Making Money Flipping Real Estate | Real Estate Investing Tips

Have you ever gone past a house and thought to yourself, “That place has potential! With a little work, it could really be worth some money.” Do you have a burning desire to fire your boss and be self-employed? Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you too can make money investing in real estate with a minimum risk level.

If you’re sick of scheduling hours and hours of overtime just to find yourself breaking even at the end of every month, consider flipping real estate part-time. Before you jump in with both feet and start flipping estate for a living, weekend home investment is a great way to find out if real estate investing is right for you.

While it is true that the housing market in the United States is changing, that doesn’t mean that renovating real estate can’t still be a lucrative pursuit. While it is true that you might have to wait longer than you’d like to sell your property once it’s all fixed up and ready to go, rest assured that the right buyers will come your way eventually. Investing in real estate is always a good way to make money, if you know the right way to do it.

Housing is a fantastic investment, and properties are currently selling for less than they were even one year ago. Because sales are sluggish, real estate investors have added leverage. If you find a fantastic fixer-upper, you have more negotiation power now that you’ve had in years. Sellers are often eager to sell their properties for much less than the listed price, which means more profit flipping real estate for you.

In an uncertain market, there will always be home buyers. People will still be getting married, having kids or relocating for new job opportunities. The trick is to keep the needs of the market in mind when you intend to make money flipping real estate. Look for affordable starter homes for young families that you can buy at a bargain. Then, make modest and practical improvements, like attractive yet inexpensive kitchen improvements, fresh paint and vinyl siding.

Also, you will need to research tax law when it comes to flipping properties. You may wish to hire an accountant to ensure that you don’t end up with the IRS chasing after you. Also remember to calculate taxes when you are figuring out your profit margin and figuring out the return on investment of your property.

Look into foreclosure properties if you want to find a really great bargain. Foreclosure properties make it easy to make money flipping real estate, since they are usually auctioned off for much less than they are actually worth. Be careful not to get caught up in the excitement of the auction, however. You may need to chase after several different foreclosure properties to find the one with the best potential for you.

If you are smart about it, you’ll make money investing in real estate in any kind of economy. You just need to know how to invest in potential and invest with patience when homes aren’t selling as fast as you would like them to.

C. David Roberts is a Mechanical Engineer, software developer and has 
extensive experience in residential development and construction. His combined 
experience has lead him to develop the Real Estate industry leading software to 
teach experts and neophytes the secrets of flipping houses. 

Making Real Estate Money-Virtual Brokerage

Real Estate Online: Virtual Brokerage Can Help or Hurt Buyers

Google is the first to tell you: Somewhere between 80 percent to 90 percent of all real estate searches start online, at a computer or on a mobile device. Today's buyers pull up page after page of homes, compare assets, price per square foot, every detail. Buyers have even bought homes straight off the Internet, without ever being in them. A great way to shop, huh?

Yes and no. Along with the advantages of real estate shopping online comes the risk of being taken in. And as "web-estate" marketing becomes more competitive and sophisticated, it seems likely the risk could increase.

First it's helpful to know how the business is changing for real estate agents.

Sharp real estate agents produce websites, create blogs, post to bulletin boards, engage in social networking, and learn just about every way they can to sprawl themselves across the web to get sales leads. They also spend thousands of dollars buying keywords and other tools that push them to the top of Google searches so that, for example, when you type in "Dallas homes for sale," their website is among the first to pop up.

In fact, pay-per-click can cost an agent up to $3.00 per visitor, and not all of those are solid leads -- buying customers. Some agents feel it's like throwing money away, but they need to market themselves in the world of "web-estate." Naturally, the more money they spend, the better their positioning, so you often end up with the largest, wealthiest brokerages getting the best rankings. You know, those brokers who get half of that 3 percent commission.

Well, that too may be changing.

The Internet-search playing field is getting more level and affordable, even for the smallest agent, thanks to a new search technology: the IDX/MLS SEO fusion pages. 
Not to get too techie on you, but a Realtor in Arizona figured out that when people really want to buy a home, they are very specific -- and rather wordy -- in what they search for: "three-bedroom, three-bath home in Richardson school district with 2-car garage and pool." This is called a "long-tail" search, as opposed to a "short-tail" search like "Richardson Texas real estate."

Right now, say SE experts, agents are throwing money at the short-tail search. A few weeks ago, consultantSean Callahan of Real Estate Marketing Nerds and Multi Media Icon, Inc., discovered that 60 percent to 80 percent of Google real estate searches are those long-tailed phrases -- very specific searches, not general ones.

"Real estate agents are focusing money on the short-tail keywords," says Callahan, "and throwing money away."

Callahan's "long-tail" searches will have a multiplier effect on web listings as thousands of pages of data are created from listings. Every listing that matches one criteria in a long-tailed search will be spread over the web to feed the longer search. Not only will the longer search terms upstage the short key phrases hogged by the big brokers --- "San Diego Real Estate" -- realty agents will pay considerably less -- $.03 per visitor. And those leads will be toward more-targeted, focused buyers who will end up buying. Ka-ching!

"Our research," says Callahan, "shows that over 70 percent of real estate searches are coming from long-tailed keywords, like 'gated 4 bedroom home for sale in Dallas, TX,' and the long-tailed keywords are converting to better quality leads for the agents. "

This can help the real estate consumer by providing a faster search with better data.

Callahan says consumers will get a higher quality source of information from the Internet and more specific criteria in a shorter period of time -- less digging for relevant data.

It could also ultimately lead to cost savings: Brokers know their days are numbered as costs continue to rise. The virtual brokerage is taking shape. As consumers demand commission concessions from their agents, someone is going to get squeezed: the broker.

But consumers also need to know how real estate agents are marketing in the Web 2.0 world, and be prudent. Great photography can turn a pig's rear into a silk purse on the Internet.

Agents are advised to prepare listings for photo shoots as if they were walking the house down the red carpet at the Academy Awards -- they stage, plump, primp, nip and tuck for the cameras.

They create slick videos with soundtracks to draw you to a home. I often advise readers to see a home in it's "natural state" -- some dishes in the sink, papers stacked on the counters, because likely this is how it will look when you live there.

"This is an incredibly powerful tool that should revolutionize the way potential homeowners find houses to view," says Thad Stammen of Audience Experts, an SEO expert who works with select real estate clients in the Dallas/Fort Worth area."

But consumers need to remember that agents are doing everything they can to be web-assessable and present listings that look like they are straight from the pages of House Beautiful."

See more homes for sale at AOL Real Estate.