Real Estate investing

[BLU CIVIC]

anyone ever try it or has done it

[pawn]

Hey Blu Civic...no i have never gave it any thought.

[Haibane]

You mean like buying a house and renting it? if so, my friend does that.

[YellowMaranello]

It's an easy way to make lots of money, thats about all I can tell you about it.

[Oz]

Better of with a long term diversified stock portfolio IMO.

[chicago_guy]

Yes, my family does that. My mom rents out a lake house and my stepdad rents out a condo in myrtle beach. It works pretty well, but you need to get a good location and have good advertisement. My aunt did the same thing but with apartment buildings...from the time she has bought them to now, they have almost tripled in value.

[ToyTundra]

It is an excelent way to make money the only problem is that you need to have money to make money just like everyonether get-rich plan in america. College kids will pay a lot but they may also trash the place or so i've heard...

[BLU CIVIC]

my wife's intrested in it and has that Carlton Sheiks (sp) kit and is tryin to get into it.....

[Marc-OS]

From what I've heard the Carlton Sheets program is really just a general overview of the different types of Real Estate investing, and never really gets specific. It's a good course for finding out exactly what you want to do. I've been looking into flipping properties recently. Where you find a house that you think is undervalued, and then put a small payment to hold the property for a week or two, and then find an investor that's willing to pay more for the house than what you agreed to buy it for. Then you either do a double close; where the house is sold to you, and then you sell it to your client for your agreed price. Or your client buys it for your price and cuts you a check for the difference in what they were willing to pay you. It's a good way to make a couple thousand dollars without paying hardly any money.

Sorry for the long post. I've been researching real estate quite a bit lately, it's actually very interesting, especially the taxes or more specifically, the lack of taxes.

[damir831]

Yes, it's probably better in the long run. My girlfriends parent's house went from 130K to 270K in 7 years. My friends dad bought a house for 140K and built a garage for about 7K and now it's selling for 30 more thousand just because of that. If you have a few thousand dollars, you can make a lot more.

[TexasF355F1]

My dads good friend and business partner is in real estate. I think he owns around 4 or 5 houses. He hasn't owned them long, but is already turning a profit.

[benchi44]

my uncle is into it,he owns the one of the biggest office real estate companies is SoCal.he personnally owns like 8 buildings in L.A,and i think 4 condos in maui.he also just bought 20 acres of oceanfront land in maui and got a crazy dicount,i think he only payed $500,000,but its worths a few million,cuz he and the guy he bought it from are good friends and he said he will sell it for what he payed a long time ago.hes gonna build some houses and start a real estate company out there.

[replicant_008]

The tax code in New Zealand makes it fairly attractive but you have to be in for the long haul ie 5-10 years to ride out the cycles. However, there have been 50% gains in the past 18 months for some canny investors.

Unless the Inland Revenue can prove a pattern of buying and selling - and you don't have some simple legal documents indicating that you are not 'in the business' of profiting from the purchase and resale of housing - the capital gains are tax-free here. Also you can claim the interest on any debt against the rent and also against any other personal income.

The main elements to consider are risk preference, cashflow, tax situation and objectives. If you aren't prepared to ride out the ups and downs by hanging onto property then don't do it - also there are commitments in terms of time being a landlord etc. Cashflow is important too and your tax situation may be important and this will differ depending on your personal circumstances and tax jurisdiction.

The other thing is what you intend to get out of the investing. Personally, I keep trading up on my houses, paying off the loans and using it as a relatively tax effective investment and pension scheme as well as having somewhere to doss down.

[Brielle]

OH this has been key to my LIFE. Over the summer my parents bought 2 houses within a week..they were on vacation so I got to look at the houses, decide if I wanted them and sign everything (way to drop $650,000 in 2 weeks lol) anyways both houses are duplexes so thats 4 sets of renters and rent is $1200, 1300, 1600 and 1800 depending on which house...its an amazing source of income and my parents are leaving one of the houses to me and one to my brother so we will have income one day too...I totally suggest it