All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

This probably should go in the starting out section.

I am starting to see distressed condos listed retail, in incredible neighborhoods, with good schools, that would rent at break even (paying retail) using the 50% rule. All the foreclosures in these complexes are causing a shortage of hoa dues, leading to the complex going down hill: Termite damage left unrepaired, giant potholes, wood damage, squatters. Obviously special assessments and increased hoa fees will be coming soon to the current and future homeowners.

I wouldn't offer retail of course, but my question is: would any one purchases these at 50 cent or less on the dollar (current retail), since we're talking about prime geography. Or focus on SFH instead? Since I am in California, the single family homes would have to be purchased in much less prime areas, that are not nearly as desirable, to cash flow.

I know many investors won't touch condos, and others love them.

Thoughts?

My primary is a condo, so I know some of the pitfalls.

This reminds me of when I was pursuing rock stardom back in the late 80s.

Ok not really, the 13 of us living in the 900 sq ft, two bedroom hollywood apartment were not that bad.

I saw Bruce Norris speak tonight. I can't say enough about how impressed I am by his analysis, charts and predictions. I will probably hit his seminar on 10/11 in Van Nuys. I love that he is in the trenches doing deals still to this day. It sounds like he's going to do a lot more over the next 26 months.

Originally posted by Naked Lady Real Estate:

I have never taken Alexis' bootcamp however did purchase her $600 "homestudy" program. I learned a few things from it, however I really could not get over her tone throughout. She seems extremely judgmental against every other "guru" and all other systems that are not her own.

On the other hand - I have nothing but huge respect for Mr. Bruce Norris. For me, his approach in teaching and his values are A#1. I did his 3-Day REO Bootcamp in Jan of this year and it was the best $5000 I spent in years. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn how the REO investing strategy!

Originally posted by Wheatie:

I heard part of a piece on NPR last weekend about "scammer baiters". I'd heard of baiters before, but these guys too it do a whole new level. They had baited one of these scammers into traveling from Nigeria to Chad, and then onto nearly into the Darfur region. All the while using the same techniques the scammers use to lure their victims. Total time before the guy gave up and came home was something like four months.

Here's their account:
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133890
And, the NPR story
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=363

I was just going to post something about this.
I heard about another scammer baiter that led a scammer into Congo to get the 'deposit'.

Originally posted by life19:

Thank you Chris. The information is appreciated. I get your point about being spammy. I planned on having a links page, what do you think about that?

I think I remember reading back in 2007 that links pages were no longer useful, and possibly harmful. I removed mine, and I quit exchanging links as well.

Strategies that organically, at least in appearance, get quality inbound links to a variety of different pages on within your site, and with different keywords in the same genre, may be good.

Link bait and widget bait strategies may still be useful, though Google's spam team is aware of them as well, so they have to be done with caution.

Long tail keywords can be good to focus on in the beginning.

Visit sites like seomoz.org often. It doesn't hurt to read the blog of Matt Cutts (Google's lead spam engineer), too.

Eventually it all made my head spin and made the realize where my passion is not. My favorite seo brain is in the head of a 25 year old kid named matt inman, he was the co-founder of seomoz.org, but quit to do free online dating. Google him, too. Though he is extremely talented and can program, design, and write copy. An anomaly.

All my seo advice is based on stuff I did wrong. I don't have a number one page in a competitive genre to to qualify myself. I am slowly recovering. It's taking a few years but I see some progress. I had mistakes in every area, from development and site structure, to been seen as spammy.
Research well, and Good luck!

Originally posted by Tim Wieneke:

Originally posted by Wheatie:

Uh. OK.

Hmmmm....do you concur?

So you concur then?

I like it when the world wide web makes me laugh out loud.

Originally posted by Wheatie:

Extremely unlikely, IMHO, that we'll see another bubble like the one that just popped again in our lifetimes.

I could be wrong. But aren't big cycle swings typical for California? Or least Los Angeles and other big areas here. I've only been intermittently paying attention to real estate for the last seven years. But I thought I remembered seeing data from Bruce Norris that showed a few huge California cycles in the last 40 years. And how we usually bust in when when affordability gets to 14%.

Either way I think it's going to a while. Lately I feel overly optimistic by saying we'd be almost back to 2006 SoCal prices in 7 years. 2016 seems too close for that lately.

What if you were able to acquire some great deals now that could off set the negatives on those properties, so you could hold them. Such as lease options, or another deal structure, on completely different properties .

Good luck.
I am biting the bullet and going for mine. I am hoping to test by mid December.

Yep -
Great meeting you. I enjoyed your presentation, too. I look forward to chatting more in the future.

Thanks Jon
An educational thread. Not what I wanted to read :|