By Cynthia Badiey, Editor
By a slim margin, real estate investors preferred to fix and flip properties rather than renting them out in the fourth quarter of 2014. That’s one of the findings of Auction.com’s latest Real Estate Investor Activity Report™, a nationwide survey of investors bidding on properties at auction, both online and at live events.
Nationwide, half of the investors surveyed indicated that they intended to flip the properties they were buying, while 47.3% said they were going to buy and hold. But among survey respondents who said they were making a one-time purchase, nearly 69% preferred a hold-to-rent strategy. In contrast, full-time investors and people bidding on behalf of other investors favored flipping.
The report revealed strong regional differences as well. Half of the online investors in the Northeast indicated that they indicated to flip their purchases, compared to 39.8% in the South. At live events in California, a full 70% of investors said they were planning to flip.
“It’s probably not a coincidence that some of the highest-priced markets, such as California and the Northeast, are seeing more flipping activity, since higher priced homes are more difficult to rent out profitably,” said Auction.com Executive Vice President Rick Sharga. “But it’s also very possible that part of the reason we’re seeing an increase in flipping is that in many of these markets there’s simply not enough new or existing home inventory to meet buyer demand.
“That spells opportunity for real estate investors who can buy, fix and flip a property quickly and efficiently.”
Read the full report here.
