be smart

Not trying to be your life coach but think about all scenarios before acting. Your agents motivation is to sell real estate so take their advice with a grain of salt.

consider if this is a good time to buy real estate in your area. If not then this is even more high risk than usual b/c of the GF involvment (including mortgage etc)

Congrats

good luck

congrats nfm. BTW, what do you think of living in MD, vs the surrounding states (VA, PA)? If I'm not going back to work, there's no need for me to be at my current house in CT, so we're thinking of moving somewhere closer to my wife's family (N Virginia). Unfortuantely, I still suck at poker, so not sure what I'm going to do yet. :-)

CLB, seriously? In this market, people are buying the houses from under you? How much have house prices declined in the Houston suburbs since the peak?

what's with the 10 5/10 tables, with like 4 shorties at every table?

so here's a good back-of-the envelope test of value of buying a house... if the rent on the house is >= the mortgage on 100% of the house, it's a good buy. It can still be a good buy if this does not hold (but this discussion gets more involved). My sister-in-law's mother just bot a 3 yr old 2nd house in N Virginia for like $440K (used to be 800+K house a few years ago). She'll move into it eventually in a few years, but in the meanwhile she gets $2600 a month in rent for the house, which is more than what the mortgage would be on 100% of the value of the house (not saying you should get a 100% mortgage, just hypothetically). If you didn't own the house, you'ld have to pay the rent anyway, so it's going to be a no-brainer. You'll have other expenses, like taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc., but you also get benefits like the tax deduction, appreciation potential, part of your mortgage goes towards principal, and just feeling better because you own your own place. Also, assuming rents in your area don't change much, this also sets the floor on how much you can lose on the house, because if house prices fall more, someone with money will buy up houses if they can generate decent positive cash flow by just buying and renting out houses.

I'll send you other real estate secrets for only 4 payments of $49.95. Act in the next 30 minutes, and I'll cut one of those payments. So only 3 payments of $49.95. Call now! :-)

good luck to all those people rushing to speculate on what they believe to be the bottom... there will be a bloodbath this summer int he markets

Ship it then. Mortgage payments on like 70% of property are <2k and the prev owners have stuff showing that it's rented for ~3500.

Congrats man. long time btw

Thanks for the advice. My agent is my Dads cousin so hopefully I wont get screwed

It really depends on what you are looking for. The closer to DC in either VA or MD will be obviously be more expensive and there is alot of traffic around the beltway during the rush hours. You can be about 25-30 minutes from DC in either state where houses are dramatically cheaper and still feel very much in the DC Metro area. That way you are closer to her family, but still far enough away from the city if you want a nice house with some property.

Well, I hope not, but what makes you think this? I hope a couple of months doesnt make that much of a difference but I plan on being here for awhile. I am more buying for a place to live as I just turned 24 and need to get OUT.
Thanks man. Long time with the gf or long time playing with you? You were one of the first regs I talked to over a year ago when I moved up to 2/4 but havent seen you around for a while.

The economy is by no means recovering and there really hasn't been any tangible progress. The markets may not super-tank but I would think the summer would bring nasty volatility as companies struggle to stay profitable. Cue doomsday music...oh no

in other news, I now officially hate shortstacks after being indifferent about them until now. Several of my 2/4 tables had more shortstackers than full stacks! F'ing KINGKONG must have pushed on me a dozen times

a little tilted are we? :-)

i sense a 4rollz challenge coming

Fk! If notfreemoney gets a house to his name, i won't be able to bash him anymore of how life nit he is. House at 24 that's ballllllllllllllin!

valueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Full Tilt Poker Game #12080589597: Table Courage - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:40:40 ET - 2009/05/07
Seat 1: steelwheel1972 ($443)
Seat 2: down to river ($126)
Seat 3: gladbach1337 ($91.20)
Seat 4: wongyal ($272.30)
Seat 5: Zockermicha ($172)
Seat 6: toobias2 ($260.80), is sitting out
Seat 7: rounders281 ($400), is sitting out
Seat 8: Slepecki ($359.10)
Seat 9: Andrew Song ($400)
Andrew Song posts the small blind of $2
steelwheel1972 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Andrew Song [6c 7c]
down to river folds
gladbach1337 folds
wongyal folds
Zockermicha folds
Slepecki folds
Andrew Song raises to $12
steelwheel1972 raises to $40
Andrew Song calls $28
*** FLOP *** [2d 2s 3h]
Andrew Song checks
steelwheel1972 bets $52
Andrew Song raises to $360, and is all in
steelwheel1972 has 15 seconds left to act
steelwheel1972 has requested TIME
steelwheel1972 calls $308
Andrew Song shows [6c 7c]
steelwheel1972 shows [5d 4d]
*** TURN *** [2d 2s 3h] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [2d 2s 3h 9c] [Td]
Andrew Song shows a pair of Twos
steelwheel1972 shows a pair of Twos
Andrew Song wins the pot ($797) with a pair of Twos
Andrew Song: wow
steelwheel1972 adds $357
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $800 | Rake $3
Board: [2d 2s 3h 9c Td]
Seat 1: steelwheel1972 (big blind) showed [5d 4d] and lost with a pair of Twos
Seat 2: down to river didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: gladbach1337 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: wongyal didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Zockermicha didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: toobias2 is sitting out
Seat 7: rounders281 is sitting out
Seat 8: Slepecki (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Andrew Song (small blind) showed [6c 7c] and won ($797) with a pair of Twos

Love it. NH Andrew. 7-high ftw.

30% down is substantial but that sounds excellent

Did you get a condo, T-home, house or pimped out double wide?

what neighbourhood?

all good points dfly

Imo the question (at this point in time) should be, is buying now optimal? are prices going to continue to fall, the economy, jobs etc. Some of the influences are national and others local.

That being said I think guys who in early 20's that are able to bank 50k+ /year could be looking at freedom 35 if they buy good rental propery

Comm to my semm-ee-nah!

^don't forget to factor in the flux of interest rates. Variable in Canada is 2.8% right now, which has changed the bottom line more than the fall of prices.

oooh i like where the direction of the threads going. hopefully this continues for a long time so i could be educated 8]

Umm it's a condo in Yaletown but a pimped out double wide does pretty sweet. Realtor actully just sent me some extra pictures but they don't really do it justice since they're missing like the best part of the place which is the views. I have all those historical old yaletown buildings in front of me and a park to the left to there is a great city view and a ton of light and from the kitchen and bedroom there are great water views looking over some park whose name I cant remember.

Also bought lots of the furniture off them since it's apparently only less than a year old and they left the place vacant for ages.

Pictures

sick place man

those floors are some of the nicest i've seen, please burn the cow rug to do them great justice

Is it, perhaps, David Lam Park?

I have to give you props on finding a good spot.

Yeah david lam park sounds right.

I told them to get rid of the cow rug about 2 weeks ago. They paid like 1.5k+ for it too lol

** nick are you from van?

ill be around

Well I didn't give the hand a second thought, because it was a dinky pot. But apparently, you've been thinking about it for a while. I hope it didn't cause you to spew later in the evening. ;-)