REI during a recession?

[Austin Bright]

Hi all, 

I'd like to hear from all REI's -- what's the plan to invest during a recessions? Looking for a buy/hold, flipper, and wholesale perspectives

Finding Deals -- What is even considered a "good deal" during a recession? What do you look for (cash flow vs appreciation) IF appreciation, is it best to wait and try to buy at the bottom?

Financing -- Can I get a POV from a mortgage lender and hard money lender?

Managing -- Finding tenants, vetting them?

What are other considerations I didn't mention?

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

During the last downturn, almost all the flippers and wholesalers in my market were essentially out of business for about a year. Many flippers turned into accidental landlords, and most did not cash flow. I knew several that eventually filed for bankruptcy. It was very easy to find great buy and hold deals, but difficult to finance them. Hopefully this time around we don't have a new CFPB debacle that crushes any hopes of a recovery. It became very easy to attract tenants, if you ignored their recent foreclosure. There were a ton of people with otherwise good credit history that lost their homes, and had a hard time finding a place to stay. Landlords that were looking for this nuance did very well giving these people a second chance.

One thing to keep in mind, is that real estate prices don't usually fall in a recession. They often are either flat, or just continue to rise at a slower rate. The 2008 recession was due in large part to fundamentals in the real estate/mortgage industry, which is why it hit real estate prices so hard. We don't have all the NINJA loans and teaser rates that we did at that time. There is a good chance that the velocity of sales slows, but I would not count on prices falling drastically. Of course it all depends on how deep of a recession we have.