The Rapture: good for the real estate market or bad for the real estate market?

...It depends, but mainly bad.  Those of us left behind will have to contend with empty houses, unwatered yards, and unpaid condo association fees.  And that will have a depressive effect on property values.  So if you're a seller, my advice is to sell your home within the next six hours.

But if you're a buyer, here might be your chance for some real bargains.  Houses don't hold up well when they sit empty, so plan on doing some fixing.  Hey, maybe this is an idea for a new HGtv show -- how about "Fix this Rapture"?

And if you're a bank, you can look forward to getting your oily mitts on yet more property when you have to foreclose on all these empty homes.

And if you're a Realtor, you will not be getting raptured (except for maybe a few of you in Texas), and there will be plenty of houses to show and sell.  Begin courting bank asset managers today to position yourself as a post-foreclosure rapture specialist!

LA Times is a little behind on their front page news re flippers

Today's L.A. Times headline (in the SFV print edition) is Professionals moving into house flipping.  The reporting is spot-on -- and about six months behind.  I reported in this blog some time ago that I'd observed that the pro's were buying up many/most foreclosures.  And what the article only briefly touches on is that many of these professionals are losing money now in a big way.  Prices aren't soaring, loans (especially on condo projects) aren't easy to get, and many of the flippers didn't research the properties they bought.  But I'm sure most professional flippers have calculated their risks/rewards.

If you're thinking of buying a distressed property, rehabbing it, and selling it for a profit, trust me: it's not as easy as it sounds (I've thought about it myself), and nowhere as "easy" as it looks on HGtv.  Leave it to the pros.