Busy buying houses last few months

Hello guys and gals, it has been three months sine I update build wealth tonight. As you've imagined, I've been busy build wealth every night. I 'm looking into couple hard hit foreclosure area and buy some bargain property. So far I did two deal in last few months. Both were bought below its replacment cost and postive cash flow. It's a real exicting time to become real estate investor. In fact, contrary to most people thinking, right now it's much "safer" to invest in real esate. Home price is very very low compared in 10 year period of time, most home become very affordable. As long as you can survive and hold on property for a few year of time, after all this subprime, foreclosure over, the chance of making money is just HUGE. Let's continue to look for more good deal to come in next few months.

Altosresearch.com

Reading Graph, understanding the trend, learning fundamental data are probably the best way to learn and understand the market. While there are many website provide these kinds of graph and data online, there are few for real estate investor. I recently heard a website provide data for market for professional real estate investor and wants to share it with you. It is www.altosresearch.com. It aim to provide data in graphical format for investor to learn and master the market. It support over 100 metropolitan area in U.S. The data include: median sale price, number of inventory, number of sold transaction, average days on market (DOM), etc. They charge a monthly subscription fees for more detailed graph. I call them this morning and ask for historical data to study more about the market. However, they only provide up to 1 year history data for customers. I was looking for more, like 3 , 5 or even 10 year history. Nevertheless, I still recommend this website as it provide meaningful data for real estate investor to track.

Real Estate 2008 is going to CRASH CRASH and CRASH!

Last month was an unbelievable month to me. I have seen prices in many the so called "prime area" near where I live have experience price dropped in an extraordinary fashion. Price sometimes could go down as much as 100,000 in a matter of days and weeks. With the record high foreclosure still coming to the market, tightened lending environment force out many buyer, losing confidences in real estate market, tons of bank owned property on the market, I really think year 2008 will probably the worst year for real estate price for decades in many many area. Today , the not so desirable get hit , tomorrow, even the better area will start to experience the FALL. Prices is going to toilet. It will be common to see all the equity built up last several year just evaporated over night. Even worst, many more people are thinking to just walk away from the house because they started to think foreclosure is a normal process that many people would just do. Especially with the new tax law "Forgiveness debt relief act 2007 " give people a break from not paying the income taxed owned from a shorted amount when a foreclosure sold, many more will take this "opportunity" to just walk away. There will be tons of foreclosure coming to the market at least until end of year 2008. I think the price would probably dropped back to the year 2000 level in many area. This means a property used to sold over 600K in the peak would probably go down half in value to 300K or even less. Whether you believe it or not, it's happening and can only get worst. If you're upside down already and has no equity in your house, be prepared to hold on your house for at least 5 more years. If you don't think you can Handel the payment for the next few years, call the lender now to work out a solution. Worst come to worst, be prepared and seek advice from CPA or attorney to plan for the foreclosure soon because price is going to drop even more down next few months. Whether you like it or not, be mentally and emotionally prepared to this greatest Market Fall in year 2008. See you at the bottom.

REO Auction After thought

Last week, I was busy going to the REO auction in the area I lived in. I went to the one hosted by REDC AND Hudson & Marshall. It was a great learning experience. The auction is very fast-paced and exciting, especially auctioneer speak so fast and make it more exciting. However, I didn't buy any property. The prices were a discount compared to the market price but it's not a discount that I hope for. I selected a few of the houses I'm interested to bid, and I went with my agent to see the property condition. After that, I make a note and determine the maxi um bid I'd like to bid for. Basically, I'm targeting to buy house that can generate positive cash flow for me with small down payment. The auction was very packed and price bid up quite dramatic compared to the starting bid price. I didn't end up getting the price I want so I didn't bid.
I talk with the official from the auction in the end and they said they're coming back in 6 months. I guess the market is continue to go down more with more bank owned properties popping up. I just need to continue to look for good deals and watch the market . This could be a very best opportunity to buy more houses in next few months or so.

Going to my 1st REO auction

In next couple day, there will be couple REO (bank owned property) auctions in the area I live in. It will be a new learning experience as I have never attended these kind of auciton before. I did some homework and check out some potential properties I 'm interested to bid. It will be quite exciting to see what the atmosphere and the final winning bid price compare to the market value. I will update all of you after this weekend to tell you how I did.

Scottrade Stop order service is Disappointing.

Few weeks ago, I started to get interested in HomeBuilder Stock (XHB). I place a stop order to buy the stock if it hit my preset price at 20 dollar. At that time, the stock was around 17 dollar. I put a order "good until cancel" Few days ago, the stock climb and finally it hit above my stop order. I was away from the computer in the whole day so I didn't check until late evening. Then, I found out my order is not executed! I was pretty upset because the closing price was already above 21 dollar, 1 dollar above my stop price. I was confused why my order is not executed. Next morning, I phone the branch and talk with the "broker" and ask for what happend. The guy give me some non-sense answer. I know the person I was talking to is new and don't even know very well what a stop order means. I then asked to talk to the branch manger. He put me on hold and he phone the market maker company and try to find out the reason why my order is not executed. After waiting, waiting and waiting, finally, he told me there was a "error" from the market maker yesterday and my order is not exeucted. To compenstate, they will buy the shares for me at $20.50. I then ask how you come up with $20.50, and he said that's the best they could do! Dudh! I was not very happy because I know if the stop order is executed right at the time when ASK above my stop price, it will become a market order And my price would be near 20 dollar. I have no way to track what price I could have got, so I couldn't do much but accept the price. I always thought Scottrade is a national brand with "exceptional customer servie", and they don't screw customers. Obviously, I was wrong and I have to consider switch to other reliable investment broker for future trades.

One of the single most important indicator for all Real Estate Investor

Real Estate prices in U.S has experienced a dramatic increase in price over the last five years. Many area see home price go up as much as double in mere five year time period. This is unprecedent. Whatever go up, must go down. I do believe there will be more price correction in the next year or two, especially states had the most gain, like California, Flordia & Navada. While in short run, these states will have more price drop. In long run, I'm all bullish in these "once hot spot." The reason is shown above. These are data I took from www.census.gov. Governement did a survey to project pouplation growth in U.S for the next 30 years (from 2000 to 2003). Real estate 's price in short run may go up or down, but in long run, it is ultimately deteremined by demand, or pouplation growth. The higher pouplation growth, the better chance price will appericate. (of course, these are just first glance, there are more factors come into play like property tax, living quality, restriction of building new house, etc) If you're looking to pick a state to invest in Real estate, study the data carefully and it will point you to the right state to focus your investment.

Time to own your primary residence.

With government being more and more aggressive in helping the economy from entering recession, fed rate has take a big cut again. I just check the interest rate for 30 yr fixed mortgage, the graph shows we're back to the 2005 level in terms of interest rate. This is lowest in the past 2 years. This is certainly a good news for home buyer NOW. If you have been waiting and thinking to own your primary residence, give it a serious thought NOW. With more inventory on the market, and interest rate being lower, it's definitely a great buyer market to own your primary residence.

Listen to the TREND, don't listen to your FRIEND

Do you remember when you first become interested in investing, who do you go to talk to to get advice? I bet most of us talk to the people around us, our friends. Friends will tell us a lot of opinion on the market. These are some common words we hear from our friend's mouth


"This is a great stock, look at it, 10% jump in price in few hours"


"This is a great time to buy, it just drop 20% over last few days"


"It can't go any lower"


"It can't continue to go up and up"


You know what I mean. Friend give a lot of judgement and it's dangerous if we listen to them. Especially when you first start out and you don't know any better. I remember, some of the terrible stock investment I ever have is because I listen to a friend who sounds a lot smarter than me. I follow my friend's "advice" and my money get burned out quickly. Instead, if we''re determined to become a serious investor and make a fortune, we should get our education in the right way. We have to study the market, it it moving up, down or side way, how it does in the past, what kind of pattern can you recognize, beside the price, what other data you should look at to increase your confidence level, etc? Listen to the trend you identity and follow it to capture your profit. If you make a wrong move, at least you learn something along the process and next time you know the mistake and you can learn to avoid it.