Other investors out there?

I am a speculative land investor, looking to start selling, preferably on E-Bay. You can get the highest returns for the least effort that way. I really want to keep away from rentals because of your situation. I buy land cheaply on E-Bay, some with no access or recreational land, which doesn't currently allow structures. Taxes are dirt cheap, and when I see my taxes going up, I check it out. One property I have just jumped $4,000 in value this year (remember, land, no structures)

It sounds to me that you are on the right track in my opinion. I am actually a commercial loan officer, previously financed residential properties. You actaully only have 1 investment property that is not occupied, excluding your primary residence, correct? In my opinion it is more about your short and long term goals. If you can operate on a negative cashflow for awhile, I think you will be satisfied down the road. Just like every other market, the rental market always goes up at some point. You just don't want your entire portfolio to be hard assets.

I am assuming these are SFR? What part of the country are they in? Why are you selling one of them vs. renting it out?

Are you an investor or a "speculator"? The days of a quick return are over. Real estate is always a good medium to long term investment. You need to hold it for at least 4 - 5 years and you need a plan going into it rickweick@exitrealtycoastal.com

There are lots to learn from being an amateur to be an expert in investing. Make sure to do yout homeworks before you invest. Good luck.

It sounds like you jumped into the landlord mode a little to much a little too soon. You might consider wholesaling, or retailing to the cream of the crop of the sub-prime credit people to keep you cashflow up. If one is a well established investor, this is definately time to buy and hold. But you have to plan for heavy reserves to do that. Short sales should be really good now in this 4th quarter of the year. Stop by and visit my website some time. www.buyALhouses.com

Wow, you started a good investment. For me, only play with hyip online, with some spare time, and spare money.

Investing in real estate is great, Cash will come in time, I am not an investor but a seller, In case you need some help in marketing what you have, or need some good investment opportunities, Buzz me. God Bless.

You should talk to oldbuddy (user id), look at the top referrers list. This man is a real good dealer with these things. He's very good at business.

It sounds like you're doing everything right. I'm a mortgage loan officer so I've structured these deals over and over but haven't done it myself quite yet. The negative cashflow is a big issue. You should consider renting them out just to reduce your negative cashflow. If the market rents increase you can increase yours to get yourself back in the black. Just make sure you only sign a one-year lease and be honest with your tenants. There are two types of investors that I've noticed when it comes to the purchase. They either want to buy the house with cash or put down as little as possible. I can finance up to 100% using an 80/20 loan but most often they go for one loan at 90%. This is good for the investor that would rather keep his own cash in reserves in case another opportunity pops up. I would favor your type of investing rather than buying and fixing up. You are making money in many ways rather than one. You hopefully make money on rents received. You make money with the deductions you can take on your taxes if you know how or have a good accountant. You can make money with the equity in that property. At a later date you can refinance and use that cash for another project. And finally you make money when you sell. You can be patient since you've got rent coming in and sell when the time is right. Great job and best of luck!

i'm a small investor 2...im focusing on big deals...like im living in the eastern Europe where the real estates market has gone crazy in the las 15 years...(x10-50) and is still rising...like you paid for an apartment in the early 90 about 1000!!!! $ now its around 60 grant...the markets tends to stabilize but something new appeared..sorry i forgot to say..im from romania...and to our wester border lies hungary...at the border people are poor and unemployment is high( about 60%) and 5 km in romania unemployment is 2%!!! and they are still building factories, as romania has joined the European Union, hungarians can work in romania..but they still dont know now about it and sell their houses for crap..like a 1500m2 property is sold for around 10 -15 grant..with all utilities...so i bought some crappy houses for nothing there and now i wait the prices to rise..or maybe gonna open some business there...and i got some apartments in romania which i rented...but bring little money in...cheers and good luck with investing

Personally I like to buy multiple unit buildings and preferably with Seller Financing. Usually I will find a property under rented get the seller to carry back some amount that will allow me to be positive cash flow with no payments to the seller for at least 6 months so I can bring the rents to normal. In regards to your negative cash flow I would suggest if you don't want to hold on to the properties for the long haul offer Lease Options to your tenants. If you structure it properly you can get them to pay you at least enough to break even if not positive as well. http://www.reipowerhouse.com