may be settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated?  Typically sales take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different.  Up-to-date information is important!

As far as the statistics, 1099 properties were settled this year with an average “selling price” of $264,674 and a “median” selling price, meaning that half of the sales were higher and half were lower, of $200,000 compared to 1224 settled last year at an average price of $247,389 and a median price of $190,000.  The CDOM or “cumulative days on the market” for settled properties dropped to 81 from 85.  The underlying data shows a wide range of results among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

Which number is more meaningful, median or average?  We can debate that but what really matters is how your property or one that interests you compares to those appraised and settled with similar location, features and condition.  Appraisers rely on nearby settled properties so average or median pricing loses some validity but may provide insight for both the short term and the long term.

What about the properties that did not sell?  Many came off the market and remain unavailable.  Houses may get showings without generating offers unless buyers think they are priced within the range of their perceived “worth”.  Most property listings whose contracts are canceled or allowed to expire have asking prices considered high for their market and/ or they were poorly marketed, meaning that some buyers may not have known that a house was even available to purchase.  Of course this may well depend on the ratio of buyer and sellers so there is more to this than raw statistics.  If a market has a lot of inventory, some buyers may not be willing to even look at houses priced high compared to the rest of the market.  While sellers may be open to negotiating their price, many never get the chance to do so.  I will happy to discuss specifics with you.

It is worth noting that the weather, despite minimal snow, was somewhat harsh early in 2019 which slowed activity although that has changed in many markets.  The overall economy is doing well with some adjustments here and there.  Pushing statistics aside, what are you planning to do?  Real Estate is generally a long-term investment unless you are looking to fix and flip it.  There are opportunities out there.  As with the stock market, it is very difficult to pick the best time to make a move.  All you can do is get the best available information, determine what is in your best interests and then start the process.  I am a phone call or email away and getting started is easy once you take action.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember:  HIRE WISELY.  We are not all the same.