Housing prices

Using myself as an example - my house sounds great in the last 7 years. Definitely worth more than I paid for it, but I've forked over $80,000 in interest, and $75,000 in taxes and insurance for the "investment." That's about the premium it would sell for over what I bought it for. Had I just bought it and not lived in it, it would be a substantial loss in real dollars. It's been a nice place to live though.
Given all that, the way it makes sense for a lot of people, is that they have fairly low income - say sub 50k and also are too undisciplined to save/invest. At the end of 30 years, even though they still don't have a dollar in cash, they have a free place to live/400k or whatever in at least 1 asset.
That scenario is for the Dave Ramsey types.
 
We sold our house in the Denver area last fall when we moved to Asia. I did consider renting it, but I really think that particular area is very due for a correction. The median house price in Denver is now over $400k, and this is for absolute crap that needs a lot of work. I don’t regret selling it at all, and we’re staying out of the market for a few years until some sanity returns.
Same reason I left Denver... can't justify paying half a mil for a cookie cutter house.
 
I’ve been doing extremely well in real estate these past 5 years. I started with a single rental 5 years ago and as of this June I’ll have 3. I pay very close attention to the local market and consider myself very savvy when it comes to where I want to park my money. It varies street by street in some neighborhoods. Local knowledge is key.

I think I’m done buying in the current market though. The really good deals are drying up and home prices are rising even faster because interest rates have stayed so low. There is still very strong demand despite the rising prices however.

Personally I’m waiting for the next downturn... The question is whether to buy stock while it’s cheap or another rental property or two.
 
Reviving this thread, what would you do with 300K today to maximize ROI?
A) buy rental property
B) buy stocks
C) travel the world.. life is too short
Asking for a friend...;)
 
I've done very well with the upside in appreciation in real estate. Not so well with cash flow, and that's been disappointing, but appreciation has been outstanding. That said, the market had done even better, I would say, over the last few years. I've always felt like you can't live in a stock and so having a vacation rental you spend one day a week in is a great investment, even if the stock market beats it. I've had a couple of vacation rentals and they flat out don't make enough to compare with the stock market but if you weigh in appreciation, it seems to be about equal to me. Hopefully some people smarter than me will weigh in. I've been looking at dumping real estate and putting the money into a retirement fund. Trying to simplify my life in retirement and vacation rentals can be high maintenance. I'd let "C" get accomplished within your job. Get hired at an international airline and travel the world for work. I did that and sort of had my fill with it pretty quick. I do have 1.4 million miles on Alaska Air and had planned on doing some traveling but with the covid restrictions I really don't have the desire anymore. When I don't have to wear a mask on a plane, I'll think about it. That might be never.
 
My 14 years old son tried to explain to me the concept of crypto currencies and mining. He quickly gave up...

Well, that’s hardly new. It’s been around for over 10 years. Want to really be baffled? Look into NFTs.

You pose a good question with your $300k. While I don’t have that much free cash laying around, I had enough that I needed to figure out what to do with it since inflation was going to make a major dent in it.

Ultimately I invested it in the market. Unless you really like spending tons of time looking into finance, talk to a couple of financial planners and see what they say.
 
I've done very well with the upside in appreciation in real estate. Not so well with cash flow, and that's been disappointing, but appreciation has been outstanding. That said, the market had done even better, I would say, over the last few years. I've always felt like you can't live in a stock and so having a vacation rental you spend one day a week in is a great investment, even if the stock market beats it. I've had a couple of vacation rentals and they flat out don't make enough to compare with the stock market but if you weigh in appreciation, it seems to be about equal to me. Hopefully some people smarter than me will weigh in. I've been looking at dumping real estate and putting the money into a retirement fund. Trying to simplify my life in retirement and vacation rentals can be high maintenance. I'd let "C" get accomplished within your job. Get hired at an international airline and travel the world for work. I did that and sort of had my fill with it pretty quick. I do have 1.4 million miles on Alaska Air and had planned on doing some traveling but with the covid restrictions I really don't have the desire anymore. When I don't have to wear a mask on a plane, I'll think about it. That might be never.

The monthly dollars per door I hear investors strive for is $100-$200. You need a lot of doors or really low carrying costs to make it a good income source. The appreciation has been 18% Year over Year for my properties and I have been able to borrow against them when I needed cheap cash.

My parents gave me similar advice that if times were horrible, could I see myself living in one of my own properties and selling off the rest. That advice has helped me grow a little housing portfolio that is always in demand and seems to be working.
 
I've done very well with the upside in appreciation in real estate. Not so well with cash flow, and that's been disappointing, but appreciation has been outstanding. That said, the market had done even better, I would say, over the last few years. I've always felt like you can't live in a stock and so having a vacation rental you spend one day a week in is a great investment, even if the stock market beats it. I've had a couple of vacation rentals and they flat out don't make enough to compare with the stock market but if you weigh in appreciation, it seems to be about equal to me. Hopefully some people smarter than me will weigh in. I've been looking at dumping real estate and putting the money into a retirement fund. Trying to simplify my life in retirement and vacation rentals can be high maintenance. I'd let "C" get accomplished within your job. Get hired at an international airline and travel the world for work. I did that and sort of had my fill with it pretty quick. I do have 1.4 million miles on Alaska Air and had planned on doing some traveling but with the covid restrictions I really don't have the desire anymore. When I don't have to wear a mask on a plane, I'll think about it. That might be never.
I hear what you are saying about appreciation and cash flow. I bought a property in France a few years ago and it has appreciated very nicely in value already but the cash flow is less than ideal really. I intend to keep it for the long run so time will tell.
I was thinking of investing in an airbnb type of property up north, in New England preferably. But living in New Orleans where real estate is relatively cheap compared to the Northeast, I might be in for a shock....
As far as the stock market, I'm clueless.
 
As far as the stock market, I'm clueless.
Besides my play money, I am all invested in the boggleheads 3 fund couch potato portfolio.

It's done great and has a huge amount of diversification compared to stock picking. It really doesn't have to get too difficult until you are doing family or end-of-life planning.
 
Besides my play money, I am all invested in the boggleheads 3 fund couch potato portfolio.

It's done great and has a huge amount of diversification compared to stock picking. It really doesn't have to get too difficult until you are doing family or end-of-life planning.

Can’t go wrong with that, except for bonds. They just don’t make sense in this environment.
 
Well, that’s hardly new. It’s been around for over 10 years. Want to really be baffled? Look into NFTs.

You pose a good question with your $300k. While I don’t have that much free cash laying around, I had enough that I needed to figure out what to do with it since inflation was going to make a major dent in it.

Ultimately I invested it in the market. Unless you really like spending tons of time looking into finance, talk to a couple of financial planners and see what they say.
I know there are no guarantees investing in the stock market but does it beat inflation at least ?
 
Can’t go wrong with that, except for bonds. They just don’t make sense in this environment.
In this low-rate environment, they suck. I've read some people substituting a portion of their bond allocation to TIPs to protect against that. I've just lowered my percentage of contribution to bonds. I'll be happy I still have bonds in an eventual crash and I can rebalance then.
 
The monthly dollars per door I hear investors strive for is $100-$200. You need a lot of doors or really low carrying costs to make it a good income source. The appreciation has been 18% Year over Year for my properties and I have been able to borrow against them when I needed cheap cash.

My parents gave me similar advice that if times were horrible, could I see myself living in one of my own properties and selling off the rest. That advice has helped me grow a little housing portfolio that is always in demand and seems to be working.
I'm not sure what "per door" means. Are you saying I shouldn't expect to net more than $200/mo on one vacation rental. I was expecting 10 times that but I admit I had no baseline. I'm definitely leaning towards selling out just to simplify my life.
 
I'm not sure what "per door" means. Are you saying I shouldn't expect to net more than $200/mo on one vacation rental. I was expecting 10 times that but I admit I had no baseline. I'm definitely leaning towards selling out just to simplify my life.
Yes, for long-term rentals that would be the monthly net profit.
 
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