Littleton CO Homes for Sale

A lot of folks are looking at Littleton CO homes for sale, but may not have enough cash in hand for a new purchase. If you are trying to buy or sell your home, investment or business property and haven’t had success, and would like to find a footing in Littleton Colorado, here are some thoughts on Equity Marketing as a possible solution.

Conventional wisdom on real estate sales is that if your property doesn’t sell ‘lower the price’. “The bathroom is too small for the price”, “the yard is too small for the price.” Maybe. Maybe not. An uncle and mentor (a very successful Architect and Real Estate Developer) says “if it doesn’t sell, raise the price, you’ll get a whole new group of buyers with more money” (yes you read that correctly).

Another mentor I met 30 years ago in the Auto Business taught me a lesson that has had great importance in my business dealings over the years. He said “there’s a butt for every seat” (I’ve cleaned it up a bit.) From that day on I have always believed that no matter what you have for sale, sooner or later someone will come along and buy it. Be patient. Your circumstances will determine whether or not you can take advantage of ‘outside the box’ creative thinking.

Let me say that if you are in foreclosure or it is imminent there is likely not much that can be suggested other than a short sale. If you have significant equity in the property, or can add cash or other assets which have positive equity, some of these ideas may be of value. If you are upside down in the property, owing more than the value of the property, with no other assets to add, you need to seek council.

Believe it or not now is as good a time as any to reallocate or shift assets because, you may get a little less for your property but you can get another property for a little less as well. However as you may have heard, it could be a little tough to get loans approved. This affects you not only as a seller but it affects you if you are interested in buying some additional property. Much larger down payments, liquidity and proof of income are most definitely part of the game now. Gone are the days of the liar’s loans (I learned this term from an officer of a major mortgage company who received a 10.5 Billion Dollar bail out a while back- seriously!)

No or low documentation is the “official” description of these type of loans. So, quite a number of potential buyers are out of the market or sitting on the sidelines because of tightened money. You have equity in your property that can’t be activated or used (a Home Equity Loan or refinance isn’t always the answer- sometimes you need to change assets) and you may want to apply it to something else. Enter Equity Marketing.

What is Equity Marketing, and what has it got to do with Littleton CO homes for sale? Do you have a property you’re looking to get out of…and are you interested in finding a home in Littleton Colorado? Then read further…You have probably heard of a 1031 Exchange. This is where you take money from a sale and “roll” it into another property thereby getting a tax break (until someone changes the tax laws….). There is also a reverse 1031 where you Buy the new property first and then sell the old one and apply the money from the sale. (1031′S are complicated. If you are not experienced seek council or you could have serious tax consequences. This is not a substitute for legal, tax, or other professional advice.)

Equity Marketing is actually a “trade” of property. Yep. In the old days (way before my time) before there was money, people used to actually trade stuff. Then money was invented. It was easier to carry around a fist full of dollars than a herd of cows or a wagon full of some other goods. OK. So, trade real estate? Yep. It can be a little tricky so you need to go carefully but the idea is that you can buy or sell real estate without having to actually find someone with cash or down payment money in order to accomplish your desired result. It’s an old concept but relative to today’s thinking it is out of the box, and can be very efficient and effective.

How do I get started? Well, first you need to figure out where you are and where you want to go…like our beautiful Littleton Co. As always, apply reason. I am reminded of the old George Carlin comedy routine (I’ll paraphrase and clean this up). “Did you ever notice how YOUR junk is stuff and everybody else’s stuff is junk?” If you think your stuff is always worth more than someone else’s, and the words win-win aren’t in your vocabulary, I’m sure you will find this entertaining but it will be of no value to you.

There needs to be benefits on both sides of a trade/exchange in order for it to work. You can probably skin someone in any market- on a trade or straight sale, especially if you have cash. If you are trying to move from your assets to other assets through a trade or exchange and neither party is in trouble, you need to leave some meat on the carcass so the other party is willing to haul it off for you. Everyone wants to believe they’re coming out ahead after a trade.

Why would I do that? Because there are other reasons than distress for changing ownership to different types of property. Maybe you don’t like or just stink at property management (don’t be insulted-be realistic). You may want to get in or out of a property but want a property manager. Maybe industrial is more to your liking than single family homes. None of this means it’s a bad property on either side of the deal, needs and situations change. Maybe a business is closing, they want to sell the warehouse. You have a few single family homes. You’d like a warehouse and the 3 partners would each like a house. Maybe they will do a 1 year leaseback so you have income on the warehouse to help you until you get a tenant. Viola!.. Not always that simple but you get the idea.

First Question. If you sold your property what would you do with the money? If you need cash to pay bills or go to Disneyland keep reading anyway. “I want to reinvest”, “I’d like to reinvest but I need the cash”. OK. Think about this, since you may not be having any luck selling. First off, if you lower the price for cash then that’s it. And, it still may not sell as quickly as you want. If you have a current(within the last few months), real, legitimate appraisal, you can use it to extract all of your equity. You may have $50,000 equity and another property may be the same. You can assume loans, or refinance up or down if you both qualify, someone can carry back a second mortgage using the Equity Trade as the “Down Payment” to satisfy a lender.

Or, let’s say one property has more equity than the other. Trades aren’t always 1 property for 1 property, you can add cash, multiple properties, Ferraris, whatever works. You give me your house with $50,000 equity, I give you my smaller house with $25,000 equity and $25,000 cash. We work out the loans. You just received $25,000 Cash to pay your bills, go to Disneyland and you have $25,000 equity in a smaller house which is in an easier location to sell quickly. You have now gotten full use of all of your equity. The new house should sell quicker than your current burdensome property. We call that a path to cash.

Regardless of your current location or real estate situation, you may be able to bypass the hassle of standard by and sell practices. If you find a home, condo, or larger piece of property in Littleton that you want and lack the cash on hand to purchase, consider a straight old fashioned property swap. Littleton CO homes for sale may be your equity marketing solution. Happy Trading.

Tags: Equity Marketing, littleton co homes, Littleton Co Homes for Sale, littleton homes, littleton real estate

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