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Home Ownership Made Easy
273 hits
| Feb 18, 2004 7:34 am |
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FEAR is THE WEALTH KILLER |
John Chang
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Hi everyone! In about a month I will be harvesting my 1st real estate investment. It's been a 8 year road, but it has been very rewarding.
When I first came upon the daunting decision to buy my house, I faced many of the same fears shared by anyone doing anything that they've never done before - never mind buying something many times what little salary I received from the Navy at that time.
Things like: How am I going to make the payments if my employment situation changes? What if I needed to move? etc.
Here are some of the simple lessons that I learned..
1) "Buy real estate to wait; don't wait to buy real estate" Time really is the key to success here; when I bought my house, Southern California was still suffering from post-aerospace blues. Even if I bought in the height of the booming 80's market, I would've made the SAME profit. It just would've taken longer. You just have to plan for the worse & expect the best, as the saying goes.
2) "Get the cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood that you can afford." When the rest of the premium houses go up & make their slight gains, you will be pulled along & slingshoted ahead in Return on Investment (ROI).
3) "Unless you can do it all yourself, hire a *good* property manager." Even though I moved around to different duty stations for a few years with the Navy, (until I got out a couple of years ago,) my house stayed rented & I never got a late night call from my tenants. No toilets to fix! THAT'S PEACE OF MIND!
Believe it or not, I even bought this San Diego home with no money down. Yes, those late night informercials aren't total BS! :) In fact, I even got $500 back at closing! :)
Finally, my main lesson here is that no other investment gives you the POWER OF LEVERAGE. If you buy stocks, $1 gets you $1. Even with risky margin investing, it's only slightly better.
With real estate you can get $9 working for your $1. THAT'S POWER!
If you're interested in more details, please contact me directly. I am currently moving forward into other markets around the country for the ROI that I see coming in the next 8-10 yrs.
Best regards & happy house hunting!
John
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