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You Don't Believe My Housing Argument? Here's Proof...By
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
You don't believe me? Really? OK, I'll prove it...
You probably won't believe my proof, either. But it is absolutely true. Let me explain...
Yesterday, I wrote, "The U.S. housing bubble is completely over." I said, "Now is time to buy." Houses in America are "the best value they've been in many generations." And I said that you can "pay below-market prices as banks try to unload properties."
Apparently, you don't believe me...
Some readers have told me: "Steve, you keep talking about these real estate deals, but you never show any actual details. Show me some proof."
So today, I'll show you two deals I just heard about. They are incredible...
First up... Grandma's house:
Over the weekend, I got a call from my brother... "Steve, you're not going to believe this... but Grandma's house is up for sale. A bank now owns it. The size of the loan was like $270,000. But the bank is asking just $105,000. So I put an offer in."
"Grandma's house" isn't a code word between my brother and me... He was talking about our actual grandmother's house.
It's a three-bedroom, two-bath house that's a mile from downtown Orlando. It has a huge backyard. It's the house my mom grew up in... I was bathed in the sink at this house. And it's where I spent my first 20 or so Christmases. Years after my grandmother died, when I was grown up, I rented the house from our family.
Five years ago, my mom sold the house for $285,000. The buyer probably spent $60,000 upgrading it... new bathrooms, new kitchen, new deck. And then the buyer lost it to the bank. Now the bank is asking $105,000. My brother just put his offer in.
The realtor told him, "I could rent this place tomorrow for $1,500 a month." Renting it is probably my brother's plan. But he will likely make substantial profits on the house, too, as it goes up in value someday...
The house is roughly 1,500 square feet, with a great lot. So if you assume $100-a-foot building costs, plus a $50,000 lot – that gets you to $200,000. In a good real estate market, it should be worth a lot more than that. So my brother doubling his money is not out of the question.
Stepping back and looking at the big picture, you can see it's finally happening in America. You knew it would someday. The real estate market is clearing. Banks are finally getting their real estate off their books... at any price.
Right now is the moment to make your deal. The time for extraordinary deals like this will pass... quicker than you think.
Here's another example...
"You're not going to believe the deal I just got," a friend here on the Florida coast told me yesterday. "I bought a three-bedroom/two-bath house close to the beach for exactly $100,000. It was a bank-owned property. The bank's original loan on it was something like $270,000."
The story gets crazier... He told me, "The guy who defaulted on the loan still lives in the house. He's paying me rent. I offered to sell the house back to him for $125,000 next year, and higher the next, and so on."
My friend got a great deal. And as he pointed out to me, "The guy who defaulted wins, too... He'll be able to buy his house back from me someday if he wants, for half of what he owed the bank – and it's a nice profit for me. It's crazy."
This is it. This moment, right now, is the bottom in U.S. real estate.
Deals like these only happen at the "V" bottom – the quick dip down and quick recovery at the very bottom. If you want one of these deals, now is the time.
They will NOT be advertised in your local newspaper. You have to seek them out. You have to make the offers on properties. You have to roll up your sleeves and dirty your boots. But it will be worth the effort... if you can swing it.
These are real deals I've described to you. They are happening, right now. I heard about these two in the last 48 hours, and I wasn't even asking these guys what they were up to.
In Florida, some banks are selling houses with $270,000 loans for $100,000. These two stories are proof. But trust me... You will not be able to buy houses for half of replacement cost much longer.
Now is your moment to buy. Get out there. Don't let this moment pass!
Good investing,
Steve
Further Reading:
Self-made millionaire Mark Ford told DailyWealth readers about a terrific opportunity in real estate. You could easily make a profit of $10,800 per year on an investment of just $20,000. Learn more here: How to Make 54% on Your Money in One Year.
Steve is so bullish on real estate, he's personally pursuing some of the greatest values he's ever seen. "The trend may finally be turning in home prices," he writes. "With housing more affordable than ever, and mortgage rates lower than ever, we have incredible upside potential."
Market NotesNATURAL GAS IS SUPER CHEAP... RIDICULOUSLY SUPER CHEAP Even though "Brent Crude" is getting cheaper, it's still a heck of a lot more expensive than natural gas...
In last Saturday's "Chart of the Week," we highlighted the budding downtrend in Brent Crude. While most Americans only know our domestic "West Texas Intermediate" price, "Brent Crude" is a better measure of what the rest of the world is paying for oil. Right now, it's paying around $107 per barrel.
Brent's triple-digit price level is making natural gas one of the world's great "energy bargains." Like its energy cousin oil, natural gas has many uses. It's used as a building block to make chemicals, fertilizers, and plastics. It's also used to fire power plants and heat homes and factories. And it's becoming widely used as a motor fuel.
You can expect all of these uses to increase. In just the past 10 years, America has gone from expecting to import natural gas to boasting the world's largest supplies. Advances in drilling technology are allowing energy firms to find more and more of the stuff every day. The U.S. is now "the Saudi Arabia of natural gas," which has resulted in a flood of cheap gas.
You can see this cheapness with the "Brent Crude/natural gas ratio." This ratio compares the prices of these energy cousins. Years ago, this ratio drifted between six and 10. Sometimes, the ratio would even spike to 14, which indicated really cheap natural gas. But just recently, the ratio spiked to 32. Gas is ridiculously cheap, which is why we're going to start using a lot more in America.
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