newbie

[Vik Ari]

hi all,

i am new to the rental market and was thinking of acquiring and renting my first property. i have done some analysis and am waiting for the right time to acquire a property. is this the best time or should i wait longer considering the market will fall further. what is the outlook in the nect 6 mnths to a yr

thanks,
vik

[Michael Rossi]

vik3001,

In my opinion, it is pointless to try to time the market especially for rental properties. Regardless of what the real estate market is doing, you MUST buy at a discount if you want to succeed with rentals. So, if you buy at a 30% discount to market value and the market drops another 5%, you've still got 25% equity. The key point is to buy at enough of a discount that you will have significant positive cash flow (using real world expense numbers).

Good Luck,

Mike

[Kyle Gregory]

i remember hearing this when my first wife was driving me into bankruptcy!!! You will ALWAYS need a place to live. That being said, with the horror stories you hear about foreclosures you could probably expect the rental market to grow, but the rental market is always good in the first place ...