The quickest road to success is to specialize- YES, become a specialist! Doctors, teachers and musicians all benefit from specializing in professions or activities that encompass a much larger field. Doctors may know a great deal about the human body generally, but an MD who specializes in bones will likely have greater knowledge in that area of practice – and so it is with fix-up investors in the real estate business.

Real estate investing covers bare land, construction and development and both residential and commercial activities. Restoration, remodeling and fix up can involve any improved real estate. Each has its own range of costs and measurements of value to determine the feasibility. Since costs and values can vary greatly by location, as well as the particular use, there’s no “one size fits all formula” that works for real estate investing generally! Selecting a specialty and learning it well is much faster than trying to learn everything about all the various ways to invest.

One can argue the pros and cons about which way is best, but for the majority of folks, residential real estate; like in houses and the homes we live in, is the easiest to understand, and in my opinion, the best place for beginning investors to get their feet wet. Naturally, where to start also involves the economics – as in how much money will it take to invest? Here again, everyday working folks find themselves extremely limited! As an example; when I started, $20,000 sounded like all the money in the world.

However, $20,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 won’t make much difference if you don’t know where to spend it. Money doesn’t guarantee safety and a larger amount will disappear just as quick when you don’t know what you’re doing. By specializing in one particular area, you stand a far greater chance of spending whatever amount you have, wisely!

FIXER PROPERTIES INVOLVE LESS COMPETITION

The less people who want what you’re after, the easier it will be to acquire what you want. Nothing secret about that, it’s one of the basic laws of nature! Competition drives up both cost – and desirability. Ugliness is my number one price reducer! Most people tend to back away from anything that’s ugly! Also, most people do not possess the vision, or have the training to spot value in the midst of pure ugliness. Learning to judge value where others can’t, can earn you a fortune in the house fix-Up business. Naturally, you must possess the skills to fix the problems once you find the right property.

Sellers who own ugly rundown properties (income units) often find very few buyers willing to make serious offers because most are looking for attractive, trouble-free properties! Even if they do make an offer – it’s generally a “low ball” offer, which often insults the seller. Insulted sellers don’t make counter offers, which of course, stops the deal cold. Naturally, rundown properties are worth less, but many times a workable purchase agreement can be reached by first determining what benefits the seller will accept. Here again, it’s the fix-up buyer’s skills, rather than the amount of money that makes the purchase successful.