Real Estate Investing Produces Extraordinary Profits

Imagine making $5000 a year from real estate investing without recognizing you are real estate investing!

Real estate values are so dynamic. The marketplace is always fluid and changing. The only constant is the eventual escalation of value.

Suppose you had owned that little piece of property in your neighborhood years ago where McDonald's is located today. If you had owned it for 20 or 30 years, what would your profit be from that sale?

Real estate values fluctuate in cycles and according to a myriad of owner situations. However, the price of real estate almost always goes up.

Let me give you a real-life example. (And if you are old enough, you have your own similar story!)

In 1970 I bought a little house in the Green Hills section of Nashville for $27,000. You know it wasn't much because of the price. But it was home, and the location was respectable.

In 1978 I sold that house for a bigger house in Green Hills. The sales price for that little house I sold was $67,000.

That's when the light bulb went off in my head! I suddenly realized that I had profited $40,000 from that little house in only eight years. I hadn't added any more rooms or a patio. And I hadn't even painted. I was witnessing first-hand how property values increase, often drastically!

I made a $5000 profit per year from that house, just from living in it.

It was an amazing discovery to me. It had been a reality forever, but it was no longer a vicarious experience in my mind. It was alive, because it was happening to me. And it changed my view of the world. That personal experience led me to start a real estate investing career.

I still live in Green Hills, and I pass that house every day on the way to the post office. That house recently sold for $200,000. Same size. Same location. But a phenomenal increase in value.

Asset growth from $27,000 to $200,000 is pretty astounding. And while the asset growth ratio varies from property to property (and city to city), real estate values generally increase. Even owning and maintaining your personal residence is cash generation right under your nose. I can't believe I was so dumb not to see it before it became so apparent.

If even home ownership can be so profitable, can you fathom the profitability in real estate investing?

Phil Speer, Ph.D., started his real estate investing career 25 years ago. Without the availability of credit and using only a $10 bill, he purchased $1 million in properties in his first year, and had accumulated $10 million in properties by his fourth year. He was featured in a Wall St.Journal editorial as most successful investor in the Nothing Down Real Estate Movement, and was honored with a Caribbean cruise as top investor of the year. In his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, he has been a businessman and Human Resources Consultant for 30 years. He is an author, speaker and seminar director. To learn how to profit in real estate investing, even without cash or credit, read his report at at http://www.CashinHouses.com/. Subscription is free to his Fix-up Ezine. He and other contributing authors provide free articles and resources on real estate investing at his online "Academy of Advanced Real Estate Investing Techniques" - http://www.AAREIT.com/.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.