All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Thanks Bruce.  Some questions.... is it better to just buy a house, keep it for a while, in the meantime renting it out.  Or to just keep it without renting it out and selling at a later date?

Possible states we're looking into are MI and NY.  As far as affordable housing is concerned both states sound good.  Lots of nice older houses as well.  Plus are close enough so that I can just jump on a plane and arrive in a few hours.  My own back yard is in Greece.  Nothing here.  MI is my home state and I'm familiar with that and have friends and family there.  NY is also close in proximity. 

We're still in the process of research and it'll be a while before we're ready to invest.  

While discussing where to make our fist investment, my husband and I thought that maybe it would be easier to go into flipping rather than rental properties. Given the difficulties of managing a property from a long distance is, would it be better  to buy a house, fix it up and sell it?  My husband was a carpenter and both of us are good at DIY.  This would be done after retiring, so we'll have lots of time.  This is just a thought.  I haven't done any reading yet, but have bought books that I will read soon.  

Thanks all for your input. As I said REI is our end goal. My son's speculations have been positive. He woke up Wed. morning to see that he had gained a few hundred dollars overnight. I think that is as passive as it gets. It is still better than nothing. We realize any gains may be small and sporadic.

We have no intention putting everything into one basket.   Just wouldn't it be nicer to have a few extra dollars to invest in RE, when we are ready. 

After a discussion with our children, we have decided that since it would be at least a year if not more till we are ready to invest, we thought it best not to put our money into a simple savings account. Instead, we decided to invest it in Forex stocks. My youngest son is already investing in some and is doing well. He hasn't made much but there has been some profit. So we give him some money from time to time to invest and that way we can make some passive income from there to add to our funds for REI.

Thanks for the information. We haven't come to any decision as to where we'll invest.  We're still in the process of searching.  

In Greece,  real estate has depreciated due to lack of demand.  The properties themselves haven't gone down in value, just that the owners have cut the sale prices to well below their actual value. You can now buy some properties for less than half of what they are actually worth.  An investor's dream.... but the unstable political and economical situation as well as the high taxes on properties keeps people away.  Of course, any building after many years of wear and tear will lose value, the land itself is scarce so it's value doesn't depreciate.  

Thanks Linda.   That is very helpful.  

I just finished reading about the tax deductions for rentals, and noticed it mentioned deducting long distance travel (air fare).  Would that include air fare for someone coming from another country to check up on their property?  Also, would it include the initial trip to look for property?  I realize that I would need to find a property manager, etc..  all this will take time and money.  It would be great if I could deduct at least part of the initial cost.

I am relatively new to this site.  Money wise, nothing yet. But the knowledge gained is priceless.  I've had all my questions answered. Either from the forums, blogs and pod casts.  Unfortunately, I can't see the webinar because of the time difference.... here it shows at 3 am.  

If time is money, then you can then include the hours saved from searching for information all over the web... since I've found it here.  

Yes Roy you're right. My mistake.