Second Home a Savvy Investment? Realtor® Survey Results Suggest the Answer May Be Yes - “Second Home” Experts Christine Hrib Karpinski and David C. Hehman Weigh In
It’s official. Second homes are selling like the proverbial hotcakes. According to a just-released report by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Clearly, a huge number of people are going the second home route . . . and they can’t all be wealthy.
Woodstock, GA (PRWEB) March 5, 2005 -- Second Home a Savvy Investment?
Realtor® Survey Results Suggest the Answer May Be Yes.
According to the
National Association of Realtors®, over a third of all residential transactions
in 2004 involved investment property and vacation homes.
“Second home”
experts Christine Karpinski of www.HowToRentByOwner.com and www.EscapeHomes.com CEO
David C. Hehman weigh in.
It’s official. Second homes are selling like
the proverbial hotcakes. According to a just-released report by the National
Association of Realtors® (NAR), 23 percent of all homes purchased in 2004 were
purchased as investments. Another 13 percent were vacation homes. There was a
record of 2.82 million second home sales in 2004, up 16.3 percent from 2.42
million in 2003.
Astounding as it may seem, investment property and
vacation homes account for more than one-third of residential transactions.
Clearly, a huge number of people are going the second home route . . . and they
can’t all be wealthy.
“This validates what I have said for years,”
declares Christine Hrib Karpinski, author of the book How to Rent Vacation
Properties by Owner: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain
and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment (Kinney Pollack Press, 2004, ISBN:
0-9748249-0-9, $26.00), as well as the upcoming Profit from Your Vacation Home
Dream (Dearborn Trade Publishing, September 2005, ISBN: 1-4195069-1-9, $19.95).
“The NAR study puts real numbers to what we in the industry knew but couldn’t
prove. Second homes are a terrific investment vehicle, and you don’t have to be
‘rich’ to buy one.”
She points out that the NAR study revealed that the
typical vacation-home buyer earned $71,000 in 2003, while investment-property
buyers had an income of $85,700. In other words, people buying second homes fall
pretty squarely in the “middle class.”
“Real estate has always been a
solid, safe, tangible investment,” says Karpinski. “First, it usually
appreciates in value. Also, there is a sense of control that doesn’t exist with,
say, the stock market. When you own real estate, you can feel confident that
someone else’s unethical decision won’t cause you to lose everything. And of
course, the rental factor means that you can actually earn income from your
investment.”
So what about you? If real estate investing is looking like
a great way to diversify your portfolio, what should you do first? David C.
Hehman, co-chairman and CEO of EscapeHomes.com (http://www.escapehomes.com)—an online marketplace for buyers
and sellers of second homes and resort properties—says above all else you must
educate yourself.
“Buying a home for investment purposes is very
different from buying a primary residence,” he asserts. “It’s a different
process and you need different information. So the first thing I would suggest
is research, research, research. Know why you want to buy and what you want from
the experience. Be realistic about both costs and expectations. And find a great
Realtor® to walk you through the process.
“I fully agree with the Warren
Buffett quote, ‘An investor’s success is in direct proportion to the degree to
which he or she understands the investment,’” continues Hehman. “So get
educated. Visit www.EscapeHomes.com to get a good sense of the second home
marketplace. Read Christine Karpinski’s book and web site (http://www.HowToRentByOwner.com/) to get a handle on the
rental issues. The more you read, the more experts you talk to, the more you
explore the marketplace, the more likely you are to make a smart decision—the
right decision for you.”
About Christine Karpinski:
Christine Hrib
Karpinski’s first and most important job is as a stay-at-home mom. She fell into
teaching about vacation properties only by chance. Realizing that there was no
way she could afford to buy a vacation home using a management company, she
started “renting by owner.” Not only was she successful, others wanted to know
how to do it too. She started writing a column in Gulf Coast Condo Owner
Magazine. From there, the rest, as they say, is history.
Christine and
her book How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner: The Complete Guide to Buy,
Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment
have been featured on bankrate.com, CNNfn, CBS Marketwatch Radio, Good Day
Sacramento, MSNBC TV, and in Realty Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago
Tribune, Calgary Herald, and many others.
About the Books:
How to
Rent Vacation Properties by Owner: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish,
Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment (Kinney Pollack
Press, 2004, ISBN: 0-9748249-0-9, $26.00) and The Vacation Rental Organizer
(Kinney Pollack Press, 2004, ISBN: 0-9748249-1-7, $19.00) are available at
bookstores nationwide and all major online booksellers.
For more
information, please visit www.howtorentbyowner.com.
About
EscapeHomes.com:
EscapeHomes.com, founded in 1998 by Clark Thompson, is the
Smart Source For Second Homes, including vacation, retirement, investment and
resort properties. It is the only real estate matchmaker focusing exclusively on
the second home buyer, bringing together people searching for vacation property
with the real estate professionals and properties that meet their needs.
It features vacation properties nationwide with photos, profiles of real
estate agents and resort developers, detail-rich descriptions of vacation
destinations, a library of resources and advice specific to second home living,
decision support tools, and much more. The website is designed to assist the
serious buyer, the casual browser, and everyone in between who dreams of someday
owning their own Escape Home.
EscapeHomes.com has been featured in The
New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, MSN Money, Coastal
Living, CBS MarketWatch, on CNN, and in many other prominent publications.
For more information, please visit:
www.HowToRentByOwner.com
www.EscapeHomes.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb214645.htm