I Need A Place To Buy Cheap

[Emmanuel N.]

Hi All,

This is my first post here on B.P.

I just quit my ****** finance job that I hated and made me miserable. I have about $100,000 liquid with no debt. During the next 6-12 months I'm going to take my dream trip around the world to enjoy a much needed vacation while I work on my CFP and CPA designations. In other words, I want to chill out and clear my head for a while.

Before I leave though, I want to buy a modest condo or small house so that I can store my stuff and have a place to live when I get back from traveling. Just in case. I have resolved never to pay rent again to a landlord. During the last 4 years I have paid my landlord in Miami so much rent that it makes me want to cry just thinking about it, it's ridiculous.

I'm looking at Jacksonville, FL as a place to move to. I drove there last week and checked it out. What I liked best is the affordability and the amount of jobs available there. I'm looking to buy an apartment for like $30-40K tops and I found a lot of places there in that range. I'll spend about $15-20K or so on school and books, and I want to leave the rest for my trip.

How can I find the best deal? Often I see the listing and I check out previous sales and I see that the seller purchased the condo for like $30,000 3 months ago and now he's listing it for like $40,000. So I know I can get better deals than the listed price.

Right now I'm doing some research on Auction.com and the Duval county clerk site for foreclosure sales. However, these auctions seem confusing to me. From what I hear, you need to run title searches before bidding and these can be expensive. I don't want to run 5 title searches on places I have no chance of winning and waste money.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[David Veeder]

I would recommend not to purchase a condo. In my experience they are the last to see appreciation and the first to drop in value. Plus you have condo HOA fees, and no control over the HOA. They can do special assessments pretty much on a whim.

You will still have monthly expenses with the HOA, insurance, and property tax. Sounds like you're purchasing the unit on speculation that it will go up in value. For me that is not an asset, it is a liability.

I own 10 rental properties (18 units total) and I rent the place that I live in, it is cheaper than owning and I don't have the liabilities that go along with primary residents ownership.

I would read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki to get a look at what your doing in a different perspective.

David