Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $115,000

Cash invested: $5,750

2 bed, 2 bath condo that was originally househacked while I updated the unit.

What made you i...

There are plenty for 1st time home buyers in MD and especially in Prince George's County.  

@Diana DorantesDiana, Thank you so much for sharing this information with me!

@Diana FeridoUnfortunately, it’s too late to do much of anything since you already sold it.As mentioned above, you could tax loss harvest and sold and long term capital losers, eg stocks...To do the 1031 like-kind exchange, it needs to be handled BEFORE you sell with a qualified intermediary.

I know a couple Nigerian princes who have some very exciting investment opportunities.

@Diana Gomez Hernandez You should review the current eviction moratorium in effect in Minnesota in regards to non-renewals.

@Matthew Irish-Jones The fact that so many investors has this problem making me sad and happy at the same time... happy because I'm not alone in this problem and sad because I'll probably have to kiss a lot of frogs until I'll find my prince (or princess).The PM idea is great and I'm gonna send them an email as soon as I'll finish here.Thank you for your input and the time that you took to answer me!

I've also noticed a lot of wholesalers trying to start bidding wars among multiple cash buyers, which further drives up the price of course.Again, I think you can succeed with this method, but it is a grind and you're going to have to kiss a lot of frogs to find an acceptable prince(ss).The second answer, which almost no one wants to hear or talk about, is that if you just can't find properties where the #s look good... don't buy anything.It's almost heresy here on BP, but to me, when #s are high and people seem to be paying prices that don't make sense, and doing other crazy things like buying properties without inspections... it may just not be the best time to buy.No one wants to hear that because it seems like everyone they know is making major money in real estate, and they want to join the party, but I can say that I saw the same thing in 2006 so when I start to feel a sense of "irrational exuberance" in the market, it makes me want to reassess things, start to add more cautious assumptions into my property analyses, etc.So I think your three choices are: 1) buy something at full retail even though the numbers are awful (and pray rents keep going up as they have for the last decade, so you can service that mortgage); 2) spend a lot of time and effort finding an off market deal (maybe the best option, but I guarantee it will be a grind); or 3) accept that the market is crazy right now and wait until the market changes and #s do start to look better in general.I'm not saying that any one is the right choice, just that sometimes the right action can be no action at all (right now).

How do you access the properties that will be auctioned at the court house in Northern Virignia/ Prince William County prior to the actual auction? 

Originally posted by @Diana T.