There were many factors driving the Real Estate BOOM from ~ 2000-2005. Some of these, to varying degrees and in no particular order, include
- shifting portfolios away from stocks (dot.com bust)
- historically low interest rates
- internet/tv based 'discussion' about real estate
- 2nd home buyers
- property flippers
- genuine population growth
- migration dynamics of our population
I highlight below the saga of one gentleman. I am guessing many of you have read about him in the past. It appears that he purchased 10's of properties throughout the southwest within the past few years and apparently made a 7 figure haul from his transactions. From LA, to Vegas, to Phoenix and then Albuquerque, the links below chronicle his path to fortune (and apparently some fame).
To me, this leads to numerous questions. The first group of questions - I wonder just how common was this? Were there hundreds of saavy folks that did as this gentleman did and purchase numerous investment properties? Were there only a handful of folks who purchased at this level - are these folks the true superstars/winners of the boom???
The second grouping of questions I have - did the fast cash that many investors obviously made during the boom permanently damage real estate investing from here on out? Are fewer and fewer traditional investors purchasing with the idea of buy and hold for the long term? Is the only type of real estate investing most folks know about today based on the quick buck and flipping?
The third group of questions I have - are such purchases en masse still taking place? What do the agents in Albuquerque see? What about Texas - do any agents have clients buying 10+ properties? How about North Carolina or Georgia?
I am extremely anxious to get feedback from around the country as to whether this phenomenon still exists in small pockets and if/when you anticipate it returning if it is currently not occurring.
;)
;)
Note that some of these links are a couple of years old...
This guy was a speculator, and I'm not convinced that there's much to be learned here. He made some huge bets and won, made a bunch of money, and has used the proceeds to buy Cartier watches and fancy cars.
Everyone has seen the www.iamfacingforeclosure.com guy by now - he's the flip side of the same story .
If these guys had switched places in time (the first guy started a couple of years later, and the second guy started a couple of years sooner) then their fortunes would have switched as well. The iamfacingforeclosure guy would be wearing the Cartier watches instead of blogging about his impending bankruptcy.
This isn't to knock speculating, by the way. Speculators can do well. It's just that speculating is different from investing, and has a different risk profile. Either speculating or investing might be right for a given person - but the danger comes when you think you're doing one but you're actually doing the other.