If someone gave you $ ONE MILLION Dollars today ?

General Real Estate Investing
21

Changing it form $100,000 to a million does not change my answer.

You’ve got to know when to hold them and when to fold them, and this is not the market to have a million dollar balloon payment with a short pay-off period hanging over your head.

I am watching my local real estate closely. It is hanging by a thread on a cusp. It could go either way, and it could move big, in either direction. I am not about to put a bunch of money ito real estate that will bankrupt me if it doesn’t move upward and if it is not easy to sell.

I am watching and searching every day for investment pieces that I want to buy and hold. If I find what I want, I will buy. But not if I have to return the entire purchase price in one year.

With the whole mortgage thing making everyone uneasy, it is not a really good time to put a large amount of money into the stock market, since the stock market could also decide to make a big reaction, and it could go either way.

I could turn a million bucks into a lot of money, but I don’t want a loan that big that has to be paid back in any shorter time period than 10 years, and I’d like 15 years a lot better.

So if someone wanted to hand me that money as an interest free loan, I’d put it into CDs or money market, and at the end of the year, I’d return it, and I could use the interest that I earned to make a lot of money. (I’d keep watching the real estate, and If I saw an opportunity, I’d take it, but I am not finding anything to buy just yet and I am looking.)

If the market decides it is going up in the spring, I might try a spec house on land I already own. I plan to build a couple in the spring, anyway, but as long term hold, not for spec.

This is a time to consolodate and dig in, not to take huge gambles with short term money.

22

$1 million to spend…EFL,GDL,GGN,NRI,PFN,PGH,PGP,PHK,PTY,RIT,PBT…

That basket of closed end funds combined has a yield of %10.5 with low historical volatility and they are all selling at a discount…I would put 500k into this basket and collect the $4375 per month in dividends…Use that dividend money to invest in cashflow properties (say like 53k a year can get u into 5-7 properties using leverage)…Take the other 500k, putting 250k into a long US dollar fund (dollar is going to rally 2008,its already started and has a long way to go)…Take the remaining 250k and keep it simple ,mid yielding bond funds that pay monthly…FFRHX,SPHIX,FAGIX avg of about %7.2 …(about 18k a year 1500 per month…At least the million still remains %100 liquid to return after the year and you get to keep huge gains plus properties that are aquired throughout the year…

23

Dewdman42, maybe you should become a private lender for RE investors. finance the deals that comes at 50%~60% FMV, very small risk, and you make 10~12% return on your money easily. beats banks any day. so, which state do you live in?

p.s.
In Canada, it is very difficult to find a decent hard money lender. Almost everyone who post lending ads on big newspapers would answer:“what is a hard money lender? please explain”. and the few who say that they are,
generally give a big speech about how credit is required and 95% financing is the max limit.
so, wanna start lending out money in Canada anyone?