Copyright (c) 2010 Jack Bosch

Real Estate Investing Made Easy

In the past few years, real estate has seen an unprecedented level of foreclosures on both residential and commercial properties. Banks are desperate to be rid of these bank owned properties, and many commercial owners feel the same way. Making commercial short sales is a great way to fill these needs and make a bit of profit while you're at it. Karen Hanover explains how.

Understanding Bank Short Sales

The first thing to understand is what exactly commercial short sales are, and why they happen. The common story of a short sale goes as follows: a property owner owns a debt on his property that he cannot repay, most likely because the property values have depreciated due to the sorry state of the real estate market. He's missed a few payments on his mortgage and is facing imminent foreclosure. However, even the banks don't like initiating foreclosures; they are a lot of work and still leave a stain on the bank's records. So the lender may decide that it's better to accept a loss on the property than to foreclose on it, and they let it go for a discount. Then an enterprising buyer (that's you) can sweep it up and resell it for a profit.

Making the Most of Money Making Opportunities

That is the theory, of course—the real trick is choosing the right properties and pulling off the resale. To do this, you must possess several qualities. First, you must be a great networker and possess the commitment to sniff out any and all money making opportunities for both acquiring new bank owned properties, and profitably releasing the ones you own. Second, you must be serious and trainable. Real estate investing can be a tricky business with a lot of relevant laws. You must become an expert on foreclosures and foreclosure law in a fairly short time and apply that knowledge consistently. And last, but certainly not least, you must be determined. In the face of setbacks, it is not uncommon to feel discouraged. You must persevere, however. In every failure is the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

A Review of Training Courses

One final note of caution—although free articles about short sales are a great place to start educating yourself about the whole process, you will eventually run out of information and have to turn to a paid real estate training course if you really want to learn enough to make money. These training courses from reported "gurus" are unregulated and full of scams. A good way to test whether you're signing up for the real deal or not is to pump them for free information. They should respond with a lot of what is listed here on real estate investing, and on various internet sources. If not, there's a chance that you'll blow thousands of dollars just to learn what anyone with an internet connection can learn!