With so many property markets in turmoil, what are the ways that experienced investors are using to turn this to their advantage for short term profits? For instance in the distressed sales area, are there investors who are finding ways to either flip properties or refinance for short term (if small) gains? Presumably the situation varies from market to market and I was particularly thinking about Spain, UK and US.

I'm a brand new member and would be very interested to get the collected wisdom, or anyway some provocative suggestions.

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Long term profits are a lot easier. Then all you are doing is buy low, sell high.

For short term, you must really get an enormous discount on the price, fix it very quickly, and get it resold fast by pricing a bit below market value.

If you like risk, (in the USA; I don't know if it is legal elsewhere) you can buy "subject to" and re-sell on a lease option.

In some areas, the banks are giving steep discounts on their foreclosures -- but not in all areas.

If you find sellers with a large amount of equity, they will sometimes take a very low offer, because they are frightened about whether or not they can sell their house.

Or, you can combine long term and short term and buy very low, fix, hold, and refinance to take cash out for the next investment. That works if the purchase price and the financing are both low enough so the property will still support itself after you borrow the equity out of it.

I couldn't agree more Oregon Woodsmoke,

Over the past few months I have been negotiating discounts for clients of between 20% and 55% below current market prices (based on bank valuations and comparibles). There are many reasons why developers and investors will sell with big discounts right now. There is no rocket science here; if you can buy "extremely" cheap and sell "very" cheap then there are definitely opportunities for quick profits, especially if you are able to sell on your investment to property investors in some of the more active markets currently (Russia, Germany, Spain etc).

But, given the financial state of the world at present, I wouldn't suggest you spend your entire life savings buying up a new portfolio of properties, whatever the size of the discount. You may have to sit on some of them at least for a year or two whilst people lick their financial wounds and return to the markets.

So in short, search out the big discounts that are undeniably available at present, take advantage of them and try and turn a quick profit by making small gains on resale, but be prepared to hold at least part of your investment till world markets recover.....It will be worth the wait.

Good luck!

Colin Barrett-Treen

Quick sells on the distressed market are very difficult to achieve. So the best strategy for distressed markets is buy low, sit back & wait for market to pick up, sell high.

It might sound dull, but that's how Ben Graham and Warren Buffet did it

Spain: with nearly 1 million overflow property on the market, even buying a bargain is not good enough.. or it needs to stack up on rents .. because there is just NO resale market at moment. You know what you buy, you don t know what you ll sell...

UK : waiting game, expecially as Gordon &co announce the stamp duty could go away next April, I would bet the market is now frozen for 8 months...

conclusion: still a waiting game...

If you buy direct from auction, you can pick up property at a fraction of the loan value.
I got a house in Toledo with three ajoining building plots for $15.000.
The average sale price there in 2007 was over $100.000.
The property was a two unit home so its ideal to clean up and rent out or just sit on for a few years till the market picks up.
It will pick up, the rental market is good.
I dont think there will be to many bargains in Spain and you are talking a different price range.

A lot of investers in our area are moving toward multi-families houses (ie duplexss, triplexes, etc.), condos, and small apartment buildings as rentals. The reasoning here is that many families are downsizing after realizing they over extended themselves in recent years. The builders see this as an opportunity to provide affordable housing.