S&P and the other ratings agencies were very late on every aspect of the subprime mess.

I'm glad that you brought up the tax aspect as it is something that I hadn't yet considered.In general, I really appreciate the feedback as the idea as basically just been floating around my brain for some time without any real outside input.- Charles

I do still have the emotional aspect of "ooh, I want to be the guy who owns this..." but I'm "seasoned enough" as it were to recognize that quality and look ahead a little!

If you could add reasons why that would be great.I would think buy and hold multi-family--you get exposure to rehabbing, dealing with commercial loans (if your building is more than 4 units, I believe), evaluating the numbers on a complex deal, as well as the legal and psychological aspects of dealing with tenants, all in one fell swoop.

Very true, and again my contracting business is too scalable to my real estate to not leverage my time like this - which is why I outsourse so many other aspects of my re business to my realtors, bird dogs, etc...

You may have reached the highest level you wish to obtain in real estate, but you're looking to reach the next level in some other aspect of your life (and, if you're not, you should be).

I agree with the consensus that the problems in the lending and re world today were caused in part, by many aspects with many parties to blame, including lenders, RE agents, government, lending brokers, some investors, many owner occupants, etc. etc.

It's only one aspect of the deal.Have fun...jay

I spend much of my time outdoors, chilling with my family, and am always looking to learn and grow in all aspects of investing and life.

PriceWe need time to burn off all the excesses and reload and we need prices to fall back to an affordable level-in many aspects.