Linda Craft & Team, REALTORS® have earned the prestigious Certified Investor Agent Specialist ™ (CIAS) designation, having completed extensive training to understand the different real estate investor types, and the investment opportunities, financial options and calculations needed to provide solutions for each. The five real estate investor types include: First-Time Investors, Move-up Investors, Portfolio Investors, Performance Investors, and Rehab and Resell Investors.

“For decades, investing in real estate has proven to be a consistent and stable way for individuals to build wealth,” said Linda Craft.”Over the past 40 years, the real estate industry has had only 3 years of negative appreciation. Real estate investment supports a number of industries including construction, retail, and professional services and is a strong way to energize and increase our local economy.”

Over the past 12 months, investment and second-home properties comprised more than $300 billion in sales, representing approximately 27 percent of all residential real estate transactions. In addition, in market conditions affected by mortgage injury challenges, 48 percent of investors made all cash purchases.

“As markets face the challenges of distressed properties and a difficult economy, real estate investors have the opportunity to find productive deals with excellent cash flow, while helping communities stabilize,” Craft noted. “Investors provide much needed liquidity to the market, decrease vacancy rates, improve neighborhoods and present solutions for homeowners who need to sell. One out of 3 people in the United States depend on rental properties being available.”

With the CIAS Designation training and national referral network, Linda Craft & Team, REALTORS® will help Triangle-area residents build wealth through real estate investment and homeowners facing foreclosure find potential buyers for their properties.

Today, millions of homeowners are either delinquent on their mortgages or in the foreclosure process. One potential solution for homeowners in this situation is a short sale, in which the lien holder accepts a sale price of the home that is less than the mortgage owed. Increasingly, real estate investors are easing this solution too.