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Time to get back in real estate, yay or nay?

sawyerloggingon

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I sold my rentals when housing started looking shaky and got out just in time but I'm thinking of getting back in. I think prices have bottomed out and will soon start rising. I keep hearing anecdotal evidence of this but I'm just not sure. How is the market where you are at? Here's the house I'm thinking of making an offer on, it would be a great rental.

35 Hanford Dr. Sagle, ID Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty
 
I sold my rentals when housing started looking shaky and got out just in time but I'm thinking of getting back in. I think prices have bottomed out and will soon start rising. I keep hearing anecdotal evidence of this but I'm just not sure. How is the market where you are at? Here's the house I'm thinking of making an offer on, it would be a great rental.

35 Hanford Dr. Sagle, ID Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty

At least in Las Vegas, prices bottomed in 2010-2011 and began rising in the latter half of 2012. I've already stopped buying because I'm spoiled rotten by the lower prices. There are still some decent values but no "bargains".

If you think the price is right, you will still be OK buying now if the rental math gives you a decent ROI. The risk is fairly low PROVIDED the house is sold to you BELOW "intrinsic value".

Las Vegas was a bit extreme so I can't say your market is the same.
 
At least in Las Vegas, prices bottomed in 2010-2011 and began rising in the latter half of 2012. I've already stopped buying because I'm spoiled rotten by the lower prices. There are still some decent values but no "bargains".

If you think the price is right, you will still be OK buying now if the rental math gives you a decent ROI. The risk is fairly low PROVIDED the house is sold to you BELOW "intrinsic value".

Las Vegas was a bit extreme so I can't say your market is the same.

Good to know about Vegas. I'm hearing that about Calif too and I think if a guy doesn't get back in pretty quick he may miss an upcoming mini boom as there is a scramble to buy.
 
I am on the other side of the continent from you but our housing market has picked up a lot this year on the sales and the price slide has leveled out and started improving in middle-class price range properties.--high/low end are still all over the place. I am not sure on the rentals. That house would be kind of pricey for a rental in my area. Most people who could afford to pay a rent to cover that mortgage would just buy instead in that range.
 
I am on the other side of the continent from you but our housing market has picked up a lot this year on the sales and the price slide has leveled out and started improving in middle-class price range properties.--high/low end are still all over the place. I am not sure on the rentals. That house would be kind of pricey for a rental in my area. Most people who could afford to pay a rent to cover that mortgage would just buy instead in that range.

Good to know about your area, housing seems like it's starting up all over the place. Believe it or not the house I posted was assessed at 375K during the boom, this is a high price market because it's a resort town.
 
the construction in this urban environment is decidedly toward multifam apartments

i believe you are in a more rural environment
given the availability of lower cost building materials (your self sawn wood), land, and construction labor, combine that with the USDA's 538 program to build housing stock and its 521 program to provide rent subsidies, you might be able to build at low cost and then rent what you built with guaranteed income
USDA Rural Development-HAD-Rental Assistance Program
 
the construction in this urban environment is decidedly toward multifam apartments

i believe you are in a more rural environment
given the availability of lower cost building materials (your self sawn wood), land, and construction labor, combine that with the USDA's 538 program to build housing stock and its 521 program to provide rent subsidies, you might be able to build at low cost and then rent what you built with guaranteed income
USDA Rural Development-HAD-Rental Assistance Program
USDA Rural Development-HAD-Rental Assistance Program

Good info and good thinking except for one thing, I'm 60!:lol: I remodeled and flipped a few in the boom and did fine and I'm finishing up my own home now but NEVER AGAIN! I'm tired.
 
Good info and good thinking except for one thing, I'm 60!:lol: I remodeled and flipped a few in the boom and did fine and I'm finishing up my own home now but NEVER AGAIN! I'm tired.

quit complaining you young whippersnapper (i'm 61)

stay active or rust!
 
I sold my rentals when housing started looking shaky and got out just in time but I'm thinking of getting back in. I think prices have bottomed out and will soon start rising. I keep hearing anecdotal evidence of this but I'm just not sure. How is the market where you are at? Here's the house I'm thinking of making an offer on, it would be a great rental.

35 Hanford Dr. Sagle, ID Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty

We've bottomed in Tucson but the rebound is sluggish at best. My neighborhood is probably running right around 2001-2002 levels.
 
In Alabama it never was affected too much - at least the part I'm in.

In Michigan, whoooooooooooooo-boy did it take a dump. I've heard that it's gotten a little better, but it's still crap overall. When GM went belly-up, all those overpaid factory workers with second homes had to liquidate. The state is still on life support, according to all reports I've received.
 
We've bottomed in Tucson but the rebound is sluggish at best. My neighborhood is probably running right around 2001-2002 levels.

Sluggish now but I'm sensing it's about to take off, I could be wrong though! The trick to making money is to see things before they happen, unfortunately the trick to losing money is to THINK you see something and then it doesn't happen. At this moment I'm holding off until this Syria thing plays out. I don't want to have just invested in real estate when the entire mid east blows up.
 
In Alabama it never was affected too much - at least the part I'm in.

In Michigan, whoooooooooooooo-boy did it take a dump. I've heard that it's gotten a little better, but it's still crap overall. When GM went belly-up, all those overpaid factory workers with second homes had to liquidate. The state is still on life support, according to all reports I've received.

Yeah, certain areas will never come back, at least not for a generation or two.
 
I sold my rentals when housing started looking shaky and got out just in time but I'm thinking of getting back in. I think prices have bottomed out and will soon start rising. I keep hearing anecdotal evidence of this but I'm just not sure. How is the market where you are at? Here's the house I'm thinking of making an offer on, it would be a great rental.

35 Hanford Dr. Sagle, ID Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty

In Reno, NV here the prices seem to have bottomed out, but I'm not sure if they are increasing artifically or not. There are a lot of people buying houses to fix them up and resell but I'm not seeing the reselling going very well. Just my opinion but I would be careful.
 
In Reno, NV here the prices seem to have bottomed out, but I'm not sure if they are increasing artifically or not. There are a lot of people buying houses to fix them up and resell but I'm not seeing the reselling going very well. Just my opinion but I would be careful.

Bottomed out is good though, only one way to go from here.
 
We are already seeing prices rise around here, and according to a couple of friends who have recently bought, it's a seller's market. I'm considering building a small rental house on the other side of my property for extra income, as the housing choices around here are not easy to come by.
 
Bottomed out is good though, only one way to go from here.

Yes, but the way it's looking if it's artificial it's going to go back down. I'm just not seeing families buying the homes, but that could just be the location. Either way good luck to you.
 
Good to know about your area, housing seems like it's starting up all over the place. Believe it or not the house I posted was assessed at 375K during the boom, this is a high price market because it's a resort town.

Sure. I know some people who have been buying property left and right at 50% of assessed--nice houses too--as they unload the overstock. I have not run the actual numbers, but my gut instinct is that we are doing twice as many closings this year as last, and in some months maybe 3 times as many. Banks starting to get a handle on their backlog and cutting back on the redtape has helped pick the market up. The McMansions still move slow because they were way over-valued and over-assessed and people are gun shy on them. The low end stuff also has slowed because a lot of investors are still upside down on them I think. It was insane the prices I saw some of the slum property move for pre-1998.

There is one house I am looking at near me. I am waiting to hear from the lender to see if they will do the foreclosure and sell it to me. There is a stack of judgments on the title holder so we can't do the deed in lieu/short route. If I can get that house for 50% I will take it just because it adjoins property I already own and has some nice growth potential. It has been vacant for about 3 years so I am going to play up the "Well it may be full of mold and snakes and cracks, and crack addicts" thing even though I have been inside and it is still in great shape (somebody left the door unlocked).
 
Sure. I know some people who have been buying property left and right at 50% of assessed--nice houses too--as they unload the overstock. I have not run the actual numbers, but my gut instinct is that we are doing twice as many closings this year as last, and in some months maybe 3 times as many. Banks starting to get a handle on their backlog and cutting back on the redtape has helped pick the market up. The McMansions still move slow because they were way over-valued and over-assessed and people are gun shy on them. The low end stuff also has slowed because a lot of investors are still upside down on them I think. It was insane the prices I saw some of the slum property move for pre-1998.

There is one house I am looking at near me. I am waiting to hear from the lender to see if they will do the foreclosure and sell it to me. There is a stack of judgments on the title holder so we can't do the deed in lieu/short route. If I can get that house for 50% I will take it just because it adjoins property I already own and has some nice growth potential. It has been vacant for about 3 years so I am going to play up the "Well it may be full of mold and snakes and cracks, and crack addicts" thing even though I have been inside and it is still in great shape (somebody left the door unlocked).

You work for a title comp?
 
You work for a title comp?

In the sense that it is asked, no. I am a lawyer and have an indirect interest in an agency. Both the firm and the agency are at the top of the volume in my area due to our superior service (that is a fancy way of saying when other firms were dumping real estate staff during the recession, I was snatching the best of them up even though I didn't need them and they now have no desire to go back to work for the firms that fired them. It was a good way to put on talent on the cheap to position ourselves for now and I only really have to get involved when there is a title issue).
 
In the sense that it is asked, no. I am a lawyer and have an indirect interest in an agency. Both the firm and the agency are at the top of the volume in my area due to our superior service (that is a fancy way of saying when other firms were dumping real estate staff during the recession, I was snatching the best of them up even though I didn't need them and they now have no desire to go back to work for the firms that fired them. It was a good way to put on talent on the cheap to position ourselves for now and I only really have to get involved when there is a title issue).

I will take your opinions on housing serious then. Lot's of closings and repo inventory going down is a good sign.
 
I will take your opinions on housing serious then. Lot's of closings and repo inventory going down is a good sign.

Just a word of caution before you leap in too deep--some banks have been converting their excess inventory into rental property for themselves, so you might want to ask around your area to be sure before you sink a mint into the rental game to be certain the banks themselves are not flooding that side of the market in your area.
 
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