Problems Can Lead to Huge Profit in Real Estate Investment

The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem a turned it into an opportunity.” Joseph Sugarman

Fortunately, for real estate investors, other people’s problems often lead to opportunities to make money. This is not to say that real estate investors are vultures of some kind, waiting in the wings to pounce on someone’s misfortune, but rather to say that they are problem solvers, often seen as the saving grace of the day when someone is facing a big real estate problem that they have have otherwise been unable to fix; you, my friend, are there to deliver some welcome solution to a difficult situation.

Counterintuitive it may be, but it’s time to go looking for trouble.

Things to look for and places to look:

Obituaries. When there is a death in the family there is often someone who is left with a property that they cannot pay for or big debt they must deal with such as hospital bills, funeral expenses or bills that the deceased would have been responsible for; the sale of that property could solve the problem.

Moving sales. Craig’s List, the classifieds and Penny Saver often list moving or estate sales and these could indicate that there is a property that needs to be moved.  People have to relocate for a variety of reasons; job transfers, job losses, illness in the family and education are just a few of those.

Business downturns: When layoffs are happening people just cant keep up with their mortgage payments; selling their house could be the one thing that keeps them out of bankruptcy court.

Divorce court: When people are divorcing they often need to sell their home, and sell it quickly, in order to split up, and distribute, their assets according to the law. Your problem solving presence could take some stress out of an extremely stressful and difficult situation.   

Foreclosures on Zillow or other public listings: Real estate website Zillow.com has built a successful business out of telling online visitors how much houses are worth. Now it’s telling the world whether they are in foreclosure. Zillow listings are not the only source; get online and start researching; there are many resources available.

Ad Space: That’s right; you can ask those with real estate problems to come to you by placing ads in newspapers and online directory listing services like Craig’s List. You can also build a website and squeeze pages to start getting leads for people who are in trouble with their property and need to get some help fast.

As with proverbial junk, one man’s problem in another man’s profit; you can earn a very good living by solving other people’s very difficult problems. As the guy who walks in and saves the day, you can really make a difference in people’s lives; remember that motivated sellers are actually grateful buyers of relief and, in the position they are in, the price of that relief is worth far more than the sacrifice they are making on their property sale price, even if it is considerably lower than the market price.