This week in Summary
Investing Tip of the week
What do I do when I get an address to review? I have access to some truly great tech tools – Privy, PropStream, Flipping America GO, to name a few. But in all honesty, the first thing I do is pull up a google search bar and type in the address. I will look at the property on Zillow, redfin, and realtor.com. Sometimes I will look at Trulia because they have school information. And occasionally movoto or MashVisor.
If the property passes a smell test there, I’ll put it into one of the aforementioned tools for a more in-depth look. Do I trust the Zestimate? I would like to say yes, but actually I would not like to say yes. Of course not. Never trust any automated valuation. However – if Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor all have the same idea of the value and it not just the current list or auction price, you may be on to something.
AVMs only point you in the general direction. But 90% of the deals that come across my desk get ruled out before I have to do any serious digging. Today’s wholesalers in general are about as realistic as your dog stealing a car.
Joke of the Week
Q: What do you call a deaf dog?
A: It doesn’t matter what you call him, he’s not coming.
Blessing of the week
For the test of the heart is trouble
And it always comes with years.
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through the tears.
The Flipping America Show
Episode 571 Why the iBuyers Will Fail
November 16, 2022
I’ve been paying attention to real estate and real estate investing for a long time. I watched the rise of the so-called iBuyers, and I’m fairly confident I will be here to see their demise.
If you listen to the show much, you know that I’m a positive upbeat kind of guy. I never set up my interview guests for embarrassment, I do not thrive on controversy, and although I don’t shy away from healthy disagreement, I’m not here to argue with anyone.
That said, part of my purpose is to expose the bad guys – those who build large businesses with a fundamentally dishonest business model. I’ve spent a fair amount of airtime criticizing in particular the Hotel Room Real Estate Gurus and the iBuyers.
Sometimes the premise is noble enough and the vision is grand enough, but at some point someone behind the scenes realizes this thing isn’t going to work unless we make some adjustments. This usually comes in the form of high pressure manipulative sales tactics from the Gurus and deceptive practices, including hidden or junk fees and unexpected repair bills.
Episode 572 House Flipping With Bruce, Part One
I don’t encourage everyone to drop what they are doing and start flipping houses. But I DO encourage some of you to do it. And if you are going to do it, why not start with a little knowledge?
Thank you to everyone who made my book, “Flipping Houses in Ten Days” an international number 1 bestseller. And if you don’t have it yet, just put bit.ly/10dayflipper into your browser and it will take you to the Amazon page where you can order it. You can still get the Kindle version for free if you act quickly.
The market is slowing. Despite all of the gloom and doom predictions from the clickbait wannabes on social media, this does not spell a disaster. It DOES portend an opportunity. 2023 will be a rebounding year for house flipping, and I think also for BOR houses, but that’s not the topic for today.
Bruce Glenn joined us recently for an interview. He is a master house flipper and licensed appraiser from Birmingham, AL. We will talk about some of the issues and I think you’ll see that you can do this if it’s what you really want.
Flipping America News
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
We are working on an episode (maybe a regular feature) on the REI tech tools people use. Do you have a favorite? Tell us about it – send an email to info@flippingamerica.net.
The Flipping America REIA will be back in January. Meetings are ended for 2022.
Got a funny, clean joke? An interesting real estate story? Submit them to info@flippingamerica.net.
Real Estate News
Home sales were down another 5.8% in October, marking the 9th straight month of declining sales. They are down 28% from a year ago.
Is it “woe is me” time yet? Not even close. We just came through 4 of the most extraordinary years of real estate demand and sales volume in history. The demand came from low inventory marked with historically low interest rates. This is also unsustainable. At some point we had to get back to normal and the only way to get there is to see declining sales.
It’s not the end. It’s the beginning of increasing opportunities for savvy investors.