Recently in Florida, all these things happened: A horse dealer bought a foreclosed house in Marion County for $82,000 and then resold it several months later for $200,000. A real estate lawyer got on track to achieve his goal of finding 100 units of bargain-priced distressed and foreclosed homes for his rental and resale business.
A seller of prefabricated homes has diversified into buying homes at foreclosure auctions or through short sales. A rental business owner has added more foreclosed units into his inventory of rental homes. All these occurred because there were realtors who spent time in county offices scouring documents for distressed residential units that could be purchased far below their original purchase costs. These hardworking and smart realtors have been putting in more work hours in a week to find cheaper properties for their clients.
Some realtors said they’re focusing on properties priced between $50,000 and $60,000 in Ocala, where prices fell by the steepest decline rate in the entire state of Florida in May, based on sales figures from Florida Realtors. Because of bargain prices, Ocala posted the highest increase in house sales statewide in May. The median sales price dropped to $96,700, down by 13 percent from the May 2009 median of $111,600 and down by 3.1 percent from the previous month’s median of $99,800.
Other realtors, meanwhile, participate in county auctions to find homes that their investors can resell within one to three months. They prefer to resell immediately because they’re more comfortable with the shorter time frame of reselling. They contend that they can project the direction of home prices up to only 90 days.
A former officer of the Marion County Association of Realtors said that realtors need to adapt to changes in the real estate market. He explained that they need to diversify into foreclosures and short sales while maintaining their traditional businesses of selling new homes and nondistressed existing homes. He said that looking for bargain short sales and bank-owned homes for clients is among the most practicable and profitable endeavors now for many enterprising realtors as there are plenty of investors looking for properties priced below market values.
One investor in the Ocala area has purchased ten homes through the help of realtors in May and fixed them all as rental properties. Purchased for just between $70,000 to $140,000, the properties are expected to yield income for the investor in the years to come.
Real estate investors now say they’re different from the house flippers during the housing boom, as they buy foreclosed homes and then fix and refurbish them before reselling them. They don’t just buy and resell unrepaired properties at a quick profit. Additionally, to pursue their investment goals more successfully, they leverage the expertise of realtors in their search for profitable homes for sale.