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High Net Worth Homeless

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408

For a few years I was in contact with an attorney/CPA, who was heavily involved in buying and selling Real Estate. I even sold a few properties for him...

He used to live in fancy expensive houses and condos, and he was selling them every two years, as this was the minimum requirement for avoiding the capital gains tax.

luxuryIt was strikingly obvious to me that he did not have a home. He was a guest in the luxury he owned. Or maybe this luxury owned him? He basically did not have a home. Not a well designed house like a model home, but a real home.

I remember his gorgeous waterfront house with an elevator taking you to the third floor Master bedroom, but it looked a brilliantly staged developer’s house for sale in a very exclusive subdivision.

Too often I see customers, telling me that they are looking for a great deal, and failing to see the difference between the investment and a home. If you look at houses as investment, you may end up living in one of your investments, not a home.

Home is more than just a roof over the head. Home is where our heart is.

Or you are just a high net worth homeless…

Photo via Flickr Creative Commons by miamism 

Show All Comments
Kirsten Lindquist
Pacific Union International - Sonoma, CA
Realtor - Sonoma Wine Country

Jon:  Well put.  I'd add that people who trade in homes this way fail to invest themselves in a community....and communities are only as great as the people who are invested in them.

Oct 30, 2011 06:55 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Thank you, Sharon

Oct 30, 2011 07:26 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Vadim - I can't agree more. Thanks

Oct 30, 2011 07:26 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Thanks, Inga

Oct 30, 2011 07:30 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Laura - yes, there is, and that's what some people fail to understand

Oct 30, 2011 07:31 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Kristen - you are absolutely correct. They donot become part of the community. That's also add to the notion of homelessness

Oct 30, 2011 07:34 PM
Broker Nick
South Florida Real Estate & Development, Inc. - Coconut Creek, FL
Broker Nick Relocation Broker Service

It is a great way to show a property when you have previewed it first, then you can tell them all the particulars from experience and first hand knowledge. 

Oct 31, 2011 12:00 AM
Jill Sackler
Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY
LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

That picture has the most interesting angle. You can't make it a home if you move every 2 years. I'm sure your investor knows that but he feels there will be plenty of time at the end to settle down. Maybe there will be and maybe there won't be. We never know.

Oct 31, 2011 02:21 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Nicholas - absolutely

Oct 31, 2011 03:11 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Jill - I thought it is a beaiful picture with the element of instability

Oct 31, 2011 03:13 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Jon,

A house is a great investment, but not using it is absurd!

There was a time in the 50's and early 60's when people buying new cars put almost clear vinyl seat-covers over them before they drove them. I have a family member that did that every 18 months selling his used cars with 100,000 miles, but untouched upholstery.

Some people are hard to understand, harder still to explain.

Bill

Oct 31, 2011 03:35 AM
Jeanne M. Gavish
Jeanne Gavish, Keller Williams Realty Elite Partners - Spring Hill, FL
Keller Williams Realty Elite Partners - CIPS,GRI,S

Jon, a different perspective, I grew up in the military and moved every two years for all of my childhood.  When we first got married we moved every two years as opportunites arose and we could make money.  We owned a business locally and stayed in the community.  Different strokes for different folks.  I didn't mind and I think differently than people who are attached to their "home", as well as any other "stuff".

Oct 31, 2011 03:51 AM
Yolanda Hoversten
Self Employed - O'Fallon, IL
Referrals for O’Fallon, IL & the Metro East

Hi, Jon. I will second Jeanne above. Military families move every two years on the average, so we call every place we stay at as our home... it can be a trailer or a beautiful brick home, on base or off. The analogy doesn't really apply to everyone. Home is wherever your family is, not the structure.

To an investor especially of high end real estate, living in it for a couple of years makes a lot of sense.

Oct 31, 2011 04:09 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Bill,

I have seen these covers, and not in cars, but on furniture. Very weird, of course.

Oct 31, 2011 04:37 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Jeanne - may not really different. I did not think about the way military families move every two years, thanks for adding it. However, you were selling because you had to move, and my guy did not go anywhere. He stayed in the same realtively small town, he was just living in one of his investments so that he had a write off. He had more properties than one, and he would sell them whichever sells first, no personal attachment.

Oct 31, 2011 04:41 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Yolanda - it is yes and no.

"To an investor especially of high end real estate, living in it for a couple of years makes a lot of sense." I remember long ago when Gorbachev started Perestroika and the society soften a little bit, and foreigners started coming to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there was a new pehnomenon - international prostitutes.

And I remember how the government was trying to fix them making them work a regular job in the attempt to rehabilitate them. It did not work. when they got used to pay the hotel doorman $50 to get in, they had to work a month for $100.

Not a great example, but I simply did not think of anything better. There is also some sole erosion involved

Oct 31, 2011 04:45 AM
Yolanda Hoversten
Self Employed - O'Fallon, IL
Referrals for O’Fallon, IL & the Metro East

Admittedly Jon, I have no first hand knowledge of investing in then USSR. Sorry about those prostitutes, but I wouldn't know about that either. I thought you were talking about investors where you're at in FL... my mistake. lol

Oct 31, 2011 08:46 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Yolanda - it is funny. My fault, bad comparison. Still do not know a better one.

But let's take the real estate crisis here. So many people did short sales, whether they could pay, or couldn't.

Now there is a new knowledge. Contract does not mean much, as if you press hard enough, you can get away with things, for which you specifically accepted liability.

Now, going forward, we lost our "virginity" and now know that we can gamble, lose, and then walk away.

making the whole mortgage and credit situation a bit more like Las Vegas.

Got lucky - cool. Lost, then do not honor the debt.

Oct 31, 2011 09:03 AM
Lynn B. Friedman CRS Atlanta, GA 404-617-6375
Atlanta Homes ODAT Realty - Love our Great City - Love our Clients! Buckhead - Midtown - Westside - Atlanta, GA
Concierge Service for Our Atlanta Sellers & Buyers

Dear Jon -
Well, I like your comment -
Too often I see customers, telling me that they are looking for a great deal, and failing to see the difference between the investment and a home.

Have a happy day -
Lynn

Oct 31, 2011 06:06 PM
EC, JF, Double R and Zoey the Cool Cat
Russel Ray Photos - San Diego, CA

I think part of today's problem is that people see their homes as investments and cash machines.  I have been in my condo for 10 years, and its home.  I resisted the urge to make it a cash machine several years ago.

Nov 04, 2011 01:10 PM
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