What a Florida Real Estate Broker Is Waiting For

Posted under Foreclosures, Investing Strategies, Recession by Darren Hom

Can a Florida real estate brokerage still make money? Ed Bonkowski, a Fort Myers-based broker, says “yes”, but he’s waiting for certain market conditions.

His words appear at the end of an article about Lee County, FL foreclosure auctions (emphases mine):

One recent attendee [of foreclosure auctions] was Kim Hardin, a real estate agent with Century 21 Sunbelt Realty # 1.

She didn’t bid on any properties but was interested in buying foreclosed houses from the regulars.

Hardin said she’s looking to buy in bulk for clients interested in holding houses and leasing them out.

But that could be difficult, Carney said. “We can’t get the houses” in large numbers from the banks.

Ed Bonkowski, a Fort Myers-based real estate broker, did a lot of business in foreclosed properties in the early ’90s in the last major downturn but said he hasn’t lately because good deals are “few and far between.”

He expects that will change eventually, as foreclosure sales accelerate and bank-owned homes pile up.

“Our decision to buy’s going to be when the banks are ready to bulk sale a bunch of them, then it’d make some sense,” Bonkowski said.

But prices will have to drop steeply for that to happen, he said.

“At 15 cents on the dollar, all those properties will be gobbled up, investors will come out of the woodwork and buy them and everybody will go back to work,” Bonkowski said.

Rentals are worth buying, even in Florida, but only if the prices are right.

People who buy right are not scared of this market. They’re excited. That’s worth remembering.