Five Ways to Beat the System in Real Estate

Times are tough in the real estate market recently, or are they? The rich and investment bankers have always weathered real estate storms and so can you. Here are five tricks I learned over the years (the hard way), about investing and keeping real estate property.

First, regardless of what the banks and real estate agents may tell you, you-the buyer and they-the seller can negotiate pretty much any kind of earnest money agreement that you want. In our state, the minimum appears to be at least a few dollars in "consideration" however, I have seen apartment complexes pass hands on earnest agreements as small as Ten Dollars. Some times the earnest money can be in the form of a promissory note or promise to pay once financing has been secured. This first trick is probably the most important because you do NOT want to tie up your money waiting on whether a deal is going to go through or not. The only exception to this rule would be the purchase of a foreclosure where some kind of bond has to be put up first in order to show good faith. Other than some kind of auction or Federal Government-run program, put as little up in the way of an earnest money agreement as you can - preferable a promissory note.