Real Estate Investing and Home Ownership

If you already own your home, you will probably make money in real estate without ever buying another property.

The home you are currently buying with a mortgage is probably one of the most valuable appreciating assets you will ever own.

You are making money by living in your own home, even if you never buy any additional property. This, within itself, makes you a successful real estate investor.

I have been fascinated with real estate investing for many years, but it all began with a startling discovery 35 years ago.

In 1970 I had bought a little house for my family in the Green Hills area of Nashville. It wasn't much, but it was adequate and it was home.

In 1978, we decided to sell.

We sold that little house for $67,000.

That's when the light bulb went off in my head.

I was shocked with a discovery that led me to fall in love with real estate investing.

I suddenly realized that we had made $40,000 profit in 8 years JUST LIVING IN THAT HOUSE!

We had not painted it. We didn't add any rooms. We built no patio.

We just lived in it!!!

We had made $5000 a year simply living in that house.

I began to think to myself: what if I had two similar houses that generated $10,000 a year profit? Or, five houses that generated $25,000 a year profit? I began to fantasize the possibilities. This awareness launched my real estate investing career.

Soon I was buying millions of dollars in real estate.

But the real challenge was buying real estate without any capital. I had just experienced a serious business failure, and had no cash reserves and no credit. I learned how to buy a house with only a $10 bill. I never walked into a bank to ask for a loan, and I never applied for a mortgage. But conquering the challenge led to buying $10 million in real estate in only four years.

That whopping $40,000 profit that went into my pocket from simply living in that house I sold in 1978 was just the tip of the iceberg.

I still live in the Green Hills area of Nashville. I pass that same house every day that we owned in the 1970s. It recently went on the market again, and it quickly sold.

This time that same house sold for $200,000.

I don't know what's been done to improve the interior, if anything, but no exterior changes have been made to that house. It's still about 2000 sq.ft. The lot is the same size. But the value has increased significantly.

Discovering this concept has made real estate investing very exciting to me.

Phil Speer, Ph.D., started his real estate investing career 25 years ago. With no credit and using only a $10 bill, he purchased $1 million in properties his first year, and accumulated $10 million in properties within 4 years. http://www.CashinHouses.com/

He was featured in a Wall St.Journal editorial as most successful investor in the Nothing Down Real Estate Movement. He won a Caribbean cruise as top investor of the year. In his hometown of Nashville, he has been a businessman and Human Resources Consultant for 30 years. He is an author, speaker and seminar director. Anyone can profit in real estate investing, even without cash or credit. 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" at 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.