March Apartment Update

Got the management report and the March financials for the Houston apartment complex yesterday. Things continue to look good. Occupancy remained steady at 93% and revenue stayed about the same as February. Expenses due to marketing, turnover, utilities, and property taxes dropped. The property had a positive cashflow of about $7,500 for the month - a nice change after running in the red for so long. The property is also in the black to the tune of...

Bank Of America CEO Agrees - Your Home Is Not An Asset

Today, the C.E.O. of Bank Of America, at a summit of state attorneys general, said that some people should not think of their homes as an asset. He was only referring to people who live in areas where there is low population growth and where, therefore, demand for housing won't create pressure to increase home values.Personally, I agree. Even though I stopped reading his books years ago, I still subscribe to Robert Kiyosaki's definition of an asset...

Random Musings On Investing In Stocks vs. Real Estate

I was checking out my various IRAs the other day and was struck by how much better I feel about my self-directed IRA than I do my traditional (stock-based) IRAs. Most people’s retirement savings are invested in the stock market (including the majority of mine). But when I compare that with my self-directed IRA which is investing in hard money lending, I can’t help but notice how differently I feel about them.Yes, stocks historically have risen over...

Groupon Gets Into Real Estate

A real estate brokerage in Chicago is selling $1,000 discount coupons on Groupon. They are good for $1,000 cash back at closing and it's good for owner-occupants and investors. The coupons are good for one year and a total of 50 must be sold (at $25 each) for the deal to become valid. The pruchase price of the house must be over $150,000. If you invest in the Chicago area, this might be a good de...

A Newbie Investor's Tale

Wow.. found this blog of a guy in Utah who bought an investment property in Florida. This was his first investment property, bought at the peak of the housing bubble and, as you might imagine, things didn’t quite turn out the way he had hoped.Reading this, I am struck by several things. There were a huge number of red flags that should have alerted him that something wasn’t right. First, he got into this investment after hearing about it from a friend,...

Shaun Gets Nostalgic

I recently spent some time reading Savvy Saver’s blog – particularly her posts about her 4-plex and how that investment has been going for her. She’s had it for 4 years now and it seems to be going well. She and her husband are managing it themselves, so they do have the occasional tenant headache they have to deal with, but all in all, it seems to be doing well for them. I am encouraged that they have held the property this long and that they didn’t...