ForSalebyOwnerNow's Advice

True story:A broker friend of mine stopped at his office on Christmas eve several years ago to pick up some papers. It was a cold, snowy that night here in Massachusetts and while he was in the office, a man saw the lights on and went in and asked about his listings. The broker had a key to the front door of a vacant home he listed and showed it to the prospective buyer that evening. He made a full price offer, right on the spot. The sale closed about a month later.Lesson to this story:All you need is one buyer. And you can never predict when a buyer will come along. I was a broker for 25 years and I have never made predictions about the future. My own home has been on the market for about six months now, and my wife keeps asking why we haven't sold it yet. There's a lot of inventory out there and the media keeps the shoveling more crap on top of the pile every day and this is what keeps homes from selling. There is NO SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE MESS CAUSING PRICES TO DROP OR HOMES NOT TO SELL. This is psychological control of most everyones mind brought about by the hammering of the media. In plain english, we have an irrisponSIible media who created this mess that encourages people to walk away from their homes and in turn we have more and more inventory to compete with.Remember this. Everything is relative and everything is temporary, and that includes all the foreclosures which will eventually diminish and people will be buying homes again. So, it doesn't matter when you put your home on the market. Sooner or later, it'll sell. And who knows, a buyer may show up on Christmas eve and buy your home.

With respect, i say if you need to ask here on flipping properties, perhaps it would be a good idea to start out at Barnes & Noble book store. In my younger days I flipped many properties. But I learned how to do it by reading books, going to get rich real estate seminars and speaking with the pros who do it for a living. If you don't rely know what youre doing you may end up broke. Property flipping in this real estate downturn is tricky at best and the investments you make could easly be wiped out overnight

Find a good handy man and most of your problems are solved. Home Depot has some excellent How To Books that have helped me do little jobs such as a electrical wall plug, drywall tapeing, faucet repair and installation, toilet rings, tileing and much more, Would I hire any of their workman? I'd have to think about it.

The first thing to do is go to your town or city hall and ask the town or city clerk for a zoning bylaws book. I may cost you 5 or 10 dollars but an excellent investment. Next go to the assessors department and look at the assessment maps which will show how each parcel is zoned and assessed, Ask a lot of questions of how to, how to, how to and how to do what you would like to do. Now here comes the problem. You are going to get footballed around from department to department but that's because each department has a certain job to do and the buracrats will keep referring you to the next and next and next until you become so confused you wont even remember your name. So, now comes the savy on how to get things done. Get the zoning book, get the assessors map for the parcel you want to change the zoning on and go to thre head building inspector and speak with HIM. Not his secretary. All she can do is take a message, or ask you questions and say she'll RUN IT BY HIM. She's his secretary not the Building Inspector. And only the building inspector understands all aspects of zoning, building, planning, rules and regulations and HE can be your best friend and show you how to cut through the chase in quick order. He's like the director of a motion picture. He's the man who makes things happen. And he knows all the tricks and traps that can get you through the maze of getting zoning changed but more importantly getting you the permits to put up structures appropriate with the book you just bought. The best time to meet up with him is around 8 o'clock in the morning or 4 oclock in the afternoon. He's usually out in the field doing his job during the day and filing reports and doing paperwork in the morning and afternoon so I've just given you the inside scoop on how to get started. Head Building Inspectors are very knowlegable and helpful to polite people. But remember, you want to speak only to the head bilding inspector. Good luck