Why Real Estate?

[Jonathan Twombly]

Why invest in real estate?

After all, there are lots of things to invest in -- stocks, bonds, precious metals, collectibles.  What makes real estate so attractive to you?  Is it because it's tangible -- you can ride by and look at your investment?  Is it because that's what you heard rich people invest in?  Because it's "passive"?

If you're already a successful real estate investor, why did you come this route?

If you're hoping to enter this field, why?  Why not all the other ways you could make money or invest your extra savings?

What are your hopes and dreams about owning investment property?

[Tyson Taylor]

@Jonathan Twombly,

What other form of investing lets you contribute 5% of an asset's value, but let's you keep 100% of the increase in equity? Even after you graduate to 20% down/investment property financing, $100k buys you a $500k asset, if it improves 3%, you just made 15% on your cash in appreciation alone. If it's a decent property operating at a 7% cap you could probably take another $5-8k a year in cashflow which push returns on investment into the low 20% range....and that's on a pretty marginal property.

Next year I'm selling off the rest of my personally-held stocks, the only thing left in that market will be my employer funded 401k.  At that point I should have everything working for me in real estate. 

My hopes and dreams? To own a nice portfolio and keep the Debt/Equity around 1:1.