10 Ways to Maximize Your Profits When Buying or Selling Real Estate

Whetheryou’re an investor or buying for your personal use you’ll find these tipsextremely beneficial to your bank account. Here are the 10 best ways to putmore money in your pocket on every real estate transaction that you’re involvedin.

             "APenny Saved is A Penny Earned” --- Ben Franklin

          Withreal estate a 'Penny' can easily turn into several hundred or thousands ofdollars. Whether you’re a 'buy and hold' landlord, a wholesaler, arehabber, or you’re buying for yourself you have to watch the numbers carefullyto maximize your profits, or savings, on every
purchase or sale. Below is alist of places that you can save (or lose) money in every transaction.

SURVEY – closing costs can be a killer when they addthem up; always check to see if the previous owner has a survey that you canutilize

TITLE COMMITMENT – along with a survey, the previousowner may have a title commitment that you can get partial credit for andreduce your closing costs

HAVE THE BUYER/SELLER PAY THE TITLE INSURANCE – anegotiation point that is often overlooked. In Florida it is customary for the seller topay for title insurance, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t negotiate this inyour favor. Always write in your contracts that the buyer pay for it whenyou’re selling.

‘NET’ SALE– mostly used in wholesale deals, but anyone can use this. When you’re sellingjust offer the property, for example, $105k NET, making the buyer responsiblefor all of the closing costs.

TERMITE INSPECTION – don’t pay for them. I use aguy that will inspect for free and if there are active termites I give him thework. I don’t necessarily pay for it, I just give his estimate fortreatment to whoever is responsible.

HOME INSPECTION – this will cost you money upfrontbut will save you money in the long run. When buying this goes without saying,and when selling you can show your prospective buyers a clean report or correctthe issues before they come up. It’s always cheaper to get the work donewith a handyman than having a licensed contractor do the work, which most realestate agents will require.

PRE-HAB – once again this is aninvestment. Especially for wholesale deals that just look ‘ugly’, a fewhundred dollars in cleanup and fixing the ‘ugly’ will open up your property tomany more buyers who wouldn’t otherwise be interested and net you more money inthe end.

LOSS MITIGATION FEE – if you are negotiating a shortsale always ask for a negotiation fee or marketing fee to get additional moneyfrom the transaction. This doesn’t mean they’ll accept it, but if youdon’t ask you could be leaving money on the table.

CURB APPEAL – every buyer sees the front of the housefirst and their opinion of it will be based on the first impression. Plantsome flowers, paint the house (if only the front side) and make sure yourproperty looks as good, or better, from the outside than it does inside andyou’ll be sure to get the most you can for any property.

STAGING – this is another simple selling investmentthat makes a bigger difference in the buyers eye than you canimagine. Staging hides imperfections and flaws by drawing your buyersattention away from them. You can do something as simple as buying $100worth of towels, candles and accessories from discount chain stores, or go allthe way by hiring someone to paint and stage with furniture. Either wayyou’ll be getting a good return on your investment. (On the flip side, whenbuying, don’t let these items deter you from looking at the property moreclosely.)

           Utilize as many of these strategies as you can on every real estate purchase orsale to maximize your profits and savings. Remember that every dollar yousave or “create” can go straight to your next vacation or new car and you won’tever leave money on the table again!