patrick.net

Roberto...My Father was a Silver and Gold believer. He bought Silver at $50 an ounce in 1981 or right around that time. He bought Gold around that time also for app $850 per ounce..
He was a hard working truck driver and put all his money into Silver and Gold thinking it would go to $200 per ounce and $2k per ounce within a few years. Well, we know what happened. 33 years later Silver is somewhere around $30 per ounce and Gold is around $1600 per ounce which means on Silver he never made any money and only the last few years did Gold recover.
When my dad died in the late 90's I think Silver was like $5 per ounce and Gold was around $200 per ounce?

On the other hand he bought a small rentalhouse in a lower blue collar area for $59k at that time. He refiinanced several times and pulled out over $100k in tax free money and today the house has been long paid for. During the 30 plus years of owning the house it collected rental income of app. $350000.
plus tax deductions, tax free money and provided shelter for many people. At the Peak of the market it was worth close to $400k. In todays currrent market it is valued around $250k and going up again. My Father passed away in the late 90's but My brother and I inherited the house and Silver and Gold. Meanwhile the Gold and Silver sit in a Safe deposit box producing no income, no dividends, no tax deductions and the Silver is still not worth the price my Dad paid forit 32 years ago?

That does not count the loss of buying power of $50 32 years ago per ounce of silver compared to $30 per ounce today.It is a lose, lose situation. The only bright side to it is MY Brother and I did not have to pay for it so anything we get is a 100% gain if we ever sell. The RE investment despite ups and downs in the market has ALWAYS paid a dividend and produces income every single month, year afer year. Oh yea, there are some repairs that need to be made every now and then.

Do the Math and see which investment is better?

ROberto, as you know from your own experience RE is the best investment there is. Let these other naysayers keep renting if they want to. That means there will be more deals out there for smart investors plus...we need someone to pay the rents to us riht?

Roberto, man, I am not sure what is worse...that you let the bear-trolls troll you so successfully, or that you take yourself so seriously. Honestly, 95% of the people on here, and across America, have no interest in RE investment, nor will they ever. Between this and digging up year-old threads to say "neener" really just makes you look like a tool. Most people in here aren't denying that you have made the right financial moves given the economy we have, but the gloating really calls into question the personal character of someone that claims to be so successful.

I used to like reading your posts back when they had thoughtful content in them.

Roberto,

Patrick has the Ignore tool built for a reason :)

I agree with bmwman, 'don't feed the trolls' is usually a good guideline to follow.

I agree with you on the empty land situation. I think now is a good time to purchase small to medium resenditial lots and I think you would be in a position for them to double in value in the next few years. With building starting up again and RE prices going up I think now is the time. I am talking about cheap, low end lots in up and coming inner city areas. Not large lots on the outskirts of towns or in the desert. With Builders coming back to the market and prices going up it only makes sense for this to happen. I had a chance in the mid 90's to buy 12... 50 X100 lots next to each other near Oakland Calif in a pretty rough area for $7k each. I passed on it and another investor bought all of them and them was able to subdivide them into 25 x 100 lots with County approval. So he had 24 lots now. 5-6 years later during the boom he sold each one for $125-$135k each! That os over $3 million dollars he made off of a $84k investment. He never even pinded a nail!!

Of course I don't expect that to happen anytime soon but I cam easily see future in fill lots in the same area selling for $50k or more. Right now you can still find some around $20-$30k.

I can see where one might have a philosophical aversion to using the Ignore feature on here, but it really is a god-send. It isn't like an addiction where you lose control and start to ignore everyone that disagrees with you. There really just are some posters on the interwebs that are there solely to hassle everyone else, and ignoring trolls is the only way to get them to go away!

bmwman91 says

Roberto, man, I am not sure what is worse...that you let the bear-trolls troll you so successfully, or that you take yourself so seriously. Honestly, 95% of the people on here, and across America, have no interest in RE investment, nor will they ever. Between this and digging up year-old threads to say "neener" really just makes you look like a tool. Most people in here aren't denying that you have made the right financial moves given the economy we have, but the gloating really calls into question the personal character of someone that claims to be so successful.

I used to like reading your posts back when they had thoughtful content in them.

Agreed. I like Roberto's post when he's dealing with data, and I'm glad he found success in Phoenix. Not many people would have the guts to move into the desert where the bubble collapsed so drastically, and turn that into a money making opportunity. I know I couldn't do it, so props to Roberto.

But the constant trashing of other people makes it all hard to read sometimes. Even if people are making a huge mistake buying "gold" or other investments, I think people would be more receptive to opinions on those investments without the "moron", "tool", or "idiot" thrown in for flavor.

That being said buying Gold in the early 2000s really changed my life for the better. :)

bmwman91 says

ignoring trolls is the only way to get them to go away!

The problem with underwaterman is the number of comments, on everything. Once you ignore those it leaves a disjointed thread that is just as useless as skimming through the vast number of comments, he, or she makes.