All Forum Posts by: James Harkness

Most of the units rent for less than $100/month from my experience. Some of them are 5 by 10 foot spaces. I dont think it is realistic to expect 100 bucks a door.

Hadn't you said in an above post that you haven't been moved out a month yet? So if you haven't been moved out a month yet, then you had to have received your letter within a month from the time you moved out... Just sayin.

April Fools?

@workerdrone

Buying a stock short is actually selling shares that you don't own. They belong to someone else. So say you sell these shares that you don't own for 100 dollars apiece, with the guarantee of replacing all of those shares at some future time. You are betting on the stock going down. Say it drops to 70 dollars a share, you buy it at that price, and give it back to the guy who's shares you sold to replace his shares. You make the spread of 30 dollars per share.

I don't see anything like that in RE.

I respect that Rich. Haven't seen someone put it quite that way before.

@Will

From a lender's perspective, a property is worth what it sells for. It doesn't matter what the comps come in at if the property is selling for less. If you buy a property for 60k, it is worth 60k because nobody is willing to pay more for it. If there was someone willing to pay 65k for it, why would someone sell it to you for 60k (unless the property isn't on the open market).

There are also different investment vehicles for the stock market that do allow purchases at values other than market. Options contracts are one such vehicle.

The stock market also allows investors to sell short. Although it is risky, tons of money can be made by betting on a stock going down. This is a strategy that I cannot see a comparison available in RE.

Taking it further, in the FX market (I know that this isn't stock), you can employ leverage (a favorite strategy by many on this board) like nowhere else. Again, it is very risky, but you can leverage your money over 100x in some instances (depending on your investment among other things). Its nice to come to the table with 10k, and be able to invest 1MM worth.

I would say that you should definitely get a title company to do it. Sometimes there are liens on the property that have not been recorded with the county. Nevertheless, they can still come back and bite you. I am currently defending my company's lien position on a property in Kansas City. An unrecorded lien is claiming to have first position... boy, am I glad that we have title insurance.

Its kind of like when you buy a stock that goes down in value. What do you do? Sell it because you got in at 10 dollars and now it is at 8? NO! If it was a good buy at 10 dollars, and you were happy with your purchase then, if you can afford it, you should buy again at 8 dollars if nothing with the company changed materially. As soon as you sell you realize the loss. Just because other people can buy the stock today at 20% less than what you bought it at last week, does that mean you had a bad buy? Nope! That stock might go up one day way past where you got it.

Then walk away, and become part of the problem with today's economy.

There is nothing that you can do that is ethically "right" other than pay back your mortgage at the current terms if you can afford it. Housing prices always fluctuate, and you never hear people complain when their house appreciates in value. You also never hear of banks reassessing the Principal balance of the loan (by increasing) because a property appreciated in value.

Wait it out and the value of your house will once again appreciate some day. Why is it that you were happy with the deal you got a couple of years ago but now don't want to pay? Your home didnt change materially, did it? Its still the same house, right?