Ok, It's Settled. Real Estate Is The Fastest Path To Wealth

Whenever I bid, I set highest possible price (as seller likes to see !) so that if someone wins over me it must be price point of view pyrrhic victory !

After I lost, I always see the winner bid either equal or plus or minus 5k-8k level.

True, In few cases, I have noticed the final prices are 5k-8k less than mine !

See here, my bid was 1.5M while the bid won was 6k less than me. Once I lost, I got response from my agent that there were 7 offers and some are higher cash down payment up to 1 M level.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Clara/1624-Santa-Clara-St-95050/home/623354

Did you check whether the realtors are from the same brokerage? Or the two realtors know each other very well? In Austin, I bought twice with lower price than the highest bidder (usually zero to 1 other bidder in Austin).

This is what I am not convinced !

I am biased by my favorite realtor’s message real estate key is location, buy the places where competition (crowd) are there, you are assured to have financial safety (Margin of safety) !

She is, by now, more than 50 years RE experience in bay area. I have seen the value of her advice during 2008-2011.

Whatever suggested by her, I had seen 100% truth or value it. Whatever she suggested not to do, I am 100% benefited !

Truly, I am biased by her statements, avoiding hayward, oakland…or similar places.

As per her suggestions, positive cash flow, go for multiplex in good locations, she indicated me both Sunnyvale and Mountain view, now I added San Mateo too.

Isn’t Oakland popular now with lots of bids on each home?

Yes, but there are certainly still areas that are rough or haven’t turned just yet. Hey, no one ever said it was easy…

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As I said, real estate is location, not only crowd, but also many other things to account like crime rate, safety, rent ability, near by local growth, demography etc.

In Oakland, lot of investors were bidding, even during 2008 full cash offers, but that does not mean I need to look into it.

Basically, I do not want to risk my money just because others are buying.

If you feel Oakland is great, it is up to you to decide !

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Correct, no doubt, but I wanted to stay where I am comfortable. This is exactly like Warren Buffet saying “You need not swing every shot, but swing only the shot where you can win and maximize it”. For me, even if I make once in two years or four years, I am bidding where I am comfortable and where I good at it !

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No doubt about it, but I still go back to my comment about you having to start somewhere. If you do not have the kind of money to swim in the ocean, one has to go to the kiddy pool. You make your wins there, and move up. You don’t have to stay there forever.

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Don’t quote that period. If you don’t know that is the best time to buy stocks and RE, it means you are a novice :grin: What is her advice now? Sell houses and reduce leverage?

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Didn’t click on this when I ask those two questions. Both agents from Intero :joy: To win, you’ve to overpay i.e. add $100k-$200k.

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Do you know that if you go for safety, then you minimize your reward? What’s the number one rule in investing? Higher risk, higher reward. This is true regardless of asset types or investor profile.

Yes, I see the value of not flying after seeing the Malaysian airline tragedies, but I would be no doubt losing out if I have to take a ferry to Europe or Asia every time I travel.

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To kind of piggyback on what you’ve said, let’s be honest, if you have some money it is pretty easy to make more money. You have way more options. You can go conservative or go wild. The problem of course if you are in the boat where you don’t have a lot of money to start with. Much fewer options, right?

I think in Jil’s case, he doesn’t have unlimited resources. He is bounded by the limit of his funds. Yet he is not willing to diversify out of his comfort zone in order to acquire the assets he wished to acquire. Sure, everybody would be buying in Atherton if money weren’t the issue. But given one’s limit, you have to be smart about the assets to acquire and make compromises.

A few years back I was faced with the same dilemma of whether to buy many cheap properties for insane cash flow or a few expensive ones for heavy debt burden. I am so glad I chose the former because that has enabled me to quit my day job and concentrate on what I like to do the most: investing. With the solid foundation that I have acquired from the many cash flow positive properties, I was able to diversify back into the high end property market and use the cash flow to negate the debt burden of owning expensive homes.

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Obviously you couldn’t make it to CEO Apple :sweat_smile:

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Pretty sure everyone on here has limited funds in some sense.

Higher risk=higher POTENTIAL reward

You want to build wealth? Develop your skills until someone will pay you to do it. Use OPM and take your cut. Build a business.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. I think @Jil approach is well thought out. It isn’t wise to run after something just because it’s popular at the moment.

I think people need to remove from their mindset of getting a “deal” there is only market price. What varies is the market.

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That position is best served by Tim Cook. :slight_smile:

I’m a free spirit at heart, I don’t want to be an employee, nor do I want to be a boss.

That looks like a 30 day close on your example. Looks like it was favoritism :frowning:. Is your agent one of the big players? If so, they might have a little more leverage to prevent this from happening.

Can you clarify the rationale behind San Mateo?

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He was the Jared Kushner/Steve Bannon ->Trump equivalent of Meg Whitman OR/& Steve Jobs, i.e. the person actually running the show :slight_smile:

You got that right! When I was a software engineer, I did my own product spec, design, coding, release, customer care… I was a one man army running the whole show! Lordy lord, those were the days… :slight_smile:

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:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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