Howdy all. Decided to stroll back over here for awhile. Although have to say am liking the conciseness of Facebook, there seems to be a lot of people who just shoot out random sentences into cyberspace.
From today forward I am done talking about debt and am here to talk about my adventures in real estate investing. I have always been interested in this topic but have been getting serious about it for the past 6 months.
We currently have enough downpayment to purchase a property for up to $160,000. Tough market to buy into on the island here in BC where house prices tend to start at $200,000. Condos are possible, as are, as I found out today, mobile homes, but we really feel more comfortable with our knowledge of houses.
And that is why my brain is full. I have a tendency to jump around looking for deals. I do a lot of web surfing and quite often find that the deals online are really not deals at all when seen in person. I also still tend to jump around looking for different types of property: duplexes, mobile homes (this week as I said), triplexes etc.
I am doing a lot of learning though, and experts seem to agree that one reason people start to learn about real estate investment and never apply their knowledge is their fear. This is true with me in part, I have pulled out of one or two deals simply out of fear recently. However, lately it is indecision and lack of focus that is slowing me down. I am searching for the perfect deal and quickly lose interest if I don't find my high cash flow, high equity property.
So I hope doing some writing might serve to focus my thoughts and efforts. We currently have an excellent realtor in a small town on the island. This town has really gone through some hard times. But the real estate market had hit an upswing, followed by a drop and currently a stall because of the global and local economy. It is affordable, but we have confidence that things will continue to improve since the town is diversifying and there are strong signs of an improving economy: new shops being built, new WalMart, new housing developments, houses being fixed up.
One key for us was that we needed to be able to invest in a town we could easily visit. One course I took really tried to push the students to invest across the country, but this only added to my sense of fear every time I came close to purchasing a place. It is tough to do, and I feel more confidence when I can walk through with my realtor.
On Saturday we are going up island again to view some properties, including one our realtor says is a good find because the place is almost in foreclosure and is in decent shape. We may get it for a good deal.
Hope so! Need something to keep me focused :)
