Real Estate Article

[DcifrThs]

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Barron,

The economy as a whole of course. I really, really hope it stays at a mild recession but the recent impact on retail does not bode well.

J

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i forgot to get back to this, but i obviously doubt very highly we are going into a recession.

care to make a wager about it?

Barron

[jedi]

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Does anyone else think this is a great opportunity to buy a second ( or other ) property and turn it into a rental?

Lots of people facing foreclosures are going to have to live somewhere ...

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Yup. In fact, I just submitted an offer for a bank repo property yesterday. I know nothing about rentals though. Time to throw myself in the fire. I'm going to be spending more time on discussion boards like this to figure out what to do.

For a while, I was thinking about the right time to do this, but the property that I picked out has been on the market for a while with no takers. They had to lower the price and when they did, I jumped all over it.

[rapidacid]

Keep us up to date Jedi! Good luck.

[jedi]

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Keep us up to date Jedi! Good luck.

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Since I'm new to this forum, I guess I'll give you the background. This has all happened really quickly. I currently own and live in a 4 bedroom house, all alone. I bought the place in 1999. It has now appreciated 2.5x what I bought it for. Over the last few months, I had been thinking about buying another place, moving into that place, and renting out my house. Prices still seemed too high for me (I live in San Diego County) so it was little more than a back of the mind thought.

Monday night, I looked at real-estate listings and saw a bank repo'd place that I had looked at before. The price had come down substantially (like $40K) because it had been on the market for a while and there were no takers. I quickly called my real-estate agent (the FIL of my college roommate who helped me get the first house) and we went to look at the place Tuesday afternoon and put down an offer. I'm in the process of moving money around for a down payment, but I also have stock options which can pay for the down payment alone (Go company!).

Since I live alone, I need little more than a bedroom and office. The biggest problem for me will be getting rid of the junk that I've accumulated for a while. Plus the fact that I know little about renting out my own place. I think I might want to hire a property manager, because the x% that I'll have to pay him is a good tradeoff for the headaches I might get in running the place myself.

[Phresh]

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue WA 380.2 12.3%

Jackpot?

[gwhiz_612]

Interesting to see youngstown ohio on the list. That's where I live and I don't see much happening here.

[Reef]

[Reef]

[Phresh]

Damn, I'm gonna move to TX.

[Reef]

and in 2006, the gap between the 2 is much bigger. Accounting for inflation of course.



Source: National Association of Realtors, U.S. Social Security Administration