All Forum Posts by: Carlos Gonzalez

Originally posted by Joshua Dorkin:

We're not even close to seeing the bottom ANYWHERE!

Here's some news to chew on:
IndyMac Bank is Shut Down and Taken Over by Feds

I agree. I don't think we'll see a bottom until the end of the 2009 fiscal year or beginning of the 2010 fiscal year. The recent bail out has pushed these predictions to further speculation considering the crunch tax payers will now have face.

Someone here posted that he believes we'll post double digit inflation in our future and it goes without saying, this is the sad truth. Currently the dollar is dropping in value. Our currency is not backed by a standard, so the fact that our government is going to print more money in order to accommodate the bail out plans will push our inflation through the roof. This is without mentioning how much of an impact our current unemployment rates will have on the market. Unfortunately I see them rising to about 7-8%.

I still think housing prices need to drop around 20-30% to get them into realistic value, but there are arguments for both sides.

As I'm writing this, Wachovia's stock is now dropping. Belief of a buyout talk with Citigroup has begun and Citigroups stocks posted a 5% growth.

I'm starting to ramble...

Originally posted by Prairie Mystic:

HI
I'm a newbie to the board so I hope its okay if i join in here

1. learn all I can about real estate

2. start working on my business plan
3. start working on my budget so I can get started in the spring

This is such a great forum to learn from.

I am actually in the same boat, so I can relate to you. I'm going to try and wholesale to start off with, especially with the way the market has gone, so I will currently be adding to my list of buyers and finding neighborhoods to go and look for appropriate properties. Also, I want to try and attend my first Real Estate Investors Club meeting. I still have a few butterflies, so I'm trying to get over that and jump into it in order to start picking apart the brains of other investors I meet.

I actually got my nickname from my little brother. We both watch family guy and on an episode there is a funny skit involving Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. Well, he thought the skit was funny and would repeat it. My middle name happens to be Albert, so now he just calls me Bert, which I like for comedic humor and it was different from all the other nicknames I have amassed over the years.

Unfortunately, I see the stark realization of the difficulty we face in this market. With all these firms and banks bottoming out and the new bailout having to take place, which I am greatly opposed too. I see no new regulation laws being placed into effect and we're about to give those same firms hundreds of billions of dollars and possibly into the trillions without any consequences for their actions.

When you say that the pool of money would work and I would need to raise the money, you mean 100% of the house cost? Is this correct?

I am in the Texas area and it seems that this market is fairly strong, at least in comparison to the rest of the nation. Houses hear have posted a .6% growth if my facts don't fail me.

My plan of action has currently gone from offense to defense. I may take a step back and wait to see how the market does. I don't see any immediate fix for the loan situation. What I do have in control is my time and money, so I may try and come up with more money to use for leverage when trying to get a loan. I have actually been going to other neighborhoods as well as my own finding vacant properties to add to my list. I have found some decently valued foreclosures with good amounts of equity tied into them, but the main issue I am running into involves the amount of repairs these houses would need.

If anyone can give me some help on how I should go about estimating repair costs for these homes it might help me in deciding if these homes are potential buys.

I am considering going back to basics and continuing to compile my list of buyers. Seeing as money is currently king I think wholesaling and bird dogging would be my best bet to try and raise money to actually provide hard cash for the homes I am interested in.

If anything, I think it would teach me what successful REI's are looking for and help me in locating properties.

If there's any other advice I can attain from anyone, I would gladly welcome it.

-Bert-

I'd like to say hello to everyone and would like to extend my appreciation to all the posters. I have learned a great deal by reading this forum for the past few weeks. I actually came upon it while browsing other real estate investment topics, but just now decided to become a member in order to interact with the community.

I currently have a question about a foreclosure I am incredibly interested in. This foreclosure is actually located a block from my house. While I am incredibly new to the real estate investment idea (studying it for about 3-4 months now) I believe that this could very well be the house that sends me on my way to financial freedom.

Some basics to the house are:

1) Foreclosure price currently at market for $85,900

2) After viewing the house, I found out that there are appliances that would need to be added, recarpeting for the downstairs, paint that needs to be redone and the tile in the kitchen would need to be replaced. They have actually added anti-freeze? to the plumbing system to keep the pipes from freezing. I'm not sure how much that would cost to fix. All in all I estimated the costs of repairs at $10-15k, which is an incredibly generous amount, but that would give me room for unforseen expindetures.

3) A family member of mine has the same exact floor plan to the house (although the foreclosure is more aesthetically pleasing and has a nicer feel to the inside) She also lives across the street. Her home is valued at $134,000. I have also spoken to my neighbors who have a fairly similair floorplan and although they are not fully aware of the exact going rate, they have expressed they believe their house value to be higher than $120,000

The main issue I am dealing with is I currently have very little money and my credit score, while not bad, lacks in potency for hard money lenders.

I think it would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste. I would love to try and use this as my ship.

I am currently only running on two ideas, which are A) Wholesaling the house (I have looked all over different areas to see if the house is posted, but have only come across it once) and B) Finding investors to pool money in for the down payment in order to fix and rent the house or fix and flip the house.

If anyone could offer some guidance whether it be on how to handle the situation or if I should take a step back and learn more before trying to invest I would greatly appreciate it.

-Bert-