Buying-and-selling real estate in this market takes experience, deep pockets
In a booming real-estate market, making money investing in homes is easy. Buy a house, slap on a new coat of paint or replace the carpeting and ride the appreciation train to a quick, profitable resale a few months later.
When prices decline — as they have in the Puget Sound area over the past two years — the scenario changes. Most home investors disappear, as the risk is too high that property won’t be worth more in a few months.
The few who remain have experience and investment partners or other funding sources to avoid the loan process. They also know how to fix up homes fast and cheap, to keep expenses low.
“It’s a definite science,” says longtime Bellevue investor Will Heaton, who’s partnered with other investors to buy 15 homes this year. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could lose money.”