The Macro Picture - not bottomed yet

think outside the box, bypass the banks and get creative.

Shytiger there is money to be made in EVERY real estate market. Choose to look for the opportunities and what actions YOU can take to take advantage of this time when we have 5 years of money making inventory!

...... I don't think you get it. If you want to be weighed down by the news of the day, simply get a subscription to the New York Times. If you want to succeed, think outside the box and make deals that enhance your life. If you buy a $150,000 home for $150,000, you are doing it right. But, if you buy that same home for $100,000 because of your creativity, then you have added some value to your life and a buffer for the home to go down another 33%.

First off, I agree with shytiger about all of the problems with the real estate market. These are all stats to be aware of and to pay attention to.

With that being said, in any market, there are circumstances that happen way outside the general market. For example, the estate sale where the family doesn't have time to make repairs or upgrades, and one family member is nagging them to sell. This creates a huge discount opportunity, and if you can take that and turn it in a relatively short period of time, you can make a great profit, and you have worked within the macro economics that shytiger talks about.

The same principle holds for discounts for divorce situations, job losses, people getting transferred out of state, and many other reasons people discount property. Get the deals done, get them done quickly and efficiently, and watch the trends. You'll be fine and very profitable.

This is a market that has many scarey statistics, but if you are wanting to buy a family home, NOW IS THE TIME! How often do you get the chance to buy a home for less than it takes to buy the material to build it? Now is the time to "move on up" to a better neighborhood for a fraction of the cost just a few years ago. Wish I had waited to buy. I do have a nice home, but could get it now for half of what I paid for it 5 years ago. Whether moving or investing, I say go for it!!

ghowell: I like the way you flip the coin and see the positives in the situation.

shytiger

What was all that despair and gloom about. I thought I was reading a horror novel. You pose this scenario to the wrong group. These people eat this stuff for breakfast,they come up with ways to make investing in Real Estate profitable in any conditions.

If one can't figure something out dozens step up to help. That is why this site remains revolutionary and innovative in marketing and investing in Real Estate.

You just keep looking from the side lines and these will be the millionaires that you will be talking about in a few years.

Jim Kendrick

Tell 'em brother Jim. My sentiments exactly...couldn't have been spoken any clearer!

Gloom, despair and misery don't live here, shytiger!!!!

Rockin Robin, anyone who believes that housing is on the rebound, and that now is the time to buy, should take a very hard look at the numbers. There are 140 million personal residences in the US. Today, there are 19 million homes either directly or indirectly for sale. According to a survey by Zillow.com, a real estate appraisal website, 5 million homeowners plan to sell on any improvement in prices. Add to that 4 million existing homes now on the market, 1 million new homes flogged by companies like Lennar (LEN) and Pulte Homes (PHM), and 1 million bank owned properties. Another 8 million mortgage owners are late on their payments and are on the verge of foreclosure, bringing the total overhang to 19 million homes. Now, let’s look at the buy side. There are 35 million who are underwater on their mortgages and aren’t buying homes anytime soon, nor are the 35 million unemployed and underemployed. That knocks out 50% of the potential buyers. Here is where it gets really interesting. There are 80 million baby boomers retiring at the rate of 10,000 a day. Assuming that they downsize over time from an average 2,500 sq ft. home to a 1,000 sq. ft. condo, and eventually to a 100 sq. ft. assisted living facility, the total shrinkage in demand is 4.3 billion sq.ft. per year, or 1.7 million average sized homes. That amounts to a shrinkage of aggregate demand for a city the size of San Francisco, every year. You can argue that the following Gen-Xer’s are going to take up the slack, but there are only 65 million of them with a much lower standard of living than their parents. Throw in the disappearance of state and federal first time buyer tax credit. You can count on a jump in long term capital gains taxes and state and local property taxes, further diminishing property’s appeal. If you are looking for a final stick to break the camel’s back, how about eliminating, or substantially reducing the home mortgage interest deduction? Add it all up, and there is a massive structural imbalance in residential real estate that will take at least a decade more to unwind. We could be looking at a replay of the same 26 year period from 1929 to 1955 when prices remained flat, and we are only 3 years into it! A second down leg in the real estate market seems a no brainer to me, as is the secondary banking crisis that follows. Perhaps that’s why hedge funds have been big sellers of the homebuilder’s ETF (XHB).What’s a poor homeowner to do? Don’t ask me. I sold everything in 2005 when my research threw up these numbers, and have been happily renting from you guys ever since. And, if the toilet blocks up, I just call the landlord.

Shytiger

We are not looking to buy a house to live in for the next fifty years like are parents did. Most of them lived in them untill the children had to send them to the nursing home or their maker.And if they where lucking they paid them off before that.

We are REI we buy and sell, those that we don't sell we will gladly rent to people like you for awhile,at a pretty good profit.

So if you are not interested in investing in REAL ESTATE why are you even here wasting space.

Jim Kendrick

ShyTiger... Why are you even on this site? Every one of those reasons spell opportunity to the people that know how to take advantage of it! You obviously don't get what we at DG do... But its ok, you can be a tenant all while supporting us and paying nothing towards a mortgage of your own but rather building wealth for the guy you rent from. I feel sorry for you!

I understand that there's always more than one way to view something. It is just hard for a lot of people to buy what you are saying on this site when they go to closing and walk out with a check for 12,000. I guess you can chalk it up to perspective.

Jeremy K.