1. Pay-down on the loan. Equity builds with every payment you make. If you get the lowest interest rate you can, more of each payment will go towards the principal.

2. Cash flow. Buy income property the right way, and you not only have your tenants paying all the costs and paying down the mortgage loan, but you also have positive cash flow. As a rule, just don't buy properties without cash flow.

3. Value appreciation. Sometimes making money with real estate can be as simple as holding on and waiting. For the most appreciation in value, however, you should buy in an area where demand is growing faster than the supply.

4. Tax depreciation. After all the tax law changes, you still get to declare a loss for depreciation that doesn't really exist. Saving at tax time, means more after-tax profit. To maximize this, buy property that has its value primarily in the buildings, because you can't depreciate the value of land.

5. Get instant equity by buying low. Buy below market and you get instant equity that will be converted into a profit when you sell. Offer a reason for the seller to sell low: fast closing, cash, assume some debts or liabilities, etc. Alternately, just make a low offer. A seller may have his own reasons to sell it cheap. 6. Selling high. If you clean it up nice, make it easy to buy, and find the right buyer, you'll get top dollar. The following four on the list cover ways to create value, so you'll get more when you sell.

7. Finance the sale. You'll often get substantially more for a property if you offer financing. This is especially true if you let someone buy it with little money down. You can also get good interest on the loan.

8. Changing the use. Find a higher use for the property, and you can convert it to make it worth more to the next owner. This could mean making condos into apartments, or apartments into condos. Perhaps converting a home into office space will get the biggest return.

9. Improve and repair. Repairing anything that needs it is obvious, but you need to look creatively and carefully to find improvements to make. Concentrate only on those that will raise the value several times more than what they cost you.

10. Sell it in parts. Sometimes in real estate, the parts are worth more than the whole. For example, splitting off an extra lot to sell for $30,000 will rarely decrease the value of a home by that much, so you'll make more money in the end.

Look at the sources of profit listed here, and think of how you can use a few of them on your next real estate investment. You can get wonderfully creative making money with real estate.

Posted by Torie Hallock on December 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM

About Torie Hallock
Torie Hallock is affliated with The Knowles Company, which is located in Northeast Harbor, ME. For further assistance please use the contact information located on the right.




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