All Forum Posts by: Justin R.

Welcome to the forum Ervin. I will be moving to the Miami /Fort Lauderdale Florida area after summer.

Where in Florida are you? I am looking to purchase some deals

Thanks for your replies everyone.

@Matt Theriault I think you make a great point. It would be unfortunate to buy real estate right before a big downturn in prices, but for a buy and hold play its not a huge loss necessarily. Similar to buying stocks in 2007, if you waited it out you would be up by now. The advantage here is if you buy real estate at the top of the market, you can continue to collect monthly rent payments while you wait for the market to rebound. The downside of course is that you have to pay higher expenses, and assume you can keep it rented.

If the housing market were to see a correction, that would probably just represent another buying opportunity. I am not interested in investing in any REIT or investment that blackrock is selling, more so interested in people's thoughts that the housing market has peaked again.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101276543

Checkout the comments on this article. Anyone agree or have a difference in opinion?

"Harry Dent says it's a bad deal. Large investment firms bought large amounts of housing the last three years. Now, they aren't getting the rent they want and they see property values declining in the near future. The large firms are selling shares on a bad product and making money and letting the little guy take the loss when the next housing bubble bursts. It's criminal fraud if you ask me. Don't get into buying shares on rental property from large firms, it's a dirty rotten deal."

"As a local appraiser, I could not agree more with what you have said. The real estate market is currently inflated once again because of investors/companies like Blackstone. They have bought at the top of the market for the past year and have invested their capital into remodeling these homes. Now their fear is that another bubble is about to burst and they want to pass off their losses to others."

Just curious what others thought about this. Personally I think real estate is a great investment for buy and hold strategy but their comments sound similar to what the big investment companies did to investors in 2008.

Wayne- it wouldn't surprise me I definitely should have been more proactive instead of waiting 24 hours for my realtor to handle it. I took the seller realtors word for it, but who knows "PS: I did not get the buy side. The buying broker drove to the office with the offer without getting into the subject. Wish I had 30 of these deal." Is what he wrote to my realtor, but nothing would surprise me I appreciate the info I'll definitely apply it on my next opportunity.

Thank you all for your replies.

Bill- The per sq ft numbers help tremendously , I will be looking into this further

Wayne- You are correct, my realtor and myself were having trouble getting ahold of anyone in regards to this property. The showing company said to call the seller realtor, and the seller realtor was not returning calls or emails, and his voicemail box was full. He eventually did get back and he said that before he could even show the house to anyone, someone had gone directly to the bank with a cashiers check for 90k cash and bought it sight unseen.

J Martin- Thanks for the detailed response, I'm extremely familiar with the area because I've done handy work on these college properties before, and I also went to the college where all these students are from, so I've been in many of these homes.

Missed out on this one, but I am sure there will be more, and I will continue to keep looking. At least my instinct that the house was a great find must have been correct if so many people were interested and it got bought sight unseen by a cash investor.

Hey guys, long time reader but first time poster.

I recently came across a foreclosure in a college neighborhood I am familiar with, that has a great rental market, especially since this house is in a great area of the town.

The house was originally listed as a foreclosure at $69,900, and was recently bumped up after 3 days online to $89,900.

The tax assessment is over $200k, but neighborhood comps range from 150-220k.

Home is 7 bedroom, 1 4 BR and 1 3BR

I figured I could rent the 4BR for 1200-1400 and 3 BR for 1000-1200 based on my research, however I plan to live in 3BR and rent out 4BR for at least a short period of time.

If I end up having to go at full asking price of $89k, a 50K renovation budget would bring total cost to 140k, which I think is the max I'd be willing to go.

Just wanted to get further opinions to see if my numbers make sense, if 50k is a "healthy" budget for a basic college reno, or not. My numbers show that at 140k and only one half rented I'm at a small loss, but I'm also living in half. I figure after the 50k renovation is paid off and I rent out both units I'll have increased equity and a nice cash flowing property.

Any thoughts on what 50k reno is enough leeway or anything else I should consider? This is my first investment property after months of research and searching. On MLS the property is listed as in "good" condition, so I'm sure it needs at least some repairs. I haven't seen the inside yet, but am working with my realtor to setup appt for Saturday.

Thank you.