>>>Buying real estate, now that is the way to go<<<
Well, if you are into bargains, they are out there right now... They just reported on the Sheriff sale of properties in Sussex County here. 46 properties up for auction - 1 sold.
The other 45 were returned to the banks. They will be soon going to great lengths to unload them.
I just have a hard time getting enthused in buying foreclosed homes... It would leave a ‘blood money’ feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know, someone will buy them - but I would rather sleep well not having that to think about.
Also, we had rentals for a while. The way laws now make it all but impossible for landlords to have any rights w/r their own property and tenants to have many - it’s not hardly worth the trouble to have a rental either. And people aren’t what they used to be - most renters would just as soon destroy someone else’s property or try to live there for free (the attitude of entitlement has ruined this country, IMO).<<<
Yes, there are new laws, all against the owner.
The ‘get rich quick crowd’ did loose a lot of money, they got greedy.
Buy low, cheap land, sell it to the next stage the developer, less trouble and far more profit for amount invested and a hell of a lot safer than money in a bank.
This valley is a perfect example, it was subdivided in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, by a lady from Hollywood, Crystal, I have talked to her.
She saw the ad for a huge ranch for sale, cheap and talked her 2 brothers into joining her in buying it.
She said that before it was over, her family tried to have her committed, sure she was insane.
Crystal subdivided much of Arizona and still had new , far out cheap subdivisions for sale in 1999.
I am sitting on one of her 1960 lots, who knows how many times they sold it before I bought it with an old mobile on it.
Crystal did no building, but many people bought from her ads and I have talked to Military wives, who finally came to see the land they bought 30 to 40 years before, from an ad in the Navy times, sold for $10. down and $10. a month.
The lots on the highway are 1 acre lots, they now sell at
$75,000 and up per acre in the business zone.
The $600. 2 1/2 acre parcels in the water district, are worth about $50,000 and there are some fine homes being built on them.
They say even owning your home is a waste, for if someone else owns and maintains it, you can use the money for investment.
Never buy a parcel that does not “feel good” for if you are not attracted to it, the next buyer will not be either.
Buy cheap, keep your greed level in control and avoid the urge to get quick fast. For that is what crashed the market, too many people with a high greed level, trying to make a pile of money, some did but the end of the pyramid did not.
I bought this in the late 1970’s, choosing an old mobile, over a newer one on a 50 x 100’ lot in Kingman and it was the only one we could make the terms on, right then.
We had about 600 homes and cabins in a 20 square mile area, now there are about 20,000.
A couple of land surveyors were at Laughlin on a fishing trip and decided to see what Kingman looked like, they saw an 18 mile wide flat valley, decided to check on a cheap lot for their fishing trips and the valley came alive, they bought cheap, split into 2 lots and sold for a low down and fair monthly payments and got 10 to 12 % interest on the note.
Every time they came fishing, they bought a few lots, sold them in San Diego and did well.
One of my best clients knew them, heard about what they were doing and happened to find me at the office, on a Sunday.....and he in later years talked of the millions that I had made from him.
For he trusted me and if I called him and said “Jim I found this lot for $$$, it is a nice one and water and electric are___, he would buy it over the phone.
Then he split it and sold it as the Surveyors were doing, or better yet, he took half of it, for finding it for people who trusted him to invest his money.
They were not doing anything new, in the 1960’s, I worked for a group of doctors in Calif., they bought large ranch land parcels and held them, until the subdividers wanted them to subdivide, no building.
It takes time and paying attention, not a mad dash to get in on the turning houses, as they were doing in so many areas.
My opinion of course.