Note: Thanks to Ashton Woods Homes for requesting and sponsoring this short case study.

If you could find the right parcel of free land, could you save oodles and create an instant nest egg moving somewhere cheap?

Of course you need to make sure you have HiSpeed Internet Access of course, but if you can get that, here are

7 Towns Where Land Is Free

The problem is seeing what’s going on when things seem “good”.

Here’s a web page I ran across that documents – historically – common denominators of real estate bubbles.

It’s an analysis of The Great Crash of 2008…

The American Residential Law Group is available to help you with a free consultation if you are in financial need. As their name suggests they specialize in areas such as foreclosure prevention, foreclosure litigation, and overall consumer rights. They have to make a living of course, but they are also know for the pro bono services they can provide from time to time.

As you’re well aware, right now there is a significant need for assistance in the area of Home Loan Modification for people who have fallen behind in their mortgages. One area of special note in this realm of law is their expertise in doing Forensic Loan Audits. It’s especially easy to document mistakes made in adjustable rate mortgages – even violations of the Truth in Lending law associated with such mortgages.

Thanks to American Residential Law Group for sponsoring this post.

To be sure, the concept is valid. You buy a home with leverage, possibly do some simple upgrades, and sell the home. Your actual investment is the “downpayment” and your profit is the difference in the sales price after you flip it.

Full time folks in this business use other people’s money for the downpayment and split the profits so that they don’t even have to come up with new start up capital. But as the Sacramento Bee records, there are BOTHBig risks, and rewards in home ‘flipping’.

This topic is hot because the real estate bubble is still bursting. Banks are selling property for pennies on the dollar to get bad assets “off the books”. Their bad asset sold for pennies on the dollar may be available at a steal to you – if you can sell it for more money. Selling in this market may be the issue, though resales within a month’s time were happening.

Here are some of the risks you may not otherwise hear about:

Blasquez, Graves and O’Toole say the fast compensation is appropriate for a high-risk business.

“You have to pay cash in full. You don’t get title insurance. You don’t get to inspect the house, and you probably have to evict the current owner or occupant,” said O’Toole. “It’s because of these things that properties at the courthouse steps are sold at a discount.”

Graves said one of his LLC clients discovered that “the prior owner (a drug dealer) had committed suicide in the home, and he had basically just bought a crime scene that had not been cleaned up.” Though he sold it for $40,000 more than he paid, Graves said he still lost $12,000 after paying for the cleanup and an unexpected tax lien.

One way to profit from this trend without too much risk is to provide the clean up services for these investors as long as the “clean up” is your normal mop and broom kind… not dead bodies!

Related Link: Cleaning Foreclosed Homes For Banks – Is This a Viable Business Opportunity?

So don’t be duped into trying something that could put you in jail…

As you’ll read in this article, Squatters take over homes, causing different housing crisis, areas with lots of foreclosures are vulnerable to this now.

And if you have rental property or a house for sale that you don’t live in … watch out. You could be next for some idiot like this to try to seize your property and claim “adverse possession”.

If you thought you could buy, fix up, and in a pinch let people rent to own, you may want to check this out. I was surprised by the length of time these folks are going without paying a cent on their mortgage.

Usually you hear about people getting 90 days behind and they’re out the door. That is not true in some parts of the country. In the NY Times today you can see this headline: Owners Stop Paying Mortgages, and Stop Fretting.

These folks are going for up to two years without being forced out… and they’re still in the homes simply because of the vast number of defaults, pressure by the federal government to offer “modifications”, and other factors unique to this downturn. In some parts of the country, undoubtedly, it’s nearly “business as usual” on foreclosures… not up to 2 year delays. It also varies by state … states with judicial foreclosures are going very slowly.

The average borrower in foreclosure has been delinquent for 438 days before actually being evicted, up from 251 days in January 2008, according to LPS Applied Analytics…

In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases, said J. Thomas McGrady, chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit. Ten years ago, the average was about 4,000. “The volume is killing us,” Judge McGrady said.

One thing to keep in mind about Real Estate is that it has a three fold potential – at least when considered as an investment (instead of a home). Investments have the possibility of income, tax breaks (depreciation of the structure), and capital gains at the point of sale. A softened market in a spot in “Paradise” might make owning real estate that doubles as an investment – when you’re not using it for your own vacation -a new possibility.

Here are just a few FACTS about the current state of the U.S. and California real estate markets:

1)    ONE out of every THREE mortgages in the U.S. is “underwater”.  That means that 1/3 of all homeowners and investors in the U.S. owe more on their homes than they’re worth.

2)    70% of Option-ARM loans – the RISKIEST loans – are underwater.

3)    60% of these Option-ARM loans were made on California properties.

4)    ONE out of every TWO homeowners/investors in CA is underwater.

5)    It’s worse in ONE other market in the U.S, and you probably won’t guess which one it is!

These facts – and many others that we’ll cover on our May 10 webinar – spell ONE thing for informed investors this time around:

O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y !

There are 6 things you should be doing NOW (in 2010) to profit from the real estate comeback, and that’s what this FREE webinar is ALL about!

You see, the fact that you didn’t see the last 24 months coming doesn’t make you a bad person.  But if you’re committed to NOT being surprised in the future – AND actually profiting from the bounce-back this time – you MUST be better informed about the current state of the market and what’s coming in the next 12 months.  We want YOU to profit BIG time. Do YOUR part – take the first step and….

REGISTER NOW!

MONDAY, MAY 10, 2010

6:30pm PST (9:30pm EST)

2010 State of The Union

for Real Estate Investors

The bottom of the market is coming…

and the 6 ways to profit from it!

Click Here To Register! (link below)

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347262113

(and then scroll to the bottom)

Here’s what one viewer recently had to say about Dave’s webinar…

Dave,

To a Big Picture, Analytic, such as myself, your tables, charts, and graphs are better than sex!  With your data, I can invest with greater peace-of-mind knowing I am making decisions based upon the most complete real world information possible.

Richard

Dave Stech knew what was coming back in 2004-2005.  He sold in 2005-2006, and he’s been buying selectively but substantially again.  He’s a serious real estate investor educated at the London School of Economics – the top economics grad school in the world.  He’s clearly NOT your average real estate investor.  He’s early-retired three times but still LOVES making money – it allows him to have more fun, do more good, and make more money.

For those of you that like research, he will NOT disappoint you – foreclosures, leading indicators, consumer confidence, media influences, unit sales and price, unsold inventory, time on market, housing affordability, rental prices, vacancy trends, new housing permits, population and domestic migration and immigration trends… You simply cannot afford what he’ll share for FREE.

And for those of you that just want to get filthy stinking rich, he’ll share the 6 things HE is doing to profit from the economic and real estate implosion.  It will definitely trigger your “greed gland”!  You see, Forbes predicts that 10 million millionaires will be created from this downturn – why shouldn’t YOU be one of them?

REGISTER NOW!

MONDAY, MAY 10, 2010

6:30pm PST (9:30pm EST)

2010 State of The Union

for Real Estate Investors

The bottom of the market is coming…

and the 6 ways to profit from it!

Click Here To Register! (link below)

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347262113

(and then scroll to the bottom)

Dave,

It was a relief to hear a presentation with actual facts, extensive unbiased research and no hype or bull. Whew!

Would like to hitch my wagon to your star…

Nan

Here’s more good news. Nothing will be offered or sold AND there will be NO charge for this webinar. This webinar is Dave’s gift to those that are serious about profiting from the future.

We want YOU on this webinar.

We want YOU better informed this time around.

We want YOU to profit big-time.

We want YOU to call and email others and invite them, too!

Do you think that you just might have made better decisions 2-3 years ago if you had the right information?  Do YOU personally do economic, demographic, housing market, and tax research?

If NOT, BE ON THIS CALL and get it for FREE!!!!!!

Dear Dave,

I would like to convey my sincere gratitude for the 2010 State Of the Union for Real Estate Investors webinar you presented, as it was probably one of the most useful real estate presentations I have observed in a very long time.  Being acutely analytically and research minded, I appreciated all the data and statistics you included; as well as your candid projection of things to come.  I was also very pleased to see that, just as you had promised, you did not try to sell anything during the presentation.  Many thanks again for your efforts and for a job very well done.

Kind Regards,

Assif

Your ability to profit in the coming bounce-back will be in direct proportion

to your knowledge of timing and market opportunities. You

CAN hold the keys to the kingdom THIS time around.

Last Chance – REGISTER NOW!

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/347262113

(and then scroll to the bottom)

Hello Dave,

I wanted to thank you so much for the research that you provided in the 2010 State of the Union for Real Estate Investors.  You didn’t try to sell us anything and your style is straight-forward, honest, open and above all – understandable!

Here’s how I would summarize your webinar for others who haven’t been on it:

“All the research you could ever need, no mumbo jumbo, and a no-nonsense approach to maximizing our time, money and contacts.”

I will certainly recommend your State of the Union webinar series.  Thank you so much for your time, your dedication and your insights.  They are invaluable.

Rakesh

NOTE: This webinar ALWAYS fills up and those that don’t get on the call are disappointed. Do ALL your friends and colleagues a favor and invite them too!  You never know, one of them might just be your “equity share partner” if you need one (you’ll learn about that on the call too)!

Bank Owned foreclosures may be a good source for finding personal properties (as opposed to investment properties) because in addition to the reduced price, banks may be motivated to to provide borrowers with good credit excellent terms on a mortgage for the property… a double bonus.

Check it out if that’s of interest to you. While an extra $8,000 tax credit is available, getting into a home this way might be easier than you think. This page looks like an excellent resource to help motivated buyers find very, very motivated sellers!

Note: Thanks to BankOwnedHomeShop.com for sponsoring this blog post and sending this information our way…