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Have you ever invested in real estate?

Posted by ModelElaine • 9/29/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: investment, real estate, real estate investing

Real estate investing can be a very profitable enterprise if done with research and knowledge. But if you are a greedy amateur investor, perhaps real estate investing is not for you. Read what happened to these people who wanted to get rich quick mortgage-refinance-and-loans.blogspot.com/2008/09/greedy-savvy-real-estate-...

Have you ever invested in real estate? Or do you know anyone who has? How has your experience been with real estate investing?

User Comments

9/29/08

SweetViolet

My mother's last husband was a landlord. He owned two houses and three apartment blocks. He supported himself and, after he married my mother, our family, with the rents from these investments.

My husband and I own a rental property with three units on it. The rents pay enough to cover the bond (mortgage) with a small profit left over. As time goes on, the value of the property will increase (it has gone up 25% in the last 3.5 years, despite a very flat housing market here) and with the tenants making the bond payments, the day we sell the property we will reap a pure profit, since the only money that came out of our pocket was the down payment and renovation costs, about 25% of the original purchase price.

But if you are going to own rental property you can't view it as passive income. I have already had to sue one tenant who stopped paying rent and then did property damage, and take legal action against a crackhead who sold the entire contents of a furnished holiday flat. In both cases I am being reimbursed, but only because I took action and pursued it diligently.

Rental properties require maintenance...we have paid for fixing a leak in the pool (equal to a month's rental on the largest flat), fixing a roof leak (equal to a month's rental on the mid-sized flat), and we expect more stuff will come with time.

Most rental properties don't show a profit in the first years...you buy at market rates, which is always higher than rents. We were lucky and turned a profit in our first year, but that is only because we converted a large house into 3 rental units. If we had tried to rent it as a single family house, we could not have gotten enough rent to cover the bond.

DON'T buy investment property unless you expect to put time and money into it.

[reply]
1. 1/20/09
  
  msbaby
  
  Excellent advice. Long term is the key just like with the stock market. I'll be willing to bet lots of the people who had bought real estate with the intention of making improvements and then flipping it for a quick profit have been hit with losses.
10/10/08

jillanrev

Want to know more about real estate investing? visit here..http://www.theieu.com

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10/20/08

investmentrumours

Investment in property for the long term is worth doing, just beware of the sharks! We report on them as we find them. investmentpropertyrumours.blogspot.com

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10/20/08

mikeny07

I have never read anyone making a dime in real estate. If it was possible to get rich doing, nobody would be going to work and getting up at 5am.

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10/20/08

cooper

yup several times.

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11/10/08

ReyRey

I own a home but have not invested in rental property. I am interviewing a real estate expert on my online tv program. I invite you to ask a question and participate. please go to my blog and rate it. I added you as a friend too.

Rey

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11/10/08

MrCheeseburger

I have invested in Fake Estate before. Never Real Estate.

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11/24/08

TheRichBabe

mikeny07 it really depends on so many factors, i make a big living from rentals and its always growing every year, i bought my first RE at the age of 20 my father pushed me, i had very little savings and had no idea what i was doing so i was very worried. after compleating all the transactions i realised how easy it was so 6months after that i bought another an offplan unit, again with very little money i became addictted to using other peoples money. ie the Bank. within 5years i began seeing the money coming in from the offplan units, i reinvestted this and so on.
but its very very hard work and you do need support and dedication to make this work.

JRoyal

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11/24/08

riverstyxxx

You know, Elaine, people who invest in real estate typically have real jobs. Just saying.

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1. 11/24/08
  
  SailboaterRob
  
  And what do you define as a "real job?"
  
  Just curious.
11/24/08

creemos

Yes. Though, I cannot elaborate (not the proper venue), I will tell you this... I am satisfied with the ongoing results.

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1/01/09

RichardTrade

Elaine:Yes, I buy lots of land for development, I also developed and sold many shopping centers and office buildings.

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1/20/09

inbusiness

I still have 8 properties across the UK have sold a few before the credit crunch hit, including some land in Australia

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1/20/09

lordiwanttobewhole

I am hoping I am in the position to do so over the next couple of years. It would be very exciting to have my own home

[reply]
1. 1/20/09
  
  inbusiness
  
  You should consider investing in property and renting it out instead of buying your own home to live in - stay renting for yourself - that's my opinion
1/20/09

ArsenicCookies

I bought a home using my VA loan and my husband did the same, after being relocated both homes are now being rented out. We're picky though, military families only, allotment rent only. Sounds discriminatory, but is legal to do if you list it with the Fort Gordon housing office and no other place.

[reply]
1. 1/20/09
  
  inbusiness
  
  May I ask what a VA loan is?
2. 1/20/09
  
  ArsenicCookies
  
  VA Loans are government guaranteed loans available to qualified military and ex-military personnel. Generally, there are less fees, preferred interest rates and lower down payment requirements for this program. (100% financing available)
1/21/09

inbusiness

Cool, thank you for letting me know - not that it will be any use to me in the UK

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3/29/09

mooersrealty

Your first home, everyone's home IS investment property when you think about it. Except you don't evict yourself for not paying the "rent", the bank does. We talk about those issues and life situations in Maine in www.meinmaine.com

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6/10/09

axiomww

comment removed by the community.

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6/10/09

dcarroll

I used to have several residential rental properties. They had good cash flow and were all flipped for a profit. Being greedy isn't good in any business. Investing in anything needs to be done as a business, not as a "get rich quick scheme."

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6/10/09

axiomww

well put dcaroll

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6/10/09

davedol

I owned a 4 unit rental for a few years. I was happy to get rid of it. What a pain in the arse! Geez. Being a landlord requires a special type of owner. A landlord has to be an A-Hole. I was faced with terrible moral issues...like tossing out a young couple, the lady was pregnant and the guy lost his job and could not pay the rent. What to do? I told them to pay me later when he was working...never did get paid. Everybody's problem soon became my problem. I have no desire to return to landlording.

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6/26/09

allofarts

i hop!

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6/26/09

IntoTheAzureSea

I wish I had the financial resources to invest in real estate because real estate buys something that alot of investment products don't offer: residential security.

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6/26/09

flamingpoodle

No, but I invested a lot in Markov Property. The agent told me to act in the present state to avoid disappointment.

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6/28/09

allofarts

comment removed by the community.

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