Birth of a Real Estate Investor

In 1968 my father bought the house that I grew up in. At that time it sold for $25,000.00. This was new construction on the biggest lot in the new subdivision. Eight years later my father expanded the house adding another master bedroom and bathroom and a game room. The construction of the addition cost $40,000.00. The house sold in December 2005 for $759,000.00.

During the 60's and 70's my uncle bought 6 different houses. To me it seemed crazy at the time that they should move so often. But I noticed that the houses kept getting better and better. In the late 70's my uncle had a private boat dock in his back yard on the marina. I thought my uncle must make alot more than my father to afford the nice homes and the boat.

I grew up believing that debt was bad and I wanted to pay cash for everything. With that perspective, I never really considered buying a house because I didn't have the money to pay cash for a house.

When I got married and was making a decent salary I finally decided to buy a home. So I went to a first time home buyer's workshop to learn something about buying a house. At the workshop they started talking about homeownership as being one of the first steps towards building wealth, and how a married couple could realize $500,000.00 in tax free capital gains on the sale of their property. At that moment I realized that my uncle wasn't moving from house to house because he was making enough money to afford something better. He was able to afford something better because he kept moving from house to house.

From that moment, I realized that I had been a fool and should have bought a house long ago. I bought my first property soon after that. Then I started learning everything I could about real estate and real estate investing. I went to seminars and bought books and home study courses. I joined Real Estate Investing clubs and downloaded everything I could find on the internet. My wife caught the real estate fever from me and she became a real estate agent so we would have access to the MLS and a network of real estate professionals.

When my wife started working with real estate agents on a day to day basis, she came to realize how narrow minded many of them are. They would always check box A on a contract because the example contract they used had box A checked. They didn't take the time to understand what box A meant or when you would check box B instead. When she talked about investment strategies that we had been working in her office other realtors had no idea what she was talking about. The others are still trying to use methods that worked a few years ago, when a house was only listed for days before multiple offers above the list price were received.

Now I have much more experience and knowledge of real estate and I want to share that with people just starting out buying their first property. I know there are alot of sites out there to help homebuyers, but they are mostly real estate agents trying to get clients, or mortgage companies trying to sell mortgages. I want to show people how to buy their home the way a professional investor buys property rather than have them led by an agent or a mortgage broker. This is the biggest investment most people make in their lives and they should learn how to do it right. It can make the difference in whether they become wealthy or stay in the same place they are in for the rest of their lives.

I have started a forum where home buyers can come to ask questions and get answers that don't always fit into the box where most real estate professionals live. You can visit here at First Time Home Buyer Forum

Also, if you are looking for a home or information about the Orange County, California area, please visit my wife's site at Orange County Home.net

Buying my first home

I bought my first home in March 2005. I made some mistakes and I have some regrets. Now I am actively involved in the real estate market and I would like to share my experience to help others have a better experience in their quest to become homeowners.

I guess the first topic is the decision to buy a home. I live in Orange County California and the real estate market was booming for many years when I came to the decision to buy. I hadn't really considered buying before because I had put my life on auto-pilot.

Then I met a girl in China and after some time I asked her to marry me. Then I began to re-evaluate my lifestyle. I realized that it is better to pay towards building equity in my own home rather than pay down my landlords mortgage. But my fiancee asked me to wait until she was able to come to the US and help me with the payments. So I postponed pulling the trigger for a couple of years.

I also had a friend who was living in the same apartments who moved out. She was cheated by the property management company when she got her security deposit back. After some research we found out that owner of the apartment complex and also the owner of the property managment company was the most sued person in Orange County. He also made himself a boatload of cash from all the renters. In fact, he made such a large contribution to George W. Bush's campaign against Al Gore that when Bush won, he appointed him as ambassador to Spain.
This left a bad impression with me whenever I thought of the management company.

Still, I was newly married and adjusting to married life so I didn't think much about buying a home again until my lease was almost up. When I got the notice that they were increasing my rent $100/month if I signed a year lease and $125 if I went month to month I decided I would buy a house before my lease expired. I became a very motivated buyer and this is never a good thing. I had little more than a month from the time I seriously started looking until the time I wanted to be in my new home.

The level of motivation is one of the things that led to my making some bad choices along the way. So my first piece of advice is to plan well, and don't be in too much of a hurry to buy a house. The process can take months to make sure you do the best deal for your situation and your needs. This will be one of the biggest decisions in most peoples lives. Take the time to make the right choices and seek out advice from others with more experience. Come to http://www.firsttimehomebuyerforum.com to ask questions and share your experiences with other people making the journey to the American Dream of homeownership.

I will discuss market trends and whether now is the best time to buy in another post. I will be posting here with tips and stories about homebuying regularly.