It seems that the rules have changed when it comes to wholesaling. I remember when you were able to find the ugliest house on a good street, put it under contract, and sell your contract for a nice profit. I mean, you can still do that, but with so many foreclosures on the market, your good deal is in a lot of competition with other cheap foreclosures in the area, that may be  in a lot better condition.

It’s definitely a buyers market right now.  A buyer can pick and choose from so many properties that’s in the same price range of your deal, it gets to be very frustrating at times.  I recently had a friend decide to leave the wholesaling part of real estate because of this frustration.

If anyone else is getting frustrated, what I suggest is…Stick it out.

I believe if you took the time and evaluated what’s going on in the area you are working, then you won’t be as frustrated and will make a lot of money in this market. What I mean by this is, look into the foreclosures in your area, and evaluate them. You may have a gem that hardly needs any work, and will be really simple to sell to a rebuyer, compared to trying to move that ugly house that needs a ton more work, but listed at the same price. I know that’s the way most of us were taught, but we have to start doing things a little different.

I believe that if a wholesaler sticks it out in this market, then once the market turns around, your skills in finding great deals will be second to none. You will become that go to person to get deals, because they will not be as easy pickings as they are today.  Consider this market as a training ground for whats to come.

Expect Abundance

Terence Young

Earlier this year Forbes named Charleston, South Carolina the ninth strongest real estate market in the United States.  Houston, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; El Paso, Texas; Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Syracuse, New York; and McAllen, Texas were the cities listed above Charleston on this list.

When these findings came out, we (as Charleston Realtors) were pleased that Charleston was given such a good outlook.  However, we also wondered how Charleston would fare in the coming months.  Only now that we are halfway though the year, we are able to see that Charleston’s real estate market the past six months has held its own quite well compared to other cities around the country.

Prices for the general Charleston area are down a little more than 9 percent compared to this time last year.  It is a buyers market here, and sellers are willing to bend on their negotiating price when they would not have dreamed of it even a year ago.  In response, buyers seem to be coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the good buys.  So, again, there is certainly a strong buyers’ market here, but one of the main differences in comparing Charleston to other cities is that its market is not completely stagnant.  The demand from buyers has made our real estate market very active, so that it is not the one sided selling process that other cities are seeing where sellers just have to wait and wait and wait for showings and offers. 

In the past few months, we have even seen multiple offer situations come back to our market.  The prevalence of these is not was it was in 2005.  But, we are seeing more and more.  And, if a home is priced well, multiple offers are now not uncommon.  Just last week, we encountered a home with four offers – one was contingent, and the others were backups.  Needless to say our client did not make an offer on that one – we moved on to the next home to make an offer on unclaimed territory, so to speak. 

By the way, some of the worst real estate markets in the country on Forbes’ list were Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; and Jacksonville, Florida.  Recovery for these cities is furthest out, with a projected bottom ranging from the last months of 2009 to late 2011.  Prices are expected to drop another 40 percent in these cities before that bottom is hit.