How to Turn Problems into Opportunities in Today's Real Estate Market

RealEstateJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal’s online report on real estate, is worth bookmarking and visiting often. The moderator is Lew Sichelman, an encouraging real estate expert whose advice to readers is consistently wise.

Just this week, Mr. Sichelman responded to a question from a woman who was paying off a mortgage amount that far exceeded the value of her house. She had been trying to get her bank to lower her loan amount and reduce her monthly payments, but they were stonewalling. Meanwhile, she was having a tough time keeping up with her monthly payments. Mr. Sichelman urged her to keep trying to get her bank to offer her a lower payment to help her keep the house. He also reminded her that she could not expect to truly negotiate with her bank, which was more likely to offer her a “take it or leave it” lower payment than to truly work with her to set a payment she could afford.

Here at Trump University, our School of Real Estate Investment Training takes a slightly different approach to questions like those. Instead of trying to solve problems once they occur, we seek ways to prevent them - and even to turn them into opportunities for potential investors. But her question did make me wonder how many investors are missing out on several key opportunities.

How many property investors in the current market, for example, renegotiate with their mortgage companies to lower payments on the properties they own? If you own 10 properties and can negotiate even a 10 percent reduction on your monthly mortgage payment on each of them - then you have turned the problem of dropping real-estate values into positive cash flow.

How many potential investors, after identifying bank-owned properties that they would like to buy, take the extra step of negotiating aggressively on asking price? I have met foreclosure investors who assume that a bank’s asking price is already the lowest acceptable price - and that is not necessarily true. Banks with large portfolios of foreclose properties to sell will be especially willing to entertain offers.

RealEstateJournal.com, is an excellent resource. But to learn to turn some of today’s problems into investment opportunities, it takes a Trump mindset. Our students are making significant money in real estate today. Find out how you can get started investing in real estate.