lol  Thanks Freckle I will move to the moon it should be safer than Earth

Ok I dont know how to respond to this

I guess if the world is coming to an end then there is not much we can do about it

However to suggest that the fall has not happened yet is nonsense. If a markets falls you have to look at the reasons. No one is arguing about the information that you have put up or the size of the falls. However markets recover

I do much the same thing with Property Development.

It because apparent to me that trying to build a couple of units does not really work, because generally the land value is low. What this means is that other small investors and builders will push up the prices on smaller developments. However when you buy land where the value is say 1-3 million it creates better value. We do this by creating a group who buy the land and we can then borrow against it to create a much larger and more profitable project.

It is about thinking outside the square

Personally I have never liked section 8 tenants because they are Federal they are very pro tenant. Frankly the rental market is strong you don't need section 8 houses. Frankly because finance is now available you should look at better quality property. That's why I like apartment complexes they offer a good return and I think that you will get capital growth as the economy recovers.

The market place is full of companies like this. Generally what they do is only sell off the plan and or new property because they are making more than $30,000 commission per property.

If you deal with companies like this do not be pressured into making instant decisions. There is always huge pressure for you to sign on the spot, because they know if most people go away and think about it they would not buy the property.

If you like a property then go on line and look at what other similar properties are being sold for.

Also consider paying for a full bank valuation. The price of paying $300-$500 is nothing compared to buying a property that turns out to be $50,000 to $100,000.

It is always important to do your own due diligence, If you are lazy and don't do that then don't complain if later you find out that you have overpaid for the property.

Remember measure twice cut once.

Freckle that is not entirely correct , what Steve has said is that the days of finding bargains in Florida have gone. The reason is that market conditions have improved. Now if we go back and compare two States Florida and Texas. As you would know most lending policies in the United States are determined by the states not the federal government. So before the GFC in Texas to buy a house in most cases you still needed a 20% deposit plus if you run 3 monies behind in your mortgage your home is foreclosed and auctioned on the court house steps.

In Florida the opposite happened the market was very speculative and prices went through the roof. At the height of the market condos were selling at $300,000 which are today $75,000 that were only ever worth $150,000. In 2008 it was possible to get properties like this for as low as $40,000. In fact one of my mentoring students brought a property in early 2009 for $46,000 that had previously been sold for $380,000. But it is far less common today because the market is slowly improving.

Now here is the thing. If you look at returns on apartment complexes in Texas and look at the same type of properties in Florida the cap rate returns in Florida can be a lot higher. So as much as I love Texas I also see that given the occupancy rates are running at around 95% in both states I can only put the differences in prices to reflect the fact that during the GFC prices in Texas overall held up well compared to Florida where prices at least on paper fell by as much as 50%. Now the apartment complexes did not fall by those sort of rates however to me it seems logical that there may be a room for prices to improve in apartment complexes over the next few years.

In terms of commercial deals I guess that depends on the deal. I personally prefer apartment complexes however if you were buying a supermarket I would have thought that would still be a safe bet.

Hi rob

Thank you for at least posting what is going on. It would appear that Freckle has nothing better to do with his time but to post rubbish. You seem to resort to people intelligence. Well I am sure that no one is as intelligent as you. In fact why do we even bother posting anything, I think that you should be the only person to post since clearly you understand the world wide markets so much better than anyone else on the forum

Well done. At the end of the day a few sleepless nights are nothing compared to the gift of being a parent

Just dont blink my daughter is now 13 and my son nearly 11 and it is my most important role

enjoy the experience