All Forum Posts by: Marcus Johnson

Wow, what a wonderful transition into a beautiful home. What did you net if I don't mind asking?

Not sure what happened in your area your talking about, but I own a story and a 1/2 that was built by the government after wwII and we've renuavated it beautifully. Where I live there are thousands of homes like ours and like are foreclosing at around 90k and selling for between 190k and 220k for a 1600 to 1800 square foot home here in Minneapolis.

The only thing I'm confused about is that you stated that for the past 16 years you've lived in and flipped 5 homes that had no Capital gains tax and you said you made a lot of money, but your also saying that your not invested heavily for retirement. Was it not money that was re-invested in RE or was it spent on something else? Please explain.

I haven't gone to a bank yet, but am wondering for those warriors out there in the market buying flips, how little are you putting down with traditional loans? How loose are the restrictions these days since the big crash? I'm saving 25k to 30k for renovation costs, but would like to put the least down since it will be turned over within 3 to 4 months.

From my experience I would never buy property from an area that you know nothing about. For example, when you don't know the town well, there are always certain pockets in every neighborhood that can change within one or two blocks, so I strongly believe that knowing your location is key.

As for Zillow.com. About the only useful information on that site is to see how the market trend has effected it's property value throughout the years. As for assessing values, it's totally unreliable.

I would choose a home to flip in a location you live close to and are familiar with. Those are my two cents.

If your referring to me, thanks for your data input which I enjoyed reading. Just an FYI, I already understand the differences between the two, I was commending Michael for the way he presented his material on the topic. His writing skills are quite good.

I'm new to this forum, but Michael I've never heard the advantages and disadvantages or paying in cash or leveraging argument the way you explained it. I've always tried to voice my own explanations as to why leveraging can have such a high risk/reward variance versus cash. Makes you stop and think doesn't it. Most people don't stop to think about the downside of risk, they see the world only in rose covered glasses.