maintenance of $1000 per month is completely rediculous. It would have to be near brand new for that number to be true. Remember, a plumber coming out to a house for a small job is $300. Also, you have to assume that you will not always get your money's worth on work because you just wont know good people. I am not even talking cheap, I am just talking good.

anyone?

Im confident that if you can't take the time to read the thread, you shouldn't be buying RE

+1.

Unless someone is allergic to money. If so, dive in!

Spex,

This thread delivers.

I realize you won't answer specific tax questions, but here's a generic one:

With all this creative financing, have you ever been audited? You must utilize a good portion of some accountant's time?

Thanks!

JD

In these 150 pages you will learn more about real estate than you will trying to do it 5-10-15 years on your own.

In fact you may never even learn as much.


There's nothing more that needs to be said for small investors looking to accumulate up to about 100 units.

That doesn't really address my question though. I was mainly trying to get a feel for whether or not real estate was an option for someone in my situation prior to spending days reading a massive thread only to find out the answer to a question like this might be no:
In which case if it was, could just save myself massive hours reading to find out. Or if people mentioned that the general consensus is that the market right now is shaky/rough but a profit can be etched out with hard work, then it would give me more insight prior to reading through it all.

Wanting to get insight first on if a thread offers value that can apply to your situation before reading it all != being someone who will rush out to buy real estate without doing homework first.

boobies4me,

i think u should read thru the thread. it will make u smarter in real estate then prob 99% people involved in it professionally.

that said, i know a couple out of country investors who bought some houses in south florida through a wholesaler (who is also from 2+2) and everything is going smooth. the wholesaler could take care of everything for you (property management, etc). and there collecting 10-12% net on their investments. these are properties worth under 100k though.

generally anything over 250k residental you will not see 10% net returns through rental side of things...also dont ever count on appreciation to save you...

i think the best thing to learn from this huge thread, is that most people underestimate expenses in rental properties and end up losing money...45% of rent is the general rule of thumb for expenses...

So the people who spent hours and hours answering questions ITT should re-hash everything here so you don't have to "waste" a few hours reading the first 10 pages?

This thread offers tremendous value, and the concepts don't just apply to RE.

Sorry, not trying to be argumentative or anything, but I think we are speaking about different things. If I were fully deciding to get into real estate I would without a doubt read the whole thread instantly just as a starting point and I have no doubt it would make me smarter in RE than 99% of people involved in it. But I was moreso trying to get a feel for if real estate was even something that would fit into my situation and what kind of potential it has -- wasn't trying to shortcut through the actual advice on how to do it.

Kind of like if someone asks you if becoming an online poker MTT pro is feasible for them, if their situation is such that they rarely would have more than 2-3 hours at the most to sit down at a computer and play. The answer to them would be "no" -- not to just dump a stack of 2+2 strategy books on them and tell them "just read through the books first and stop trying to shortcut things".

You could have just pointed out that the answer to my questions is within the first 10 pages initially. There would be no reason for me to know these questions were addressed in the first 10 pages, rather than the thread just being about actual implementation of what spex does in real estate. Also since the first 10 pages are from 3 years ago, I don't think me asking about the general consensus on the climate for real estate investing right now to be misplaced.

You want an answer to your question that is available to you with a bit of effort, yet you are too lazy to find it.

I can confidently say that the answer to your question is No.

You acknowledged above that the answers you were looking for were probably in the thread. Since I'm not going to rehash the thread for you, I told you (essentially) to stop being lazy and to read the thread. Now you're complaining about it.

If you'd read the first 10 pages, you'd know that they aren't about any consensus regarding the climate for real estate, and that the information contained in them doesn't really age. There are no 2010 answers that are different than 2007 answers, and the information is not particularly market-dependent.

A priori, asking people's feelings about the market is not misplaced. But they have nothing to do with this thread, as "investing" in the sense of this thread does not include "speculation". I'm confident that if you'd read and digested the first 10 pages, you'd think that asking about "market conditions" to be fairly misplaced here.

Please read the thread before posting again.

Great forum, I have a question for any body who may have experience buying properties in low income areas. I am about to close a deal on a brick 4 unit apartment building in a low income area. My question is what is the best way to go about making sure that the work during rehab (ex: putting in copper pipes) is protected from being stolen. I am doing a lot of the work myself and know it is going to take some time to rehab all 4 units.

I am starting with 2 of them but want to make sure the work I put in isn't stolen or damaged. I looked into alarm systems but it seems like all of them want you to sign a 36 month policy for each unit which seems pretty expensive. Does anyone have any experience with this type of situation. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Where did you buy your property?

I'd invest in a pit-bull as the cheapest alternative.


There's nothing you can really do that guarantees your stuff being safe without incurring huge cost. And with the nature of low income properties, I'm not sure the rents can justify an advanced security system.

boobies4me


If you need an answer to that question you just asked, read through the thread.

The property is in Indianapolis, and I would have to agree that the alarm system's would not be cost effective based on the quotes I found. One option I am considering is alarm censors from Radio Shack. The are about $40 for 4 censors and can be put on the door and windows. When activated they send off a high decibel sound which hopefully might detour someone.

I also plan on installing some good lighting near the front and back door entrance that is motion detected.

Any other suggestions or idea's would be appreciated.

Omg, someone tried to ask a question to see if there might be someone nice enough to type out a 20 second response that could potentially save days of reading time through a thread. That person will be a failure at lifez! Take it easy, I'll read the thread.

As far as what you bolded -- the reason the answer to their question would be no isn't what it seems you think it is. The answer would be no because in order to make a big ROI in MTTs it requires having bigger time blocks than 2-3 hours in one sitting to play, due to the average length of an MTT of any value being >3 hours. And as such, if they will never have time to complete tourneys, then it would be a waste of time to begin studying how to beat them to begin with.

Hey guys, I'm thinking about making life changing investments. Instead of taking the time to read the wealth of information available to me and make an educated decision, it would be sweet if one of you guy's that I know nothing about could tell me the best course of action.

Thanks!

Boobies, I see what you are saying, and I believe that you will put in the effort. The reason people are snapping is this thread is amazing and people are always coming in looking for a quick recap without reading it.

Wyman is right in that you def should go ahead and read it since the advice in here is not climate or market dependent. It teaches you a way to invest properly regardless of whether the market is trending up or down or what your local RE is doing. Also, noone can really know for certain whether prices will continue to fall or will flatten or rise. If they did know, mega riches await them.

I've read 57 pages of the thread and have found all posts by Spex to be extremely helpful. I've invested in a 4 apartment complex in Germany. It's a fixer-uper and needs work done before it's rentable, but should be a cash-cow once it's complete.

I believe that most of the advice Spex has to say translates to any real-estate market and look forward to future posts.

Is there any way to print this entire thread? or at least export it is a pdf?

Thanks!

Everyone who has read the thread and responded to you is telling you to read the thread. That should be enough to convince you to read the thread. Please quit tarding up this fine thread.

Great question, I hope someone has an affirmative answer.

If not, it might be something to suggest to the powers-that-be at TwoPlusTwo.

I don't know of any way but I just went through the entire thread and copy/pasted every question spex answered into a notepad, then organized the questions into categories. I don't plan on investing in real estate any time soon but I did it so if I decide to be a REI in the future I have all the info I need.

wdrzich


Radioshack idea is good.

Alright, I'm officially going to read this entire thread this weekend...lol

I've been in mortgage banking for 5 years and my family builds custom homes; there is so much more I should know.

Thanks to OP and all the folks who contributed to this thread.