Seattle, Bellevue, and King County Real Estate Blog

Bank owned / REO homes are excellent mid term real estate investments for those looking to purchase at a premium, hold for at least a few years, then sell when the timing is right to maximize profits. Demand has fallen short of supply and banks and sellers everywhere are desperately dropping their prices in an effort to entice a buyer and much needed sale. Add adjusting mortgage rates and rising jobless rates and we have the recipe for a multitude of bank owned homes priced to sell. Banks are NOT in the holding real estate business, meaning they are pricing and negotiating their REO's to sell to remove them from their books.

We currently have a surplus of inventory which is helping drive REO prices down. As an example, I am seeing many bank owned listings selling for 70 cents on the dollar like the following: a home that sold in the last 1-2 years for $650,000 currently listed at $450,000. That’s 30% less than its recent sale! Reports just released for King County show that the median price of single family homes has dropped approximately 12% over the past year. That number is likely skewed due to the amount of short sales and bank owned listing that are selling so cheaply, but regardless that still leaves roughly 18% to play around with.

Meaning… you could buy the aforementioned example for 450k, refinance for a value of over 500k, allowing you to put as much as $100,000 in cash in your pocket to utilize elsewhere.

Oddly enough, while the market was hot investors were buying high and hoping to sell high within a one to two year time frame. Now is the time to take a safer approach and find a home to buy low, rent out, then sell high years later. Adding the ability to utilize equity from a refinance to purchase multiple homes accelerates your investing. This is how most real estate investors retire early and in the manner they choose, not what their job, 401k, and retirement plan chooses for them.

Prospera Real Estate specializes in Bellevue, Seattle, King County, and Puget Sound real estate investing and a specialist can be reached at 425-289-1099 for additional information, assistance, and an individually catered search for currently active REO homes.

Attention First Time / New Investors! Prospera Real Estate presents upcoming small group investment seminars designed to get your real estate investing ball rolling in a positive direction toward early retirement. Seats will be limited to just a handful of attendees, giving you a personalized opportunity to learn proven strategies designed to limit risk. More importantly, with fewer people in attendance you will have the opportunity to get your questions answered!

Topics and strategies we will cover include:

• Lease Option Investing
• Buying Undervalued Short Sales
• Buying Undervalued Bank Owned / REOs
• Finding Tenants / Tenant Fulfillment
• The Purchase Process (offer, inspection, closing...)

Plus, we'll even leave you with a free list of low risk investment opportunities that are currently available!

It's no secret that prices are down and sellers are motivated. Adding a large inventory of short sales and bank owned properties means we have even more undervalued homes on the market. Now is a wonderful opportunity to buy homes at a premium and capture built in equity while prices are low and there's an abundance of terrific deals.

All of our seminars are held in Bellevue. Seating is very limited so you can walk away with a clear understanding of these low risk strategies.

Click on the "Investing Seminar" button (http://www.prosperarealestate.com/freeseminar) to the left for upcoming dates/times and to RSVP.