Real Estate Education From the Stars: “Using the Market to Fuel Your Retirement” Pat Wattam
Contributed By Pat Wattam, top producing Baton Rouge LA Realtor®:
I remember when I was a new agent back in the 80’s - when the oil bust hit Louisiana and foreclosures were everywhere. In fact, an agent in our office was in charge of foreclosed properties for a couple of banks and he closed 125 houses that year!! We were so amazed! He was so burned out he quickly left real estate when the market came back. I remember seeing all kinds of ‘great deals’ but I didn’t have any money and really wasn’t into buying property. Fast forward about 20 years. A young man called me and wanted to sell off some of his rental property. He was about 40 years old but back in the 80’s he had been a young college student with no money. Yet he had guts and bought as much property as he could – a lot of it with no money down because the banks just wanted to get rid of the property – others had owner financing. He didn’t buy anything fancy – just got dirt cheap property and rented it out all these years, paid off the mortgage and was now selling these things off at 3 times what he had bought them for!!! He was selling them off to build a big home with a pool for his young family. He sold off some properties and kept some.
As agents, we see these great deals before anybody else, and we recognize them for what they are. This is the time to invest in yourself. My husband and I were going over our rental properties tonight, how much rent they brought in, how much we had left on the mortgages and were playing “if these were all paid for, could we retire now” and the answer was basically yes! So, if you don’t have a lot going on in your market, maybe YOU should be the buyer and start working toward NOT HAVING to work!!! Just a thought on how to take advantage of the crazy market we are all working in. If people can’t get loans, they will have to rent and why not rent from us!!!!!
Pat Wattam
RE/MAX First
Baton Rouge, LA
sold@PatWattam.com
225-298-6900 Direct
800-599-6769 x 400 Toll Free
www.PatWattam.com
Licensed Realtor in Louisiana and Alabama
www.GoStarPower.com
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