IrvineRenter said:
You are starting to "jump the shark" a bit here. Yes, there are people buying distressed assets, and Warren Buffet will be active because he is buying assets below their cashflow value. You are clearly starting to confuse cashflow investment is speculation. Buffet is not speculating. He is buying a cashflowing investment with a preferred return of 10%, plus he is getting upside equity participation. It is a great deal.
Sorry. Let's get back to the original plot.
IrvineRenter said:
Your little quip about "(if they have any)" sounds dismissive and condescending. You have no idea the financial condition of people on this board, but I can assure you it is not populated by many destitute renters with no net worth.
This is true, I don't know the financial condition of anyone here. The point I was trying (unsuccessfully) to make was that one reason valuations could be tied directly equal to purchasing power (as believed by the vocal majority of IHB) is because that is what would work best for them. They "believe the lie" as Seth Godin says because it fits within their world view. In some parts of the country the method that you preach is true, just not in most parts of Orange & LA County.
IrvineRenter said:
You are making a rather silly "strawman" argument about "equivalent rents are out only asset." I don't know what this means. The idea of real estate being valued at equivalent rents does get a lot of support mainly because that is what real estate is worth. Take away the fantasies of speculative profits, and that is all people would be paying.
Worth has the ability to change with development, zoning changes, an area becoming "hip", etc. The one thing you can't change is the location. Sometimes that works in your favor and other times it doesn't. Just because an investor is willing to accept a certain rent level doesn't mean that is the most a property is worth. If you don't have anything but the money that you have for rent to "redirect" to a purchase then 95% of the time you'll be priced out of the market.
If we look at values like a bell curve... your theory is to the extreme left. Valuations at the "top of the market" could be to the far right. Occasionally both will happen. But it's in the standard deviation from the middle view (up and down) where most properties are priced.
IrvineRenter said:
Your investor has properly managed his debt to increase is cash-on-cash return on his investment. A lot of smart people did this while interest rates were low. This is not against the advice anyone is giving on this board. For this investment to cashflow, he undoubtedly bought the property years ago when cap rates were much higher. You make money in real estate when you buy. When you sell you merely convert it to cash. If you are fortunate enough to sell it during a period of irrational exuberance, you profit more than you hoped. If not, you make your projected rate of return. If you overpay and speculate, you must sell during a period of irrational exuberance to make any money at all.
Thank you for the compliment for my investor. I agree that speculators that overpay and must sell at anytime are foolish. However, if someone "accidently" overpays on the purchase price but they have the ability to maintain responsible ownership even if they're "upside down" eventually they'll come out on top again. Yes, this is not as efficient and profitable but it is consistent with my view that you buy great properties (in whatever price range) and you develop a long-term financial plan that is sustainable you'll do fine.
After your initial loan you can't guarantee that you'll be able to refi or resell any time soon so at purchase you need to be wise in your approach.
IrvineRenter said:
No you can't make money in real estate in any type of cycle. You can't short residential real estate, so there is no way to profit from the decline. (There are some futures contracts you can play with and other methods). You can speculate in any market, and most often you will get burned.
The only way to "short" is to shift risk. If you see that we're at the top of a market (and financing costs are reasonable) that is the perfect time to cash-out some of the equity. The bank will agree to it because you got an appraisal. If you wait the access to capital will disappear. Even if you don't think the equity is "reasonable" you can game it to your favor. So if the trend is going down, you can "freeze" these assets in a very low-risk investment that will help offset your financing costs but mostly to keep it safe. When prices drop and you now have capital to deploy and buy at a bargain.
NOTE: This method, while viable, requires a sophisticated and disciplined approach.
IrvineRenter said:
I don't think you are getting how cap rates work. Cap rates increase during recessions and during periods of rising borrowing costs. Cap rates represent the lowest rate of return an investor will accept on an investment, and this changes over time. Also, current cap rates are only justified by anticipated appreciation. Believing that cap rates justify current prices is as erroneous as believing comparative sales justify current prices.
I know that a cap rate will "change" over time. The point I was making is: cap rates tell you where a property is at, based on current rents, when you're buying the property. When you buy you effectively lock in that rate. Yet the market for that asset will go up and down as you own it. If rents don't change a new price that people are willing to pay would not impact your rents but it would change the quoted cap rate. But that assumes that your willing to sell. If you're smart you let the real estate work at producing rents during recessions and periods of rising borrowing costs. The higher cap rate says it's not a time to sell. But if that's true then the exact worst time to sell is also by definition the best time to buy.
IrvineRenter said:
You can believe current pricing is justified if you wish. I have no doubt you believed 2006 pricing was also justified even though prices have dropped 20%-25% locally. People believe what I write and what others write at the IHB because we have been right. We called the top of the housing market. We outlined why prices were going to crash, and it has been occurring just as we foretold. I made a series of predictions in early 2007 forecasting the decline in prices. My only error so far has been being to conservative. The price crash has been happening as we said it would. Is it any wonder people find the writings here as credible on where pricing will bottom? More credible than those who believed prices would not have dropped in the first place?
I don't know that current prices are justified. What I am saying is that it is possible. Even if they're a little too high the "deal" that you're waiting for might not exist in a few months / years.
By 2006 we stopped buying and I was advising people to access capital while they still could. We were both right about that. Where we differ is in how much the "market correction" should be. It is possible for you to be right about the crash and wrong about the bottom? Based on your method of valuation I believe that time will prove you wrong for OC & LA. Did a house selling for a record price in 2006 make sense to you? No, but only time showed that this was irrational exuberance (or too much too fast). But does a house selling for the equivalent rental rates make sense either? No, not in OC or LA. That's the opposite of irrational exuberance (or projectile vomiting).
Anyone who doesn't recognize that prices go up (and down) in real estate is a fool. You and I are not fools.
There were a lot of fools who had a short timeline and not enough resources to play at the high-stakes tables. They lied to themselves and said they were investors. But true investors leave themselves a lot of outs. In the example mentioned before, appreciation wasn't a factor in the purchasing decision. After it had appreciated faster than we thought possible it was sold. It was put on the market as almost a joke (i.e. $100,000 more than he thought he could get) and when a viable offer came in he jumped. That was near the top of the apartment market in recent years. For him to say, I'm looking to buy again it tells me that I'm not alone. Maybe others here silently agree too.