10-08-2011, 02:28 AM
davester wrote:
[quote=Microman]...Prices low.
Relative to what? We've just come out of a huge housing bubble where the entire country's housing stock was grossly overvalued and have now suffered a large correction. It would be more accurate to say that prices are now normalized....maybe. They could definitely continue downwards, especially if interest rates inched up. In many parts of the country renting is much more financially sound than buying.
It sounds to me like you haven't done a proper financial analysis. Any income real estate purchase (or any real estate purchase) must be accompanied by a careful analysis that shows where the money is going to come out of the deal. If you don't do that you will almost certainly lose.
Agree w/ davester in spirit, although I've done relatively allright without painstaking analyses prior to my purchases.
There is still a huge amount of uncertainty and potential turmoil in the housing market. There is still potential for things to get much worse.
I would say if you can pay cash and still have a reserve, your plan is a no-brainer. If you have to finance, I'd tread very very carefully, Do you have a sense of what sort of condition it's in and what the asking price will be? Is anything selling in your area? You could end up financing a home at $150k that you could have had as a foreclosure down the road for 50k.