New investor from New Jersey looking for advice.

[Tom W.]

Hello everyone. I'm located in Northern NJ and find myself in a bit of a unique situation that I could use some advice on. I have always wanted to get into real estate investing, particularly flipping. I have a background in the construction industry and have watched others do it but never felt comfortable putting my family in financial jeopardy by taking the risk. I find myself in a different situation now so I'm ready to take the plunge. I could use a little advice from some of you experienced folks on how to proceed. The situation I am in now is this. I, along with 2 siblings, have inherited a 2 bedroom single family home here in NJ. My intention is to use my share of the money gained from the sale to reinvest in real estate. My siblings live out of state and I am the trustee of the property so it is up to me to deal with the sale of the home. Unfortunately, it's not selling. I originally listed it $20,000 below my realtors suggestion and had very few lookers. I dropped the price by $10,000 2 weeks ago and have only had two additional lookers and still no offers. I'm considering dropping another $10,000 this week to see if it creates any interest but don't know if I'm thinking in the right direction. I have considered turning this into a rental and holding it for a while but I would have to come up with the funds to buy out my siblings since they are not interested in being landlords. I have also considered buying out my siblings and turning this home into my first flip but since I'm having so much trouble selling now I don't really know what to figure for an ARV so I can determine if the numbers work. I also can't really try to buy it so cheap that it creates family problems. Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this situation?

[Tom W.]

Yes the property is listed with a real estate agent. She originally told me that comps in the area ranged from $187,000 to $220,000 and wanted me to list at the high end of the range. I felt she was too optimistic and wanted to go for a quick sale so I had her list at $199,999. Apparently that was still too optimistic because I'm now at $190,000 and still getting no interest. 

The property is in Bloomingdale, NJ if you are familiar with the area. It's actually a 2/1-1/2. It's a small home, only about 950 sq ft so there is no chance of making a third bedroom without doing an addition. Based on experience so far I don't think that would be cost effective.