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April 21, 2012 - 8:26 am

I wish:)

My Dad was at school with him. He got caned for something ‘Lawsie’ did.

I did work experience at the ABC in ’84. I was greeted like royalty when I walked in and got sent to a magnificent corner office. I didn’t know what to do so sat there and waited. Someone walked in and the first question they asked was ‘are you related?’ I wasn’t so I was unceremoniously moved out into the corridor…

Then I bought a property on the Hawkesbury. And everyone assumed I was related to the John because he had always liked the area and had a house there. I finally convinced them I wasn’t and then bought a boat called Touchwood. Unbeknowns to me the John had bought a boat called Touchwood similar to mine and then had a fleet of ‘Touchwood’s. It is now ten years since then, and I think the locals _finally_ believe me:)

In short – I wish I was – the money would be very welcome:)

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April 20, 2012 - 11:47 am

BJG88 – it is always oh-so-simple in the beginning:)

Remember the half life…. It WILL get you in the end:) or should that be

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April 18, 2012 - 8:39 am

Shows the great JC knows as much about the US as I do:) I suppose I could say I am in good company. Or I believe I am in good company – depending on your perspective:)

At least I think we could all agree that in both my and JC's opinion the finest piece of machinery ever constructed is the SR-71. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with real estate except it used lots of it to work….

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April 18, 2012 - 6:13 am

One of my favourite US quotes comes from the only person in the entire world who seems to think exactly like me – Jeremy Clarkson.

'I am sure, if you live in the mid west and eat grits for breakfast, the USA would be tailor made for you and a truly wonderful place to live. Unfortunately, I do not!'

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April 15, 2012 - 11:27 am

“Welcome to (insert entity of frustration and incompetence here) How may I be of assistance?”

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April 15, 2012 - 11:06 am

OK Freckle, enough:

‘……China’s problem isn’t US consumption but shifting its economy from primarily export orientated to a more internal consumerist model. China has significant structural and debt problems to contend with and isn’t as healthy as many think. Growth is slowing and if China is to successfully restructure its economy into a more sustainable model it has to get growth down to around 3-5%. That’s a big problem for us but another story……’

I do not believe China is all that healthy at all – I would argue that anyone here is safer (not racing around NW WA and/or buying silver shares) than you have portrayed yourself to be.

The point in the paragraph above is exactly what I/we have pointed out. I have appreciated your input, but in real terms you are simply now requoting the gist of many other arguments and they are irrelevant to the discussion on this thread. We are here BECAUSE we basically agree with you – and we aren’t buying silver. Or selling it – as you should be:)

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April 15, 2012 - 10:51 am

Nothing wrong with Sect 8 – if you have the tools to do the work. Emma171 thrives on it as I am sure many others would. Not my cup of oolong, but please if you venture down this path, give Kyler a call and spend some time with him – he ‘da man who will teach you most:)…

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April 13, 2012 - 10:30 pm

Freckle; I could write a near book on response, but the essence in relation to this subject is that most of these guys are buying property (as Jay has said) for cash.

None of the smart money here is doing anything other than hedging (though few with the space or ability to grow the size of hedge Jay has managed) so you are preaching to the converted in most cases.

I still don’t think you are quite getting the ‘cash’ component of this market. On the one hand you are quoting billions of loans and on the other saying millions of houses in foreclosure. I get the point but buying houses for cash is non derivative – by definition.

Localising the unfinished global finance issue (agreed yet to be played out) to the US, I argue that a ‘normal’ response to massive amounts of cash being sent to banks would be inflationary. The banks paid the Fed back. I don’t like the reasons they did it, but did it they did:) In this case the Fed -wanted- inflation, but the money did not get into the system where it was wanted. Hence QE.

It is a highly complex arrangement US debt and there are as many economists/financial historians as there are opinions. The US can support itself (if you reduce the crippling social security/health care payouts) easily with the aid of China. China is as desperate for the US to consume as the US consumer is. China is also still buying Greek bonds I understand for much the same reasons. It has no domestic consumer market to feed its economy so it needs exports. Exports come at a cost….

All this gets away from the point of this discussion. CASH is being paid for homes. There are no loans on this stuff, excluding a few hard money guys and Aussie LOC’s etc. Buy in a good area with guaranteed tenant and you cannot get a safer investment from a GFC point of view. In fact I would suggest that almost everyone here is buying this stuff _because_ of their desire to hedge. To argue a worse scenario than has already been played out in the US is to argue social breakdown. If that happens we get Kyler with his hollow points and head up to the big hedge at Jay’s:)

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April 13, 2012 - 12:17 pm

pc9: Keep asking questions – you are doing the right things. Your question above seems so innocent and so well meaning. In an Aussie sense its normal – But there is no way Kyler could answer it without telling you a lifetime of stories. The market is just soooo different. If you really want to learn the answer I would suggest you travel and meet up with Kyler and spend a fortnight with him dealing with the issues he deals with on a day to day basis. If it were me I would say something like ‘I’ll be your apprentice for 10 days unpaid and in return I will send you and your partner to LAS for a weekend as thank you’. That would be like getting a real estate masters degree in record time and an experience that has cost me millions and 10 years to learn….JMHO:) I don’t care if Kyler is 17yo – what he knows is stuff that Australians just do not and will never see. If you can watch an ‘expert’ deal with that – I promise you that nothing you come across in Oz will ever be a problem…

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April 13, 2012 - 7:20 am

kylermrice wrote:

Enter a young Kyler on his way to 1000 doors who will relieve them of their worries for pennies in the dollar:)

I'm probably one of the youngest investors on here (that is doing well, no comment on the 23 year old with the horror stories in AZ) and I'll gladly keep taking the pennies on the dollar deals.

I am sure she has horror stories in the myriad of other places she has ‘invested’ in as well – just doesn’t know about them yet:)

Right place, right age, right attitude, right skills – you are going to kill it Kyler, keep it up!!

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April 12, 2012 - 11:31 pm

I would be surprised if new ghettos (maybe a bit harsh) are not created in some of these areas. In the nicest possible way I can put it, some less scrupulous Aussie marketeers (and I don’t think I have come across a ‘scrupulous’ one come to think of it) are totally out of their depth and being taken for a major ride by those in the US who can smell ‘fool’ and ‘money’ a mile off. The Aussie buyers are the ones who pay and I suspect it will take them months – if not years to work out how badly they have bought. Enter a young Kyler on his way to 1000 doors who will relieve them of their worries for pennies in the dollar:)

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April 12, 2012 - 7:29 pm

Never let it be said we think for ourselves Kyler:) Absolutely no room in this market for contrarian investing. I guess the more familiar a US city is familiar with Aussie foibles the better:)

ATL properties are ‘pretty’ and the place has visual similarities to bits of Oz – people also have a fetish for high headline returns so it fits the bill. My sister (emma171) said to me last night she reckons you have to buy $20-30k (thereabouts) less in ATL compared to a place like LAS to make up for the extra maintenance (lawns, termites etc). Interesting point.

As long as you stay away from HOA’s you should be fine. Then all you have to do is manage the place – and we all know how easy that is:)

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April 12, 2012 - 7:31 am

See my post under Foreclosure… To add to a litany of US banking dramas, up to and including foreclosure (not BofA) through the banks error – proven and retracted after 12 months. Accept they are all totally incompetent, do not believe anything they say and get everything you can in writing. Check that the addresses you give them actually print out legibly from their computer system. Get a PERSONS card and make sure they understand you WILL call THEM when there is a problem. Make sure everyone has your email address. If you assume as a matter of course everything will go wrong (and believe me you cannot anticipate what will go wrong, they never cease to surprise me) you will minimise your annoyance when disasters happen.

I think US banking has a half life. You may get through a year without something going wrong, but another 6 months will exponentially increase the opportunity for bastardry in any number of forms to occur:)

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April 12, 2012 - 12:00 am

Buzzer wrote:

Thanks everyone for their replies.

I've been in Jax for a few days now and have been having a look around at a few different areas and properties. We're in a condo at the beach, which is a nice laid back area.

Carrying on from my previous visits, this country just continues to strike me as one of total contradictions: –
There are churches everywhere (and I mean, everywhere – huge, monstrous churches), yet the crime rate is so high and murders are so common. Everyone appears to be so friendly and helpful, yet so many people seem willing to rip other people off. It's the most civilised nation in the world, yet so many people are living in poverty. There are so many new ideas and inventions that come from the US, yet the banks still can't seem to get themsleves into the internet age and seem to want to do all their business face to face with cash and checks. I could go on. It's a very, very interesting place, to say the least!

Amazingly, after what has happened over here in the housing market, there are still financial institutions advertising housing loans to low income earners at 3% deposit etc. I even saw an ad yesterday stating that re-financing is possible on "upside down loans" (negative equity) of up to 150%! Very interesting. Meanwhile there are foreclosed homes up for sale all over the place! There aslo seems to be more rental properties available than I thought there would be.

Off to the beach for a walk to try to clear my head! Weather is great.

What he said:)

The more you get to know the US the more weird it is. It is so familiar, but it isn’t. Buzzer is doing everything correctly. What is scary is people who buy without having the first hand experience Buzzer is getting – you WILL lose money if you do not understand what it is you are dealing with.

PS: I am not in any way Anti-USA.

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April 11, 2012 - 11:57 pm

worldinvestor wrote:

I know they can close your account if you do not have a minimum of $250 each month.

As I mentioned have not had any issues, however will be going to Atlanta in May, will be organising cheque (check) book for each account, friend who recently came back mentioned that this was quite a saga, looks like a couple of hours to sort this one out.

WI

It took me a year to close a Wells account when it had $0 in it. I still get statements though:)

Cheque books take days/weeks – not hours….

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April 11, 2012 - 11:54 pm

On the US banking insanity. I have had the same BofA account since 1998. I have a note owed to me every month and have done for the last 4 years. No auto debit/payments, so there is this guy whose job it is to bank my cheque each month. Physically!! And he does 600 others, each month! Great job:). I just got an email from him saying that BofA have returned the last THREE payments as they are under the impression my bank acct with them has been closed. It wasn’t the day before yesterday when I was in LA and deposited $15k and withdrew $3k, but this is exactly the crazy stuff that infuriates me about the US banking system. It just SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!!!

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April 11, 2012 - 10:27 am

Or…
Use internet banking and then all those regulations are totally unnecessary. Routing number/Acc number and anything gets paid anywhere in the world in less than 12 hours.

It should be that simple….

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April 10, 2012 - 11:33 pm

Money is not being printed, it is being sold to banks at low rates to stimulate borrowing. It is a subtle but very important difference. I get the point you are making, but your explanation is lacking. From the US housing perspective the points you highlight above are extremely relevant. Nothing supported the prices that have been achieved in those 70%/4% pockets, it was raw capitilsm. Take a ‘non foreclosure’ suburb – say where Freckle Senior has been living in a mortgage free house for 30+ years. The only reason he would really care about a further collapse is if the country entered a post apocalyptic era like Mad Max – which didn’t even come close in the depression. There is an outstanding Paul Barry 4corners docco from the early ’90’s that is available online that outlines what you are getting at, but if you are buying assets for cash in a raw capitalist state with real income attached you are as far from the world of the financial alchemist as you can get. I hasten to add that I am not, but I am moving in that direction. I would suggest the mining industry is far more risky than the isolated and population backed properties the guys here are generally buying.

I guess you are alluding to something I think of as a derivative bubble. It will be interesting to watch, but I think you might be looking at this backwards. The US housing market has been (as far as it is possible to be) ‘cleaned’ of almost every derivative it created. For that reason I see it as insulated (again as far as possible and certainly compared to almost anything else I can think of) and therefore ‘safe’ – or at least ‘safer’ than any other market you could name – assuming you can buy something without being ripped off and actually manage the thing properly.

You must get away from the simplistic journalist line of ‘printing money’. Money was thrown at banks to hopefully get it into the system. They basically paid it all back to keep the Feds out of their pockets. The Fed response was then to ‘print money’ which was simply to sell bonds at low rates, which then allows banks to on loan the money at ‘attractive’ rates to get the economy moving again.

Sovereign debt is a very big issue, surely there is a finite amount of money that is possible to be created, but if anything is ‘safe’ I would think it it is the stuff that is being discussed here.

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April 9, 2012 - 10:36 pm

jayhinrichs wrote:

have to drive 90 minutes for Sushi

Which is obviously why you want to stock trout:)

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April 9, 2012 - 9:29 pm

See Jay, again its Australians (or kiwi’s) not being used to scale:) 300acres of Fir trees is a lot of timber, but looking at it another way it is just a very big untrimmed hedge – in the trues sense of the word:)

I look forward to googling your paddock – it is absolutely stunning country up there. You are very fortunate – enjoy it !!