Make The Money When You Buy!

Buy Low, Sell High!  Everyone admonishes themselves when they have experienced that mantra firsthand.   While many aspire to make these words reality for their investment ventures, few have been able to see it manifested as a matter of standard practice.  Whether it has been from purchases based on emotions, or, the “just got to have it” syndrome, or, the “have to sale” plague, not just a few, but many have found themselves in less than desirable situations when trying to sell.

I have learned with years of “practice”, that when faced with the dilemma of finding myself with a lemon, it is best to go ahead and squeeze, make the lemonade, and while sometimes sour, drink it and be done with it.  No matter how you try to make a bad investment a good one, there is only so much that you can do with it.  Mitigate the losses and move on.  Sure it may be difficult to swallow, but lamenting beforehand will only serve to make it worse.  As a kid I developed a fairly large “gag reflex” to certain foods like liver and things in the green family of foods.  I learned that waiting to eat those foods until last only served to strengthen the reflex and make it worse.   If this is where you find yourself, sell the property and move on to another investment that will as you hoped.

Before you move on to the next investment opportunity, keep this one principle in mind.  The money that is going to be made on an investment is made when you buy.  In other words make your money on buying not on selling.  Savvy investors whether or conscious of it or not, use this mantra rather than the former when buying and selling real estate.  Money may be made when selling a piece of property, but the greatest potential for earnings is yielded in buying as opposed to selling.

Over the years of being a developer of raw land, there have been many properties that I thought were good purchases.  The price was right; the demand was there, and so on.  Sometimes the desire and vision for a piece of property is so great that the emotions of seeing the SALE can cloud the purchase.  Due diligence is key to knowing when to buy and at what price.  Going in with eyes wide open and with the attitude that I don’t have to buy is the first key to understanding that money is made when buying not selling.  Cultivating this attitude has assisted me in being able to walk away from as many opportunities as those where I ended up buying.  Certainly I can also name some purchases where I did not follow this protocol that I don’t necessarily care to remember.

Making a decision to buy a certain property is not about beating down the Seller of the property on their price either.  Rather, it is finding the right property where both buyer and seller can meet their common objectives.  I come back to due diligence.  The new NC Offer to Purchase and Contract form allows buyers to do just that.  Do your due diligence, know the piece of property, know the gemstone, or, piece of coal in the rough and make your decisions as to whether you want to buy or NOT.  If the numbers work for buying, the numbers will work again when it comes time to sell, whether it is a year from now, or, 10 years down the road.

With opportunities abounding in the current real estate market, buyers today can make their money when buying.  Finding a good real estate broker that is knowledgeable in buying and willing to take the time to help you do your due diligence is priceless.  Of course, I might be a little bit prejudice about where you can find such a real estate broker.  In spite of my prejudice, there are many licensed real estate brokers that understand what I am writing about here.  Your real estate broker can help you create that value and make your money when buying – the value of working with a good professional real estate broker.   In my local market and others around the country, opportunities abound for making money buying.   Find your opportunity now!