Real estate

[Cap]

Can anyone share any success or failure stories for someone who wants to real estate part time in addition to regular income?

[GET_BIGGER]

Depends on what kind of real estate.  I am a real estate developer, do both residential and commercial developments.

[Cap]

How about selling houses?

[Migs]

I'm a real estate agent and it can be very up and down.  The thing is to manage your time.  I've had some success this year, but it is a feast or famine thing for many people.  If you are doing it part time remmeber that many of your calls will be during the weekday and might interfere with your normal job.

[onlyme]

Buy income property.  Get solid tenants and you are set.  Can't go wrong.  My uncle became a broker in So. Cal. around 1963 or so.  Was defintiely one of the most successful realtors in So. Cal. during the 60's and 70's where he bought everything he could.  My aunt in the Dallas/Ft Worth area with her husband owned major buildings back when I was a kid.  My mom was an excutive with a bank in Cal. called United California Bank.  But, she did real estate for fun.  Mostly to buy things for themsleves through bankruptcy.  But I was alwasy told to buy income property.  Of course I never listen to my family but I do remeber that.  You cannot go wrong with real estate if you can afford it I was told.  It is impossible.

[Migs]

I agree, with onlyme.  It will proabably be in your best interest to acquire poperty.  It depends on your goals.  I will be in a position this coming year to buy properties.  Get your license, that way you get a cut of the commision and apply that to either the downpayment of the house you get or apply it to repairs if needed.  Like ai said there are times where real estate as a part time job can get busy and encroach on you other full time job.

[D-bol]

Depends on what kind of real estate.  I am a real estate developer, do both residential and commercial developments.

RE is the conservative type of business. Investment in hard walls and bricks. It can be good or bad, depending alot on location and the markt conditions in the area. Clear distinction between a RE investor/developer and an agent. Residential vs Commercial is another important segmentation of the industry. Must always bare in mind the nature of estate taxes and Cap.Gains Taxes in the area you are involved with RE. IMO real estate property mkt is majorly overblown now in most parts of the developed world. Still showing healthy growth is mid-east and eastern europe but it won't be for too long - prices are way over the fair value already.

[24KT]

ya, ...property values and the demand is going to plummet soon.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, ...depending on which end of the equation you're on.
Most often in realestate, the profit occurs upon acquisition of the property.
Sometimes it's a seller's market, and other times a buyers market. either way though, the broker gets paid.

If you're going to get into income or investment properties, you need to make sure you've got the cash reserves or you could find yourself in a bind. Right now a girlfriend in NYC has been having difficulty for the better part of this whole year, getting a drug dealer out of one of her properties. She's not getting the rent, and in the meantime, he's trashing the place.    Fortunately, she has in motion a number of sources of passive residual income to keep things afloat and cover the mortgage while the rent isn't coming in, but she's kind of fretting because she hasn't been able to get access to inspect it, to do any kind of damage assessment on the interiors.  And you never know what can happen either. I flipped on the news yesterday to discover one of my ex-boyfriends properties in the heart of Yorkville was on fire. It housed a restaurant, and the fire started in the kitchen. Thankfully no one was hurt, but they estimated there was about $2.1 million dollars worth of damage to the structure.  Stuff like that can wipe you out in a big way if you're not sufficiently padded to take the hit.

[UPINTHEMGUTS]

Real estate is the best investment you could posibbly make as long as you intend to buy in the right area. Bought a townhome for $412,000 here in MD, new construction. Appraised for $494,000 in 8 months. Unfortunately, I couldn't put it on the market for that much due to the current state of the housing market. (Maryland is very pricey in most areas!)

But....They just broke ground 2 miles away on a HUGE shopping mall/center which will really come into play when I intend to sell in two years.

[Migs]

Georgia (luckily) still has high returns on property.  there is a steady flow of houses beieng sold for the righ amounts here.  The biggest slump though is in condos.  Older condos are hard to sell since so many new ones are popping up here.

[onlyme]

I agree, with onlyme.  It will proabably be in your best interest to acquire poperty.  It depends on your goals.  I will be in a position this coming year to buy properties.  Get your license, that way you get a cut of the commision and apply that to either the downpayment of the house you get or apply it to repairs if needed.  Like ai said there are times where real estate as a part time job can get busy and encroach on you other full time job.

A great combination.  Husband a general contractor and the wife a realtor.  I have several friends with this combination.  But one couple especially is unreal successful.  hey live in Manhattan Beach and are very well known.  She finds the property/house.  Gets it for as cheap as possible.  Then the husband goes in levels the house and builds a million dollar home.  They almost always double what they have invested and every single time has tghe house sold before they are done building.  They have a great racquet going.  Their homes end up in the Parade of Homes all the time.  Beautifully built. 

My parents (mostly mom) did kind of the same thing.  Except becasue of my mom being in banking and real estate she could find out some great stuff.  And they used to buy houses in foreclosure and simply resell them.  As a little kid I remember asking them (I woudl see some pics of a house) what is this house.  And my mom would say just something me and dad are buying.  And I would say are we moving, and she would say no, we are just going to sell it.  I never could understand why they did that till I got older.

Another way to penetrate the real estate market is to get a partner.  Find deals.  One partner comes up with the down payment and the other partner makes the mortgage payment (if the house is yours or a vacation home, both split bills.  They are usually rented so make sure the rent is covering at least all the taxes and mortage payment and you should be great.  I really think (as do others) I could have done very very good in real estate.  I just didn't like all the paperwork.  I took the test one time in LA (just to keep my mom happy) and I failed.  I thought I passed and was so happy I took out some of my freinds.  She later told me that there was once an investigation on the State Board about how they sometimes fail people on purpose so they have to pay again to test.

[Migs]

when i went to take my licensing test, everyone there was talking about how many times they failed.  It sounded like amny of them failed on their own merrit though.  They asked me how many times i failed it.  I told them this was my first time. They were like "it won't be your last."  So i got a little worried.  Anyway i sat down and took it, finished it fast, real fast.  I didn't go back and re-answer any questions or anything.  I was the first one done.  So in my mind i was like, I either flunked it or crushed it.  So as I sat in the next room for the print out,the lady was like congrats and made my certificate.  LOL.