Savy investors know that one makes money when buying an asset on the cheap, regardless whether it's gold, commodities or real estate; to put it more bluntly, an investor reaps the greatest profit margins when 'there's blood on the streets' ! Now is such a time in the case of real estate: a flood of foreclosures has inundated the U.S. market from New York to California, and every state in between; few regional markets have escaped the serious economic repercussions of the so-called sub-prime lending crisis. Despite recent herculean financial efforts by the Federal Reserve to minimize the damage to the economy and its key financial players, the real estate market continues its dizzying decline south value/price wise.
 
While this has scared conventional investors away from the real estate market, smart contrarian-thinking investors are scooping up both residential and commercial real estate assets at 20%, 30%, 50% and even 70% from current appraised values; even in the case of properties considered 'upside-down' (mortgage exceeds current appraisal value), savy investors are walking away from deals with juicy profits 20 to 40% or more by using the 'short-sale' method of extracting deep discounts from mortgage-holders; one such investor in Clearwater, Florida is pulling in an average of $15K to $35k per short-sale deal, with a volume of over fifty houses per year bought and sold using the 'short-sale' method negotiating with banks. Savy investors know that markets, including the real estate markets, behave historically in cyclical fashion ("What goes up, must come down", and vice-versa). For example, who would have thought that gold - languishing at the under $300 per ounce range for years, would zoom up to the current value of over $1,000 per ounce? Savy investors who got into gold early on, have realized returns of over 300% in less than five years! Savy investors who picked properties (including New York City skyscrapers) back in the Big Depression days in the 1930's, later became multi-millionaires and even billionaires! Where the public then saw only despair, and a hopeless market, savy investors saw a golden opportunity to make a ton of money scooping up assets as low as 10 cents on the dollar.
 
Of course, one must invest wisely, and carefully choose the right real estate assets to buy; the true value of a real estate property can only be determined after a careful analysis of various key factors: condition of property (calculate correctly its rehab costs), its location (accessibility to convenient shopping, cultural amenities, crime free, etc.), and current appraisal value (less than 45 days). The optimal strategy for an investor is consistently the same: buy as low as you can, and sell high as you can; in today's real estate market,  it would be wise for the investor to sell his inventory of properties at least 15 to 20% market value - so as to attract bargain-seeking buyers and go to closing in the shortest possible time. A wise, long-term strategy for an investor would be to sell, rent or lease-option the inventory of acquired properties to reserve a nice cash-flow for the retirement years. Bottom line is, GET OUT THERE AND SCOOP UP YOUR SHARE OF REAL ESTATE TREASURE, and by doing so you're not only securing your financial future, but you're also helping to heal the U.S. economy!

I would say this is the best time to buy in Tampa, Clearwater, and Saint Petersburg.

Completely agree, every investor I know in the area (including myself) are snapping up properties every day.

As a Canadian, I see great potential for investing in the United States. The Canadian dollar is at par and US housing prices have been dropping dramatically. When everyone wants out, that's when you should be going in. Its the same with stocks. Of course you should always do you due diligence before buying any type of investment.

Very good post I would say.

Everything said is true.

Very good post I would say.

Everything said is true.

I am suprised we haven't seen an abundance of international investors buying homes here in Florida.

Another very good place to Invest is Brazil. Our real state Market is growing very fast and this market is very hot now. Any one who wants to Invest in here dont exitate, contact me.

thanks for the inspirational post, I think it's about time to invest since I already have an account and can afford to buy,just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

There is a quote from Warrent Buffet I love. He was talking about stocks, but it's applicable to any investment. It went something like

"When people are greedy, be fearful and when people are fearful be greedy."

yes indeed now is a good time to buy properties but i don't see a lot of properties going 30-40% below market value unless it is a dog property. even reo properties only allow about 15-18% spreads. a savvy investor can worth with those types of spreads, but if you think you are going to buy properties all day long with big equity then you are mistaken.

i say this because most properties on the market are a result from subprime lender and adjustable rate mortgage hikes. those properties don't have much equity so you have to create equity and short sale lenders are allowing the profits most would lead you to believe.

in this market if you are an investor you need to know how to profit from deals with very thin profit margins and hold them until the market improves. 10-15% equity now equals 25-30% equity once the market corrects itself.

Wow I am sure happy I came on to this site today. I have been Investing in Arizona for about 8 years and was just telling my partners and team that it is time to get our Investment Division up and running again. We shut it down in late 05 and started working REO'S because we knew what was going to happen to all of those so called Investors who were over paying for anything they could. After reading your comments I know we are headed in the right direction agin thanks for the inspiration all and we have great deals in AZ.

I have quite a few overseas folks I talk too. I lived in London until the middle of last year where I made most of these contacts.

The truth is that the rest of the world is pretty much waiting to see what happens. I have yet to talk to one of my overseas contacts (A few scattered in the UK, France and Spain) who thinks it is a good time to buy in the US. Remember, not only are our prices down, but the buying power of someone in the UK is DOUBLED because our dollar is so low against the pound. So frankly, property can be had so cheaply, it is stunning that more overseas folks are not buying.

I think that just shows how our real estate market is seen by many overseas. Not just real estate, but our whole economy. I even have a client here in my local area who is German and is talking about getting out before the whole thing collapses.

So there are some common perceptions out there that we are just on the brink of something much worse.

Not saying I agree, just that I am hearing it.

R

I've been personally "lowballing" properties in California, who knows how much worse the market will get, but I'm going to buy as many as I can right now, I already closed a condo and it's rented now. I'm going to continue to look for deals and look for more deals.

Nice topic and good post. Everything said here is true.