What Does a Real Estate Investor Look For?

We have not been able to sell our house with a Realtor or by ourselves with ads online or in our local newspaper.

What does a real estate investor look for when he comes to inspect my home to decide whether or not he will buy it and...
What can I expect the investor to offer us?

ANSWER:

As a real estate investor I look for houses I can earn a profit on!

Looking for houses that are at least 30% below today's current market value!

I am up-front with home sellers!
Foreclosed bank owned properties don't care who buys!

I explain to the sellers I'm in the business of buying distressed properties, that I can remodel and repair to earn my profits, and resell for fair current market price.

Distressed meaning, the property either needs major repairs or,
the seller has reasons to sell at a discount to get rid of the property to move on.

Many times the bank financing on the house is more than the property is worth. A short sale discount from the bank may be considered if you can prove a hardship.

I'm a do-it-yourself real estate investor and do my own home remodeling.
I save the cost of paid out labor, and my profits are earned from my own labor.

Some investors make no repairs and work as wholesale sellers.
They're looking for house at 50% below market value so they can resell below market value to a fixer-upper like me without doing any home remodeling. I don't usually do business with wholesale sellers.

As a do-it-yourself rehabber, I do all the repairs and some remodeling may be done to make the home resalable.
I usually will pay more to a seller than what a wholesale investor would offer.

For a rental unit; City Code Violations are brought up to date, fresh paint, and cleaning.

When making offers on an investment house, my target price is 30% below market value, then I deduct the cost of repairs and improvements off that price to get to my maximum offer price.

Real estate properties are inventory as merchandise would be to a retail store.
Buy the product (house) low.
Sell the product (house) at retail value.

A comparison could be when trading in an automobile to the dealer.
You will be offered a wholesale price and the dealer assumes responsibility to repair any defects, then try to resell the used car for a fair profit.

Knowing what a real estate investor does will help you understand the price they will offer you and why... Don?t be offended.
It's a business offer, not a homeowner's offer to buy a home!

Negotiate: The investor will offer you less than he's willing to pay on the initial offer.
Don't be shy to ask for more and point out your best home features.

Get your home ready to sell with some house staging.

Make some modest updates like painting and a thorough cleaning, and give it your best shot to sell to a home buyer instead of an investor.

Waiting a few more months for a home buyer could bring in an extra $10k to $20k more than an investor's offer.
That's a lot of cash to walk away from too hastily.

Investors are looking for desperate sellers and distressed properties.
Try not to be anxious and definitely point out all the good features of your home.

Best of luck on selling your home :-)

Joe

P.s. If you have additional ideas to help people sell their home and avoid the low offers from investors click the link below to add your comments.

Or... Ask your own question about real estate investing with the 2nd link below.