Tell me what you think?

[shawn0001]

Ok so i have a plan for the future and i am wonderin what you guys all think of it. My girlfriend works for a home building company so were going to get them to build us a house at a significant discount, build a basement suite then rent out the top floor and the bottom floor for 2000/month each (i know that seems like alot of money but thats what ppl are charging here.) Then use some of that money to pay the mortgage payment every month. Then continue to build and rent until i cant slowly pay off each house. Then once they are all paid for i can sell them and have a significant amount of money. Im thinking at least 6 houses.

Let me know what you guys think.

[Jason_Els]

Depends where you are and your housing market. Real estate is taking a dive. Now, if you could build apartments and rent them out, then great. As people default or get priced out of the housing market the demand for apartments will be greater.

Talk to the realtors in your area about what the market is doing where you are and then go look at the National Board of Realtors for figures to see if what the realtors are telling you is accurate. Be SURE you can rent out apartments where you are. Lot of towns and villages are very picky about legal apartment zoning and don't like to give variances to apartments as apartments don't put as much money in the tax coffers as single-family dwellings do.

You should also look at the bigger picture of where you live. What the primary industry in the area is and if the area will weather a recession well. I'm assuming you're in the US but it still pays to follow this carefully.

What you may want to do is wait for housing to really tank, pick up a few houses cheap and then rennovate them into apartments. Again, zoning is of primary importance here so be on best terms with your zoning board.

The US is facing a no-win situation, a rapidly declining dollar or raising interest rates a great deal more to prevent the dollar's decline. Either will hurt housing no matter where you are. The best deals are yet to come.

I joke with people, "I'm not buying real estate until I get a free condo when I open a checking account at a new bank."

Even if I do joke about it, keep in mind, a great deal depends on where you live. Know your real estate market inside and out before deciding to invest in it. Loving a house and a town and living in it aren't the same thing as investing in its real estate market.

[Jason_Els]

Duh, just saw in your previous post that you're in Canada.

If your city gets its primary business from raw materials or commodities, then I'm much more optimistic. They're in a bull market and Canada's economy is going to weather the US recession much better than it has any other because, like the '70s, your commodity-based market will benefit tremendously from the current commodity bull market which has another good 8-15 years to run.

Canada's on a very nice (and long overdue) upswing.

P.S. Energy is still going to be expensive and become more so. If you're building, look into zero-net energy construction. At the very least you'll want to capitalize on passive solar and high-efficiency energy usage. You'll save bales of money in the long run.

[shawn0001]

well id like to build apartments or condos one day but i have to have at least 3 million for that. So im going to start out smaller with houses. The city that i live in is the fastest growing city in canada. Theres 5 famillies moving here every day, its crazy. Thanks for the opinion though.

[Raise Capital]

Ok so i have a plan for the future and i am wonderin what you guys all think of it. My girlfriend works for a home building company so were going to get them to build us a house at a significant discount, build a basement suite then rent out the top floor and the bottom floor for 2000/month each (i know that seems like alot of money but thats what ppl are charging here.) Then use some of that money to pay the mortgage payment every month. Then continue to build and rent until i cant slowly pay off each house. Then once they are all paid for i can sell them and have a significant amount of money. Im thinking at least 6 houses.

Let me know what you guys think.

How long do you think this is going to take?

[shawn0001]

i figure ill aquire about 6 houses in the next 2 years slowly pay them off then when i feel its time, sell them and use that money as a downpayment for the hotel/condo/aprartment.