What were the downfalls and opportunities in last recession

Question

Given everything that is going on in the world today, it is pretty clear to me that we are headed for a global recession/depression due to the economic impact that will be felt worldwide from the Coronavirus.

Hopefully I am wrong, but the signs are pointing this way...

So to be as prepared as possible going into these time, through and coming out the other side, as this really being the first recession I have gone through that will impact me significantly (as the 2008/9 one I was young enough and going through post secondary education that the impact to me was minimal), I wanted to lean on the experience of those that have been through one of more recessions.

Here are some of the questions that keep coming to mind:

Previous experience:

- how did you protect your downside and mitigate risk in your portfolio and personal finances when you realized where the economy was headed?

- what advice do you have to give to someone from your lessons learned?

- did you continue to invest or pause and hold? If so, why?

- what are the opportunities as this progresses to real estate investors and how did you capitalize? Along with that would be when did you start to do this?

- did your investing strategies change during or after?

This time around:

- what will you do the same or different from last time?

- what opportunities are you looking for?

- how are you preparing to move forward - now, during and after?

Where I am at:

I have had open communication with all my tenants to deal with rents/making arrangements where needed. Not allowing free rent, but instalments to catch up over time.

Looking to defer mortgages and have rent that does come in build up as an additional cash reserve. If not needed, then use it to do 1 time principal pay down back onto the mortgages when we are in the clear, or use as needed if this drags on.

Connecting with JV and potential JV partners to cash up and hold, waiting to see how market conditions start to shift. If we do head for a recession/depression, I would think that real estate prices would take a hit and move into a buyers market allowing potential deals to be had.

Russell Brazil · Answer

First take a deep breath. Yes we are in a recession. A depression is just people on the internet fear mongering or without a lack of an understanding of history.

Every decade or so we have some sort of crisis. Coronavirus, the Financial Crisis, the Dot Com Bubble, 9/11, the Currency Crisis, the Energy Crisis etc.

While we wont have a depression, there are opportunities out there right now, and will continue to be more. Obviously stocks are on sale right now. I think they are going lower, but Im also one of the few people who will tell you you can time a bottom. The bottom could be next week, or it could be 2 years from now. It took the market 19 months to bottom out in the financial crisis. Im buying now though, and simply going to dollar cost average down probably for the next year at least.

Roy Cleeves · Answer

I believe there will be people under stressful situations that will need to sell fast and if you have cash then you will be in the right position to seize real estate at a great discount. Of course, it is always hard to find the bottom of the market because we don't know we have reached it until the prices start to go back up.

What were the downfalls and opportunities in last recession

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