5 Ways You Can Invest in Real Estate

If you’re curious about becoming a real estate investor, here are five ways that you can get started.

Looking to buy in Alaska?  Get a full home search

 Looking to sell in Alaska? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today we’re going to be talking about five ways you can invest in real estate.

1. Buy and rent. This is probably the most traditional way to invest in real estate, and it simply involves buying a property and renting it out. Now is a good time to do this because rental rates are on the rise. They’re up 8% from last year, which is pretty good if you’re looking to invest this way.
2. Buy and sell. This is typically called “flipping.” Home flipping offered a record-breaking 49% return in 2016. Mind you, this is a national figure and won’t necessarily be the case in any particular local market. Contact your real estate professional to determine the climate of your particular market.
3. Real estate investment groups. These are organizations that buy a set of properties and sell them to individual investors. The main benefit of this approach is that you typically do not need to act as a landlord because the investment group handles property management for you.
4. Crowdfunding sites. There has been an explosion of these sites in recent times. They allow people to invest in various real estate development projects. You can be a part of a large-scale property by only investing a moderate amount of money. On the other hand, crowdfunding sites act as a middle-man and charge fees which will eat into your profits a little bit.
5. REIT (real estate investment trust). REITs are like mutual funds for real estate. They typically pay high dividends; however, they do not offer all of the typical benefits of investing in real estate such as increased leverage and tax benefits.

Each of these investment approaches offers a trade-off between possible profits and costs. The one constant is that you can maximize your risks with due diligence and by consulting with an experienced real estate professional.

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Each of these investment approaches offers a trade-off between possible profits and costs.

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If you have any questions or ideas about a future topic to discuss, please feel free to call or email me. If we use your topic for a blog, we’ll send you a $20 gift card to a local vendor.

Make it a great day!

The Pros and Cons of Listing Your Home FSBO

Should you sell your home FSBO? Here are a few things to consider before you make the decision.

Looking to buy in Alaska?  Get a full home search

 Looking to sell in Alaska? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

If you’re in the market to sell a home, you might consider selling it on your own as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO). To help you make your decision, I want to share some important points that are all contained in this nice infographic from Homelight. Here are the pros and cons you should consider before deciding to sell your home with or without an agent:

Pro: You’re in control. You get to make the decisions on pricing, marketing, staging, and everything else. You make the final say.

Con: Criticism. Dealing with criticism and rejection is part of a real estate agent’s life. Are you prepared to take that criticism on as well? Do you even want to?

Pro: The trust factor. Do you know which buyer’s agents to trust and which to avoid? A professional real estate agent does.

Con: Objectivity. Will you be able to see your home through the eyes of a buyer? You may think you have a neutral perspective, but you have so many emotions and memories wrapped up in the home, which means being objective is going to be a challenge.

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Will you be able to see your home through the eyes of a buyer?

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Pro: You already have the knowledge. If you have prior real estate and/or marketing knowledge, you can put that to good use without having to hire someone else to do it.

Con: Having real estate sales expertise. Real estate sales is different from any other business I’ve ever heard of. There are a lot of nuances, especially in the Alaska market, that you need to be aware of in order to have success.

Pro: No commission fee. That’s probably the biggest reason you’d want to do this on your own anyway.

Con: Slower sale. If you want a slower sale with a few possible price reductions sprinkled in, be my guest and try to sell on your own.

As you can see, there are plenty of pros and cons to selling your home on your own. If you want your next sale to be successful, profitable, and convenient, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.