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Did you happen to count how many zeros are in $700 Billion?  Eleven not including the cents portion.  Maybe I should elude to it all not making any sense.  Truth is I’m not sure what does make sense.  I am very leery of the government “bailing out” the financial markets.  I’m a free market guy.  My belief is less government is better government.

What if there were no bail out and companies failed and people lost money, homes were lost, credit went away (like it hasn’t already), jobs were lost and the economy turned to crap?  Do I want it to happen?  NO WAY!  I’m struggling to hold on right now.  I’m used to free flowing credit and have set my business up to use that cheap money.  Now it’s gone and I’m having to re-group and adjust.  Okay.  I’ll adjust and figure out which way to go.  I’m very hesitant to give the government that much money to “play” with and expect them to be prudent in their oversight.  I know.  They can’t do any worse than the private sector has done!  I believe they can and will because they never have been wise stewards of our money; did you get that, our money.  While the financial markets have run amuck, they have done so using the guidelines set out by the government.  This didn’t just happen in the past few weeks.

What is the answer?  I’m not sure, but I do believe we have to have some sort of bailout.  Not one where the CEO’s of the failed companies leave with sack fulls of money.  I’m not advocating criminal charges or hangings either.  These CEO’s ”probably” did not do anything illegal.  Unethical, look the other way, wink wink practices to be sure.  I put most of the politicians in that same category.  If the politicians on both sides of the aisle didn’t know what was going on long before now, they are either illiterate or incompetent and I don’t like either one of those options.

I have attended 2 meetings in the past 24 hours where knowledgeable economists were the guest speakers.  Both gentlemen were surprisingly entertaining (I mean, come on, they’re economists).  The future looks a bit glum (understatement).  However, it looks glummer (is that a word?) without a bailout of some sort.  Both guys eluded to Japan 20 years ago and their real estate and financial collapse.  Japan did nothing and their economy was in a recession for 10 years while it adjusted.  I don’t like that prospect nor do I like the thought of “nationalized financial sectors”.  Remember, I’m a less government guy.  I guess that’s why I’m neither a politician nor a Wall Street guy.  Somewhere the tax consequence has be addressed and this is partly where I get nervous.  It has been said that as profitable assets are sold off by the government the proceeds would go back into the coffers to pay back the deficit.  I just believe that as these profits are put back, the politicians will say it’s “found money” that has already been spent so now we can use it for some other give away or bailout.  I am I being just too cynical?  Art Linkletter (remember his old TV show) said he was proud to be an American and to pay his taxes.  He could be just as proud an American for 1/2 the taxes.   Amen.

So now that you’re all bummed out, let’s talk real estate.  Or I could continue on the bummage side and discuss the Kansas City Royals Baseball Team or the Kansas City Chiefs Football Team but no one should have to endure that much bummage.

My training for lo these many years has lead me to believe this is a great time to be in the real estate market.  Remember, have a strategy ready for any financial climate.  Get training so you don’t go out and commit “Stupid” and buy the wrong way.  Different times require different tactics.  None of which include taking advantage of people.  Make as much money as you possibly can, but not at the expense of the homeowner.  Treat them with respect, treat them fairly and help them with their situation.  If you do these things you are entitled to a large profit.  Remember, I don’t want the government stepping in and telling me I can only make “X” profit.  If you don’t want to commit “Stupid” then check this site out.  www.ETRRF.networthusa.com.   Get some good training, learn the proper way of doing real estate and have fun during these uncertain times.  These times do offer phenomenal opportunity, if you know what to do. 

    

Unless you’ve been stranded on a deserted island with Tom Hanks and “Wilson”, you have seen and heard a tumultuous uproar about the stock market.  Oh my, what a ride.  As this post is being put together, the market is up 448 points at noon.  That’s above the 400 plus increase on Thursday, which was preceded by an over 500 point DROP  on Wednesday.  Disney couldn’t come up with a ride that has more ups and downs as the stock market has seen as of late.  I’m not personally invested in the stock market.  If I were and that was my only retirement vehicle, I might start looking at tall buildings a little differently.  Before you go out and do something regrettable, sit down, take a long deep breath and repeat after me:  This too shall pass and I will survive and thrive another day.

Me personally, I’m a real estate investor.  In case you haven’t noticed, real estate has been a little scary also.  However, houses and dirt never go to ZERO.  How many stocks do you know of, that if times get tough, you can personally move into them and wait for things to turn around.  Good times, bad times, people still need a roof over their head. 

My thinking is: if the stock market is treating you badly, maybe you ought to look at some real estate investments to “hedge” against a ZERO situation.  You may be thinking (or not), prices are way down on real state.  Exactly!  Use your money before it goes to ZERO and buy some real estate at bargain prices.  You can flip that property (not the best time right now) or hold on to it and let it appreciate over time.  While it appreciates, rent it out, lease it, or do owner financing to cover your costs and create some cash flow.  Can you rent or lease out stocks while you are waiting for them to come back?

Yeah but, if I sell my stock now, I’ll loose a fortune and if I don’t sell, I won’t have any cash available to invest in real estate?  Well have I got good news for you.  Learn how to acquire real estate or the rights to real estate, without any cash, or credit or even a job.  There are so many strategies available to acquire properties without cash and without “hoo doing” people.  Create a Recession Proof 6 Figure Income in ANY Market!  The possibilities are AWESOME!  Pull your head out of the sand.  Ignoring something won’t make it go away.  NOW is the time to take action.  Be Proactive not Reactive in your financial decisions.  Click the link above and change your life TODAY.

Today’s real estate market is tough and scary.  A couple of years ago, if a buyer could “fog up a mirror” they could be approved for a loan.  Credit scores didn’t really matter.  Someone always had a program that would put almost anybody into a home loan.  If you didn’t have any verifiable income, no big deal, we’ll use a stated income product.  These loans became known as “liar loans” because you could “state” that you made “X” number of dollars and no one would check to see if it was remotely true.  The mortgage broker made his processing fee, you made a tidy profit on the sale of the house and everybody was fat, dumb and happy.

That was then.  This is now.  With all the mortgage problems going on i.e. massive foreclosures, huge bail outs of formally rock solid financial institutions, questionable loan practices being exposed, etc, things have tightened up immensely on existing homes.  New home construction of spec homes has dropped 75 to 80 percent.  Builders built 6, 8, 10 or more spec homes in a subdivision and bought extra lots to build on in the near future.  As the lending practices tightened those spec homes just sat.  Each month they sat the interest payment would become due.  Multiply by 6 or 10 each month and money begins to run short.  Ultimately, many builders have gone under due to over speculation and easy lending practices.

The pendulum of easy credit had swung way over on the easy side.  Now as a correction, the pendulum has swung and is continuing to swing to the strict side.  I have mixed emotions about this swing.  From one side I prefer the easy credit, both for me getting loans to buy properties and especially for me to sell properties.  The quicker and easier my buyer can get financing, the quicker and easier I get a big fat payday when they cash me out.  Easy credit does put people who maybe shouldn’t qualify for a loan into a house.  This ends up putting them into a foreclosure situation which just wrecks their lives.  The bank takes back the property, oftentimes in bad condition, and then takes a big “hit” and sells the property at a discount to get it off their books as a non-performing asset.  The “REO” (real estate owned) dept of the mortgage company has many properties on which they have foreclosed.  They sell the properties off cheaply which drives the overall housing prices down.  Homeowners who were financed on an adjustable rate mortgage and betting on their house appreciating in value so they would have more equity and thereby qualify for a better fixed rate mortgage have had a rude awakening.  Their home has dropped in value and now they can’t refinance and the adjustable rate mortgage adjusts up and now they can’t afford the new higher payment.  They fall behind and they are the second wave of foreclosure “victims”.  I use the term victim loosely because they were betting on a particular scenario and it didn’t come to fruition and they lost. 

Back to the original question.  Where have all the buyers gone?  Many are now looking for a lease to own arrangement because they either have damaged credit or they just don’t qualify under today’s stringent guidelines.   If you have properties that you can offer a lease to own arrangement, you can do very well in today’s market.  What do you mean, “you don’t have any money to buy houses in this tight economy”.  Do you have an IRA?  Did you know you can use your IRA or even a friend’s IRA or a relative’s IRA to buy investment real estate?  What about the strategy of buying “subject to” as discussed in the previous posting?  Did you go to www.etrrf.networthusa.com and check out the programs available to show you how to do this stuff?  What are you waiting for?  Take action!  Use your backbone, not your wishbone!