Help! Home for sale - update

Dave Corey was a successful investor for years, buying, fixing up and quickly selling properties, first in Vermont and then in Florida.

The market turned around so fast in the Ocala area last year that he got caught, stuck with one of his properties before he could sell it at the price he wanted.

He needed to sell the house for close to $180,000 to make it worth his while and the property was drawing no offers at that price. His solution was to offer it as a lease-with-option-to-buy transaction.

That attracted a renter/buyer and when we last talked to Corey in early February he was optimistic that the deal would result in a sale; the tenant was paying promptly and seemed very motivated to become home owner.

That optimism appears justified now.

"My tenant is going to buy the house within a month or two," reports Corey. "He has been pre-qualified for a mortgage."The rough experience failed to dampen Corey's enthusiasm for flipping and the housing slump may be just the recipe for him to even up his activity. He says he just bought a bank foreclosure, a three-bed, two-bath of 1,700 square feet. He says it's appraised for $209,000 and he bought it for $155,000. He's putting it up for sale at $184,900.

"Hopefully, the market will come back," he says.