All Forum Posts by: Joseph M.

@Brad Park Did you get any updates since your post ? There is no phone number to call ? Seems strange to have people invest over $100k and not have a way to contact someone on the phone . I imagine even if you could you wouldn’t be getting Cardone on the phone . Since it’s just been one year 11% return sounds decent as I’m assuming there hasn’t been a sale of property /exit yet . Although I don’t know how the deals with Cardone are structured . Best of luck

@Jay Hinrichs Interesting story about selling the Florida homes to Germans . Did you target foreign buyers at all or they just happened to be buyers from Germany interested? Sold a group of Jacksonville,FL homes to a French buyer few years ago . He was buying them for his daughter is what he said . With those cheaper homes packaging together like you did really seems to be the way to go even if you are giving a discount to market price. Regarding financing with cars , it seems that many dealers aren’t even verifying income . Seems much easier to buy a $80k car versus an $80k house especially if you have decent credit .

I think it does make sense to put in the amount the employer will match at least . I did this for years at a previous job , it was actually a 403(b) which is similar to a 401(k) but for non profits . I do think the idea that your 401k is all one needs for retirement is risky. Would be nice if employers promoted self directed options but of course the Human Resources departments are in bed with the financial institutions that sell funds . It would be cool to see employees getting together and funding local projects something similar to syndication or crowdfunding . Instead of dumping all the money in Wall Street funds maybe they buy property nearby and do a value add and improve it.

@Logan Fullmer @Logan Fullmer Good post . Hindsight is 20/20 of course . Many thought prices would never come back at all I know the media was saying it would take many more years for real estate to recover versus when it actually did. Of course all markets are local but many really overcorrected to ridiculously low values . Unlikely we will see the same type of thing at least next time around but at some point there will be a shift to a buyer’s market and there will be some fear and uncertainty again which could mean opportunity. For homes you bought in the 20s and now worth 100k I’m sure you had to buy cash at the time , did you end up refinancing at all down the line as values went up to buy more property ? Are you selling all your properties now or just some of them ?

@Anthony L. , not too far from you in L.A , the housing issue really is a big thing here of course. I forget the specific percentage but many people are spending about 50% of their income on rent. That affects the local economy in general of course because then people have less and less to spend on local businesses and services. There have been studies that show homeowners have an average networth 44x that of renters.  

https://www.keepingcurrentmatters.com/2017/10/12/n...

Having  such a higher percentage of renters I don't view as a great thing. In L.A we are seeing 'rent strikes' recently of tenants not paying rent and protesting against landlords even at the landlords home. So we are seeing signs of 'civil unrest' . Local politicians now are talking about hiring attorneys for  some tenants facing eviction. 

https://la.curbed.com/2018/8/17/17720066/los-angel...

Definitely not a pro landlord move.

@Matt R. yeah I did read about Trump owning property near the Beverly Hills Hotel . Supposedly he prefers to stay at the hotel instead which is kind of interesting . There is up keep of course although I guess it’s small potatoes compared to the appreciation gained by holding . It is kind of crazy to think of big mansions just sitting empty or mostly empty though . 

Definitely not a strategy for the average investor but for a billionaire or someone worth a lot of money , it could make sense . You can use the property or let friends /family use it too unlike stock or of course rent it out long term or short term.

@Frank Wong  I think one would have to really have a long term outlook on it. If one has a solid and high income $300 month shouldn't break them.  It is a risk of course but I'd say less risky than putting $300 month towards speculative stocks  a month or something like that. If you are talking a bunch of properties like that of course it's a different story, a job loss if there is a recession could wipe them out. 

Are there areas of the SF Bay that do cash flow at today's prices? I know it's tough anywhere in SoCal. 

@Matt R. I did hear about that story and thought it was interesting. I always heard about his house in Omaha he's lived in forever but didn't know he owned a place in SoCal. 

$150k in 1971 would be $937,987.59 in today's dollars according to government CPI calculator. Still a nice return. Of course if one had used a mortgage it would be more like $30k down. 

I wonder what Buffett is going to do with all that money.. :) 

@Daniel Mellon Do you currently own your own home ? If not I’d look into househacking using an FHA loan with 3.5% down I know prices have gone up in Orlando but still seem reasonable versus a lot of markets . Do you have any savings currently ? I’d also look into attending local real estate meet ups and meet and network with local investors.

@Shiloh Lundahl This is really awesome to get your daughter involved at a young age . We all know that investing isn’t really taught in schools . I heard your BP podcast and you have an interesting niche with the lease option deals . The way you broke things down and laid out the benefits was really informative .