The key to finding fat profits anywhere - is simply finding the right niche that works for you and realizing that it might be a very limited window of opportunity. I see everything as a limited window of opportunity. I'm not sure why anyone cares that this thread has wandered with the writers...so, don't enjoy it, go read another one! Same with picking at the poster for his return on the deal. What he terms as "profit" is really a return of capital, the cheap labor that he was able to put into it and actual profit on the deal. Doesn't really matter...the pro's who are posting here understand the deal even if the poster doesn't understand it in your terms.
It doesn't matter the market - with the right team, boots on the ground and the right strategy - any deal anywhere can be turned for a profit. Even the apartment buyer in Memphis could have turned it with the right strategy. He should have installed a pop-up basketball hoop that pops out of the ground for 30 minutes per quarter just like a laundry machine. Easy to say but harder to do. If you have never lived in a ghetto - you have no business investing there. You will get financially or physically slaughtered. Without knowing the local market firsthand, most investors are sheep for the slaughter to the average turnkey group. I often invest in the ghetto because I lived there for 5 years. Earlier this week, I was walking a hoodie house that an out-of-state investor bought for cheap in '09 and someone drove by, honked and waved a hello at me. I'm known in these areas and my properties are avoided by thieves and scumbags. The investor has been stuck with this paperweight because he has no way to repair, rent it and get out of it. We'll partner with him and turn it around but on his own....it will sit there until he dumps it. We partner with stuck Atlanta investors on a regular basis. The hedgefunds here will crash & burn and when they do, they will crash markets like atlanta with it. I don't really care as my model with keep chugging right along and perform even better as we aren't affected by market values. Ours is a net cashflow/net return model.
I'm not all that clever as some of the mensa alums that post here but I'm smart enough to know that no one knows it all. All of the failures in investing prove that. As Jay wrote earlier - 50% of the foreclosures in most any market are failed rentals or flips....so what are you going to do differently? Think that through before you jump in or partner with someone else who can do the heavy lifting. Most will sing about their profits but hardly anyone will tell you of the losses. Most of us posting here have lost BIG...myself included. I now only buy properties I would be comfortable spending the night in. If I would live there then I have no problem renting it out and keeping it rented out. That's what is great about investing....we all have different perspectives and approaches....and some of us make FAT profits and, honestly, most of us don't! Happy Investing wherever you land.
