I was in the process of buying my own home, but that has changed because I have wanted to invest as well, so i figured maybe i will do that first. I asked my realtor to mentor me and he agreed, but he said that i should wait until next spring/summer because he thinks the market will get better. Then i spoke with another investor who thinks that it is never a bad time to invest in real estate. I am a resident of Atlanta, GA so if anyone has a better understanding of the market here, is it a good time or not.? i have read the books, but have the slightest clue what to do next. I feel so anxious to get started. please help.
Anytime is a good time to start IF you know what you’re doing. Anytime is a bad time to start if you don’t know what your’e doing. It’s just about that simple. I don’t know if you want a realtor to mentor you on investing. Are they a successful investor also?
Mike
I live in the Atlanta 'burbs, and I can tell you that the market, overall, is pretty soft right now.
Having said that, the trick to making money in soft markets is being able to sell your properties at attractive prices so that they are good deals to your end buyers. In other words, you need to buy your properties so well that you can leave a little margin in there for the next person so they will be motivated to buy your property.
If you can buy dollars for 70-75 cents, you can still sell those dollars for 90-95 cents–quickly–and still make money.
As for your agent, and I don’t mean this to be disrespectful, I’d be careful about who you take advice from. If the agent makes at least $250,000 a year and has a liquid net worth (liquid!) of a half-million dollars, then maybe this is someone you can take advice from.
If he’s got no assets, no cash, and leases a car he could not otherwise afford, then inch away slowly and find yourself a better mentor.
- Buying a home is a personal lifestyle choice. Buying investment property is business. The two should be separate transactions. Real estate is a business. Would you start a cookie company and decide that because you were going to order a big ole batch of flour you were not going to buy a house? Your investments are compared to your investments and your house is compared to your personal resources.
- Real estate agents don’t believe in real estate (except for Deeinaustin). They are salesmen. They don’t believe in real estate because all they ever see is the guy that is getting his clock cleaned and has to sell his house in a week or he will be eating cat food. The guy that is doing fine never comes into their office.
- You mention the market being soft, that is the best time to buy, you don’t want to buy when the market is strong do you? BTW what do you call investing? Are you taking about buying a couple of million dollars worth of properties and creating a stream of income so that you can quit work and sit by the lake watching the sun set everyday or are you talking about flipping which is active (just like a job) and is taxed that way?
Thanks all. I just really want someone trustworthy to teach me. Bluemoon u asked what did i call investing? i wanted to start at flipping. There is a plethora of foreclosures here in atlanta and i wanted to take advantage of that.
Your realtor has an inherent conflict of interest. The more you buy, the more money your realtor makes. I agree that if they have no money, then you have no reason to think that they will give good advice, but they could have more money than God, and still would have a conflict of interest. Your realtor may still be an excellent mentor, but it is your responsibility to know your own limits regarding how much you can buy. Kiyosaki suggests starting small. That is very good advice.
While I totally understand that buying, renovating, and selling houses is in many respects a “job,” I hope that Bluemoon is not implying that being a landlord is a walk in the park, either!
And as for flipping houses being “work,” there are certainly worse ways to make a living. The only things I do are talk to sellers, look at houses, and hire contractors. These are all things that I enjoy doing, and I’ve got the process down now so that it’s all pretty painless. I really don’t know of any other way where I could make $100,000/year while working only 15-20 hours a week (and again, doing something that I actually enjoy doing).
Now, as for the Atlanta market being full of foreclosures, that’s true. Most of these, however, have no equity in them. You will find that in this market there are very few truly good deals, and there are also a ton of competitors. If you are limiting yourself to foreclosures, you’re going to have a tough time. Only 25% of my business comes from foreclosures. The other 75% is split up between exhausted landlords (good thing they weren’t working!), estates, and people who own fixers and just hate agents.
No I was just being nitpicky. Flippers are not investors, and you can see the difference in the tax code. They treat flipping just like being self employed and landlords as investors.