Quote: (05-17-2010 12:08 AM)memphis Wrote:
Well, I think people should be careful where they invest. The real estate market as a whole may be overpriced, but I don't think all cities are overvalued.
http://journalrecord.com/2009/07/21/okla...best-list/
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9413/gr...onginf.gif
I also believe the media was one of the causes of the recession.
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-...-recession
My main point is that I don't want people in 2020 to complain that they should have bought
real estate when it was cheap in 2010. I also want to suggest real estate as an option to make money.
If anyone has any real estate book suggestions or experiences, please post them.
Its true that real estate almost always "goes up" in price. However, when your expenses and inflation are calculated in, your gains almost always turn out to be very ordinary, or even sub-ordinary, for the average property. Now, if you are good at sourcing above average property, then you can make some better gains. However, you will be competing with the smart money for these properties, and the price will be driven up accordingly. It follows that some of the best deals are ones that you may pay too much for at first, rather than the properties that you buy at discount. If your investing for cash flow, then focus on multi-family or commercial. You can make decent cash flow in either of these, but its still not for people who don't know what they are doing. Especially commercial.
Your still citing media outlets for your information. These articles are mostly worthless as far as credibility and unbiased accuracy is concerned.
As far as books go, I'd recommend reading as many good books on the stock market as possible, followed by real estate books that deal as much with the technical aspect of investing, rather than strategy. This is because your perspective on both markets (risk, reward, competition, auction theory, etc) should essentially be the same, with much more intelligent material having been written on the stock market than on real estate. Real estate books tend to be heavy on motivation and short on all else. Stock market books will teach you how to think about markets.
Which technical real estate books, that you will read, will depend on how you are trying to invest. I do recommend that you read the best legal level real estate volume that you can find, which you will have to source from your local law library. This will teach you more about documents than anything you can get in the mass market. There should be a state specific volume as well as a broader volume that is more nationally focused. Read both. Buy them both if you are seriously considering becoming an investor, but they will cost several hundred each.
Also, taking the classes necessary to become a real estate agent are a cheap and easy way to give you a huge head start in understanding the legal side of real estate. You don't have to become an agent, just take the classes. When I took it, it lasted about a week. Completely worth it.