Who's Going to Buy a New House with a Looming Depression - NO-ONE!

Isnt your multimillion dollar rental portfolio surely better off being sold before its reduced to ashes or as you say Susan B Anthony's?..Please dont answer that you derive income from the properties so their worth means nothing,because you know that its nonsense..You couldve sold before this financial meltdown and still can and invest in many places to derive income..So Im curious how you are hedging your portfolio if your doomsday scenario comes true..I find the wording in my post put in a respectful manner

I don’t think that you’ve thought this through. If I sold my rental properties, where could I put the money that it would be safe? In Europe - Europe is in worse shape than we are. China - not a chance - they could fail very easily (just as FDJake said). In gold - paper shares of gold will be worthless in a collapse! Should I buy gold bars and keep a couple of million dollars in gold bars in the house? Then, I’d have to stand guard over it 24 hours per day. No, I think real estate is as good as anything. People do have to live somewhere and real estate should have some value on the other side of a collapse (assuming individuals are still allowed to own real estate).

So I expect an honest detailed answer how you deem yourself impervious to all these scenarios you constantly post

You haven’t been listening, I DON’T think I am impervious to the dangers of a collapse - far from it. That’s why I’m hedging my bets by stocking food, water, and ammo. When dollars are worth NOTHING (it’s happened over and over throughout history) FOOD, water, ammo, and shelter will be things that are worth their weight in gold. How much is a Billion dollars worth to a person that is starving? NOTHING! How much is a loaf of bread worth to a person that is starving? I think we know that answer to that.

Mike,

I personally think you crossed the line with this comment.

Comparing the current economic situation to the genocide of a particular section of the human race completely destroys your credibility. They are not even in the same ballpark.

I agree with rookie. On one hand you are preaching about the downfall of this country as we know it, but on the other hand you are selling a product that according to your recent postings will only lead to financial ruin.

I’m thinking the title of your new book should be “1minuteguidetohoardingfoodwaterandammo”.

I don’t understand the argument, he’s selling a product that was written years ago on how to make money with rentals. It’s still valid today for anyone who’s interested in rental properties. If we downplay his book, then we might as well add every previously written financial book to that list. In a broken system, no strategies will work!

We’re forgetting the keyword “IF” here:

IF the economic collapse happens as he’s predicting, then it’s not only his rental properties that will suffer, everyone’s strategies will suffer, NOTHING will work!

IF the chaos is as bad as predicted, then the resulting human exploitation, chaos, suffering, deaths, and manipulations are MOST definitely comparable to a genocide!

PS - I hope he’s wrong!

Christopher,

I think that you might want to re-read my post… I CLEARLY said that’s “going to happen” and what “WILL” happen - those are future tense. I am not comparing our “current economic situation” to the murder of millions of Jews, I’m comparing the coming collapse and the resulting tens of millions (or hundreds of millions) of deaths; the loss of retirements of millions; and the destruction of our once great country with the murder of the Jews. Since the scope of death in the coming collapse (especially a world-wide collapse) will dwarf the 6 million Jews, I’d say that the actions of the Fed and the Wall Street Bankers may be EVEN WORSE!

I agree with rookie. On one hand you are preaching about the downfall of this country as we know it, but on the other hand you are selling a product that according to your recent postings will only lead to financial ruin.

My book explains how to start and operate a successful rental property business. If that is someone’s goal, my book will provide the information. If you read my last post, you would see that I think that owning property will be as good as anything in the coming collapse - although there is CERTAINLY no guarantee that private ownership of property will survive the upcoming upheaval.

It’s funny, FDJake and I got all these same criticisms (that we were crazy, etc) during the real estate boom when we were predicting a real estate bust. I think it quite interesting that this generation thinks that nothing bad can happen to them, that somehow man has gotten beyond that point. It’s that kind of arrogance that ensures that our country is finished.

I don't understand the argument, he's selling a product that was written years ago on how to make money with rentals. It's still valid today for anyone who's interested in rental properties. If we downplay his book, then we might as well add every previously written financial book to that list. In a broken system, no strategies will work!

Be careful NJbird_dog - common sense is not allowed on this forum. Those using common sense or voicing any opinion that is not with the majority will be attacked!

Mike,
A sophisticated investor such as yourself can easily obtain the necessary contacts to properly invest your millions that you have parlayed from your vast real estate holdings…Stocks,Gold are just a fraction of where you can invest,but a person of your intelligence doesnt need a wall st thief,devil,lowlife such as myself to teach you how to invest…

Another thing that puzzles me is if you feel we are all going to be in need of food and water and ammo how on earth do you feel your tenants will be able to pay your rent…Are they part of the fallout shelter drills and are they escrowing for future rent payments through your battery of attorneys that handle your real estate empire?..You make many statements that have no basis…Such as your earlier statement that you are hedging your bets by stockpiling food…The hedge I was referring to was hedging yourself against financial ruin…If you feel this country is doomed and our currency will be worthless why are you holding on to real estate that will be worthless,full of tenants who wont be able to pay your rent?..These things dont make any sense to me…Please explain how they some how make sense to you…Because to a wallst lowlife,devil,thief like myself they make ZERO sense…

Milwaukee…If you agree with Mike why are you buying a home for 70k?..Why dont you take Mikes advice and wait 24 short months and get %99.9 discount on the property?..

NJBirdDog…Your post is irrelevant and off base…We are talking about Mikes book…Mike is here pumping prosperity and wealth and posting doom and gloom…All other financial authors are NOT here posting contradicting statements if you havent noticed…

Mike,

C’mon man I did not attack you. I just think that comparing ANYTHING to the holocaust is wrong.

As for your book… I was just giving you a good razzing. Thats all. No personal attacks, no name-calling just good fun.

A sophisticated investor such as yourself can easily obtain the necessary contacts to properly invest your millions that you have parlayed from your vast real estate holdings..

More jabs Rookie? I have never claimed to have “vast real estate holdings” and in fact I DON’T HAVE VAST REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS. I have a relatively small rental property business - that’s all.

Another thing that puzzles me is if you feel we are all going to be in need of food and water and ammo how on earth do you feel your tenants will be able to pay your rent..

I’m not at all sure that they will be able to pay rent, nor am I even sure that the government will allow private ownership of property. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a bunch of socialists/communists/marxists in control of the government and what they will do when there is a real crisis is anyone’s guess.

Are they part of the fallout shelter drills and are they escrowing for future rent payments through your battery of attorneys that handle your real estate empire?..

More petty attacks?

Such as your earlier statement that you are hedging your bets by stockpiling food..The hedge I was referring to was hedging yourself against financial ruin..If you feel this country is doomed and our currency will be worthless why are you holding on to real estate that will be worthless,full of tenants who wont be able to pay your rent?..These things dont make any sense to me..Please explain how they some how make sense to you...

I already explained that I believe real estate will be as good as anything to hold. At least it’s something real that you can see and touch and that has some intrinsic value. I’m still waiting to hear what you think would be better to hold than real estate.

Because to a wallst lowlife,devil,thief like myself they make ZERO sense...

I didn’t say that you were any of those things. You are just a worker on Wall Street - you aren’t one of the big bankers that are responsible for this mess.

Milwaukee....If you agree with Mike why are you buying a home for 70k?..Why dont you take Mikes advice and wait 24 short months and get %99.9 discount on the property?..

I’d like to give my answer to that. The reason to do things now is that we are living in the now. You can’t put your life on hold waiting for what’s going to happen tomorrow, even though the outcome to all this debt is all but certain. I am still running my business just like normal. It would be silly to put everything on hold waiting for circumstances to change, especially since we don’t know exactly what is going to happen. That is exactly why I’ve said that I think FDJake’s flipping business is a good idea. Get in - get out - get the profit! That’s a great plan.

Mike is here pumping prosperity and wealth and posting doom and gloom..All other financial authors are NOT here posting contradicting statements if you havent noticed..

I’m not pumping anything. I NEVER bring up my book and I don’t push it on anyone. To be quite honest, I could care less whether anyone buys it or not. It’s such a small part of what I do that it’s insignificant. Furthermore, I am not posting ANYTHING contradictory. I am posting what I believe is going to happen and that’s it. You and FDJake are on record predicting a boom. We’ll see who’s right. I’m not surprised that I get attacked for stating my opinion - that’s exactly what happened when I was saying that the real estate bubble was going to burst. People want to believe that everything will be fine (it won’t) and they want to keep their heads in the sand as long as possible.

Bluemoon was 100% correct in his deer hunting analogy in the other thread. This deer has been dead for a long time - it just hasn’t had the good sense to stop running and fall over yet!

Mike,
I didnt find my comments to petty at all…Im just going on what you have said in previous postings…Lets get a few things straight here…You claim to not be pumping your book yet its for sale link is in every post …I would believe you more if you took down the link so it doesnt post itself hundreds of times per month…And I do believe that you dont care about the sale of the book ,your comments contradict everything the title to the book stands for so I have to side with you on that one…As for giving out advice on where to put your money I wont do that…If I post what I do and how I do it the mouths will start running…I have many different income streams and I will leave it at that…And from your own admissions you have said that you have a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio…So with all due respect in a town like Ohio that is a pretty large portfolio…Multi-millions buys a whole lot where you are…Oh and I agree about the current state of our government and the people that voted him in are getting the shaft bigtime…What more can I do ?..Im the doing the next best American thing,Im profiting off the situation and thats what this conversation is over…I mean seriously if you are so certain that things are without a doubt crumbling,imploding,caving in,going a$$ up etc why arent you doing more than stocking the shelves…I know for certain you know ways to hedge your bets but you arent doing anything than going down with the ship…You expect a bunch (well a select few) of people here that are business educated,well heeled investors to believe that you are simply content with the whatever happens to my real estate portfolio I could care less…Lets look at this correctly,this is coming from a guy who wrote a book on real estate investing,posts and is a respected moderator on a real estate invesment website,spending his 10 hours a week being a landlord…Cmon Mike…I respect your intelligence,but dont blow smoke up my a$$…And a for being “just a wall street worker”,I highly doubt that you would feel the same about the companies and firms I have represented or made money for…I have personal friends that investment bankers,traders,CEO’s etc…Why is your constant target Wall street,if you knew me or my friends you would have no clue that we were devil worshippers as you put it…Truth is if you were given the opp to make “wall street” money you would do it in a second…Anyone with a half a brain would,even if its for a few years…That few years would change your life…Your rants are ofcourse allowable but I will respectfully take the other side and post my opinion if you are viewed as off base…I did it with my friend fdjake and I support him when he is correct (in my eyes)…My opinion doesnt change and you know more than anyone on here I asked/and trusted you with guiding me in the REI world…You did a great job of helping me and I always will say that but for you to do an about face and dive off this political cliff is puzzling to me…I think your credibility has been put in question over your maniacal political views…IMO you are held to a higher standard because you are a moderator…You just seem like you have really gone off the deep end…Like I have visions of you driving a pickup around Ohio with like 40 bumper stickers saying “i told you so” all over it,with a 9mm strapped to your side and maybe a shotgun in the backwindow…

I never stated that the we are into a new bull market or the storm is over etc…NEVER…So please dont put words in my mouth…What I did say is that I see alot of trades infront of me and some very good ones…I like this environment alot more than the bubble decade…Im making more,Im doing more,I see more opps,I have better contacts,I have better attorneys…Its been an all around great last 2-3 years for me…And the moves I have made through this downturn will set up income streams for me for many years to come…We are business people this is what we do…We dont close up shop,put our tails between our legs and wait…

You *claim* to not be pumping your book yet its *for sale* link is in every post ...I would believe you more if you took down the link so it doesnt post itself hundreds of times per month...

My opinion doesnt change and you know more than anyone on here I asked/and trusted you with guiding me in the REI world…You did a great job of helping me and I always will say that but for you to do an about face and dive off this political cliff is puzzling to me…

So, the information that I have helped you, but you want me to take it off the market? Why? You think that I should blow rosey smoke, even though I don’t think that the future is rosey? That would be hypocritical. My book explains how to start and operate a rental property business - how I did it. That has NOTHING to do with my current opinion that the economy of the USA is going to collapse. I’m not going to tell people that I think things are going to be great when I think the opposite is true. These are the same type of comments that I got during the real estate boom, when I was predicting a real estate bust. Yes, I bought the majority of my rentals during the boom (at a huge discount) EVEN THOUGH I WAS PREDICTING A BUST!

And from your own admissions you have said that you have a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio..So with all due respect in a town like Ohio that is a pretty large portfolio..Multi-millions buys a whole lot where you are

Multi-millions in Ohio buys several dozen rentals, that’s all. Certainly not a vast empire! LOL!

Oh and I agree about the current state of our government and the people that voted him in are getting the shaft bigtime..What more can I do ?...Im the doing the next best American thing,Im profiting off the situation and thats what this conversation is over...I mean seriously if you are so certain that things are without a doubt crumbling,imploding,caving in,going a$$ up etc why arent you doing more than stocking the shelves

What more should I do? I’m operating my rental business and getting prepared for the collapse…that’s about all I can think of that’s practical.

And a for being "just a wall street worker",I highly doubt that you would feel the same about the companies and firms I have represented or made money for.

My point is that you’re not the one that is responsible for the destruction of our country - however the Fed and the Big Wall Street Banks ARE!!!

Why is your constant target Wall street,if you knew me or my friends you would have no clue that we were devil worshippers as you put it..

You’re being dramatic again…I never said anything about devil worshippers. LOL!

but for you to do an about face and dive off this political cliff is puzzling to me..I think your credibility has been put in question over your maniacal political views..IMO you are held to a higher standard because you are a moderator..You just seem like you have really gone off the deep end...

There’s no about face…people said the same things when FDJake and I were talking about the coming real estate crash. And if I’m going off the deep end, I’ll have a lot of company - Bill Gross, Marc Faber, Peter Schiff, Noriel Roubini, and many others will be swimming there also.

I have visions of you driving a pickup around Ohio with like 40 bumper stickers saying "i told you so" all over it,with a 9mm strapped to your side and maybe a shotgun in the backwindow.

That’s not too far from being right. I do drive a pickup and I do have my handgun strapped to my side (although it’s a .40 cal, not a little 9mm). I don’t keep a shotgun in the back window (mostly only farmers do that) and I don’t any bumper stickers, but I do have a very small NRA sticker and a very small OFCC (Ohioans for Concealed Carry) sticker on the back glass.

We are business people this is what we do..We dont close up shop,put our tails between our legs and wait..

On that we can agree!

A .40 caliber !!!..Man are you shooting Buffalo there or what?..Wow…Thats the difference between you country boys and us city boys…380 makes me feel warm until I hear that you carry a .40 caliber…Thats some gun to be carrying…

And Im glad we can agree on something…

I carry a 40 cal too. If I need to drop someone, I want to make sure they’re not getting back up!

SMELL IT???? I STINK from it!!!!

Not a stink anyone would mind having. :biggrin

I'm literally having my BE$T YEAR EVER!!!!!

The DEALS are GREAT…The BUYERS are out there…I’m just CONNECTING THE TWO!!!

If you sit on the sidelines now…You’re missing UNBELIEVABLE OPPORTUNITIES!!!

I can not BELIEVE the deals coming my way…It’s POURING MONEY out there!!

I hear this from most long time investors that I talk to. There are some hungry investors out there salivating to get their hands on some beautiful bargains. I’m out there lowballing anything I can flip to an investor for a nice profit.

It’s amazing how so many 2004 to 2007 “investors” that were jumping all over the place trying to buy houses for 70-80% of ARV and NOW they think realestate investing is too “risky” at 30-40% of ARV, because no one will buy it. :banghead

It's amazing how so many 2004 to 2007 "investors" that were jumping all over the place trying to buy houses for 70-80% of ARV and NOW they think realestate investing is too "risky" at 30-40% of ARV, because no one will buy it.

Most of the “investors” who bought like crazy during the real estate boom are long out of business. Buying at more than 70% of ARV never did work, at least for rentals.

Most of the "investors" who bought like crazy during the real estate boom are long out of business. Buying at more than 70% of ARV never did work, at least for rentals.

Mike,

Let’s not forget these numbers are off of inflated “the sky is the limit, values will keep going up and the sky is the limit thinking” numbers. So 70% of ARV on a $200k home that was only truly worth about $120- 130k ARV. :rolleyes

All I kept telling my self during those price hyper inflated years was “something just isn’t right, I payed 100k a piece for a couple of my properties in 2000 and now they are worth 200k in 2005, I know I feel like a genius, but it’s just not right to see this type of appreciation”.

Don’t forget the NUMBER ONE rule of any recession/depression, because if you DO…That RULE is gonna cost you some serious potential PROFITS if your strategy is to just WAIT on the sidelines for a COLLAPSE…NEWS FLASH…We’re IN that price collapse RIGHT NOW!!! When a guy from Providence calls me and tells me he just wants to DUMP the 3 family he’s owned for 25 years for $20K and he’s SICK about it because he’d been OFFERED $300,000 for it in 2006…THAT’S THE COLLAPSE gentlemen…This ride doesn’t go to ZERO!!! The LAND that house is on is worth $50K…How do I know this??? Because I just SOLD that $20,000 GIVE AWAY home for $100,000 to another INVESTOR!!!

The ECONOMY is like a SPRING…The FURTHER it is PULLED, the more POWERFUL the REBOUND is when it’s finally released.

At what time in our HISTORY did the GREATEST PERIOD of ECONOMIC GROWTH OCCUR???

YEP…Right AFTER the greatest DEPRESSION the country had ever seen!!!

Any one remember REAL ESTATE prices in 1991 during THAT recession??? I do…I was buying HOUSES for less than a NEW CAR COST!!!

How’d that go???

Those very houses I was paying $10,000 for in 1991-93(Yea you read that right…$10,000!) were selling for $150,000 10 years later.

Notice I didn’t quote the prices from 2004 to 2007

Those years were the SPRING STRETCHING YEARS…That economic SPRING can get pulled in BOTH directions…IN 2005 it got pulled in the direction of a BUBBLE…and AGAIN…WHEN, not IF that spring let go you have what Mike and I (and others here) WARNED PEOPLE ABOUT…

A MAJOR SNAP BACK IN PRICES!!!

Right now we have the EXACT OPPOSITE…True to their HERD MENTALITY which ALWAYS proves WRONG…The LEMMINGS are RUNNING AWAY from REAL ESTATE at the EXACT time they should be DIVING IN with everything they have…

I LOVE reading all the dooms day scenarios…IT makes me sleep like a baby at night just KNOWING that SPRING is being STRETCHED!!!

Is anyone else seeing what fdjake is seeing??

I’m in Northern NJ, where house prices skyrocketed during the boom, but I’m not seeing a bust yet. Prices have definitely gone down, but no where near ridiculous levels.

It’s mindboggling to hear the guy sold a 3-family for $20k and didn’t try to get a higher price if it was so easily flipped for $100k. Maybe I’m just not meeting these rare sellers?!

NJ Bird Dog,
I dont think most areas of NJ or NY will cave in like Florida,Vegas and the other bloodbath states…Reason being its closer to NYC and the hub of the financial world…You arent going into decent areas of NJ or NY and find flat out steals…Will you find bargains,you bet…But you need to clarify exactly where fdjake is buying at…I dont think he is buying where he lives…My guess its a bit more troubled of an area with a little more undersireable tenant pool…Look at Sam Zell (real estate loan to own king)…He just purchased many NYC properties at a discount…

http://www.nbcchicago.com/around-town/real-estate/zell-new-york-real-estate-83276592.html

Sam Zell is a multi-billionaire real estate investor and he is buying now…I think thats a decent signal to guage from…Listening to talking heads on this forum is useful but look at whats going on around with big money…Big money,smart money is aquiring here…Does that mean its the bottom,HELL NO…Nobody can call a bottom and no one can call a top…People claim to have called this real estate pullback yet they didnt sell one piece of property into that top call…An old friend told me sell when you can not when you have to"…Same friend told me “sell when its good cause it will get worse”…

Its sensible that many are gripped by fear…These times are for people who have excess capital to put to work…Lets look at from a different view…Many people here love the idea of creating cashflow right?..2006…2007( The EXTREME HEIGHT of the BUBBLE DECADE)… All you read were topics…posts from people trying to cashflow properties…Yet now we have those same properties for sale %30-%50 CHEAPER so that equates to higher ROI or cashflow profits to put it simply…So please explain to me why now isnt the better time to get started creating a portfolio of cashflow properties?..Assuming you have access to capital…There is simply no argument…If you were looking for property appreciation you were essentially gambling…Real Estate Investors buy when it makes sense…Sam Zell sold an office complex portfolio for $39 * BILLION *…Why did he sell?..Because there is an old saying,if you dont accept the offer you are buying at that price…So if he declined that $39 * BILLION * offer he was essentially buying for $39 BILLION…Sell when you can not when you have to…That same office complex is worth $20 Billion now,not even 2 years later…What about Stuyvesant town in NYC (lower east side) my old stomping grounds…Met Life sold the property for $5.4 BILLION to Tishman and Blackstone Group about 2 years ago…The property is worth $2.3 Billion now and many RE investors are NOW looking at it…Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy…

NJBirddog - retail prices haven’t crashed here either - of course, there never was a huge bubble here like there was in Vegas, Florida, or any of the other boom areas. I’m sure that only a small subset of houses in FDJake’s area are selling at huge discounts even now. This is has it always been. Sure, the prices are lower than in the boom, but we haven’t even come close to the bottom yet - not even close. That does not mean that you shouldn’t buy now when you find great deals. In fact, if you’re going to be in FDJake’s flipping business, you had better be able to find deals in EVERY ECONOMY!

I bought a 7 unit apartment building at 13 cents on the dollar at the beginning of 2008. That wasn’t a sign that we were at the bottom, it was only a sign that the guy that had owned that property for the past 50 years was beyond burned out! He was desperate and was being fined by the city because he would allow any scumbag with a few dollars cash to live there. I kicked out all the scumbags, slapped a coat of paint on the exterior, and thoroughly screened the new tenants - problem solved and a great deal done.

Having said all that, prices are done and anyone interested in getting into flipping or the rental property business should be aggressively buying NOW, tomorrow, and for the next several years (especially if you’re starting a rental business). Prices are low and going lower; and at least for now rental demand is very good. My only advice at this point is to only buy at RIDICULOUSLY LOW PRICES if you’re buying it as a rental! The rental market nationwide is supposedly down, although it’s quite good here. I do expect rents to decrease if the economy collapses as fewer people will have money and the government could shut off government payments.

Listening to talking heads on this forum is useful but look at whats going on around with big money...Big money,smart money is *aquiring* here...

I agree. Soros and China are buying GOLD in a big way, even after Soros claimed that gold was in a huge bubble. What’s that tell you? They know what’s coming and they’re acting on it.

People claim to have called this real estate pullback yet they didnt sell one piece of property into that *top call*..

It’s not a claim when it comes to FDJake and me. All one has to do is pull up the old posts!

Soros is buying gold???..Wow I just saw him with maria Bartiromo saying how he felt it was a bubble??..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/davos/7085504/Davos-2010-George-Soros-warns-gold-is-now-the-ultimate-bubble.html

Here is the senile evil man Soros saying the exact opposite 10 days later…Lucky he has great traders…

http://www.bottomviolation.com/george-soros-buying-gold-the-hypocrite-is-talking-out-both-sides-of-his-mouth/

And to once again teach Mike wall street investing methods Gold is used as a hedge against inflation…Not because they feel the end of the world is near…And once again Mike convientently leaves out that China is the single largest buyer of US currency on the open market.They currently have $2 * TRILLION * of US currency in reserves…They have more invested in this country than any sovereign wealth fund could hope for…Gold is purchased as a HEDGE…Not because Soros and China are stocking their shelves with Green Giant… :banghead

And if you bought for 18 cents on the dollar Im sure the property needed work and had additional liens that needed to be satisfied as well as work to make the property rentable…I highly doubt that you simply bought a property for 18 cents on the dollar and turned around and rented it out the following week…

And I did look over hundreds of your old posts and I didnt see one where you actually sold a property…Cashflow and landlording is blood money…The difference between you and fdjake and me is that I wouldve sold that building for a huge profit (and so wouldve fdjake) and then held the mortgage for 30 years to compound my return…Instead you choose to chase tenants around for a few extra bucks…We think differently Mike…No harm…Im a businessman and you are a cashflow king…You work 10 hours a week on being a landlord and I work 1 hour a week managing my mortgages…And I can guarantee my business has less overhead and less phone calls,less trouble,less stress than being a landlord…

Soros is ACTUALLY buying gold - he’s not just saying that. In fact, he was saying that gold is the ultimate bubble WHILE HE WAS ACTUALLY BUYING! Could he have been trying to drive the price down while he was buying?

And once again Mike convientently leaves out that China is the single largest buyer of US currency on the open market..

I don’t believe that is correct any longer. The FED is now the single largest buyer of Treasuries, although they are trying to hide this fact. You have to do your research to put all the pieces together, but here is one piece of the puzzle for your reading pleasure:

http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/forget-greece-the-us-almost-had-a-failed-treasury-bond-auction/

If you don’t like this source (or Rick Santelli), do a goole search, there are a ton of reliable sources of this info. The basic facts are certain, but their interpretation is open because the true buyer of these treasuries is hidden (which is why it looks like the Fed is the buyer - that and the sudden change of the ratio of these buyers). Rookie - I would truly like to hear your opinion on this subject. Maybe you have some contacts that can verify this info. It certainly looks like the recent treasury auctions have failed and that the majority buyer is the FED!

And if you bought for 18 cents on the dollar Im sure the property needed work and had additional liens that needed to be satisfied as well as work to make the property rentable..I highly doubt that you simply bought a property for 18 cents on the dollar and turned around and rented it out the following week...

Actually, I bought it for 13 cents on the dollar, and no, it didn’t need a lot of work. It badly needed exterior paint and I talked about that ad nauseum on my blog (I did it myself). It didn’t need major rehab.

And I did look over *hundreds* of your old posts and I didnt see one where you actually sold a property..Cashflow and landlording is blood money..The difference between you and fdjake and me is that I wouldve sold that building for a huge profit (and so wouldve fdjake) and then held the mortgage for 30 years to compound my return..Instead you choose to chase tenants around for a few extra bucks...We think differently Mike..

You’re right - I NEVER sell my rentals. Just for clarification, I average working 12 - 16 hours a week - not 10.