All Forum Posts by: Toby Munk

Fear, especially financial fear is a good indicator that you might be overextending yourself.

Make sure that you understand the worst case scenario and feel comfortable to "survive" even under those circumstances.

Explore if a smaller property or less costly property would make you more comfortable? If YES, another sign that you are thinking too big for comfort.

I use a local title company. They provide a system for extracting ownership data and addresses. The Company is Land Title Guaranty Company in Colorado.

I am able to select an area by zip, or drawing a polygon on a map. Sort by assessed value, out of state address etc.

About 10% return rates on my first mailing from that list.

Take it under contract with an extremely long time to closing. Get as long as you can. Most people are willing to do that with a substantial earnest money amount going hard.

That saves you on interest. Lets say closing is in 12-24 months you can do your planing etc while under contract. Make sure you can subdivide while not the owner.

Anybody of the California crowds living in Malibu? Can you give me a market update on the area? Always wanted to buy a place there.

I am sure the high end is doing just fine. What about the $1m-$2m price sector SF home?

Thanks

I still believe in RESPONSIBILITY. If you sign a contract, you are responsible. If they want to sell you an option arm, read the fine print. Its a contract !! You are responsible.

I hate it when they blame the mortgage brokers or real estate agents. I grant you it was probably hard to resist the hype. But if you don't understand what you are getting into then look no further for the person to blame.

So unless one got into some sort of hardship situation (loss of job etc) I think people get what they deserve.

The last one standing is holding the bucket. It seems the uneducated public is running from one frenzy to the next. First the dot com bubble and burst, the the housing market bubble and burst. The real question is what will be the next big thing?

Everything is interlinked nowadays. But to give them credit for this, NO. Unless you call predatory lenders terrorists?

I guess you are not worrying about being overextended in assets. It seems to be human to look at the negatives more than the positives.

Positive cash flow with reserves sounds good. Just think of the assets you have to show for your debts. This is different from credit cards debt... very different.

Tim,

if FMV is fair market value then I have to strongly disagree. The Aspen market has never seen a down market and the last stable period after 2001 is now 7 years back. It is hard to buy things at 100% fair market value in Aspen, let alone below that.

Chateaus are not very common around here even though we have as few condominium developments that are called Chateau Aspen, Chateau Chaumont, Chateau Dumont etc...

We are indeed seeing more and more international investors. So far mostly British and latin american buyers. A few eastern European sprinkled in with the odd German etc.

The german real estate landscape is very very different from what you are used to. People do not sell houses or properties like they are a commodity. They buy one house and own it for 10-20 years or forever.

The german population is shrinking. Therefore there is a oversupply of property. The market has been flat for an extended period of time (10+ years).

There are attractive pockets which are generally the higher priced areas like Munich etc.

Hope this helps

I would not say I completely failed. I happened to have bought a town home in a subdivision of identical homes.

When it came time to sell I was competing with like product. Homes were like a commodity. The cheapest one sells.

I learned my lessen took my loss and just bought better real estate. Always make sure it is unique.