Question for you high net worth individuals... [real estate investments]

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jzzmn88
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Question for you high net worth individuals... [real estate investments]

Post by jzzmn88 »

Hi all,

For you high net worth individuals (talking $3 million+), how much of that was attributed to real estate investing? I always keep reading and hearing from friends that real estate is the way to true wealth. There are a few reasons why I haven't gotten into RE yet:

1. Have no experience in it except for buying my home.
2. Not interested in becoming a landlord. Hear horror stories of crazy tenants.
3. I live in southern California and housing prices are sky high right now. Not that I can't invest in other areas, but being a long distance landlord is tough.

I can't help but think I'm missing the boat by not getting into RE but what say you, fellow Bogleheads? Does one need RE in their overall portfolio to achieve true wealth?

Thanks!
Fclevz
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Fclevz »

Zero.
It may just depend on where you live, but I don't even know anyone who has made any money from residential real estate. In fact except for one person, dozens of people I know selling million $ + homes have all been lucky to just break even.
rai
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by rai »

Just my house.

My HNW is due to high paying job, retirement accounts (much higher than typical 401k) plus high saving and a bit of lucky stock picking AAPL and MO approaching 10x gains.

I'm not avocating stock picking and in hindsight I've picked some real stinkers but I locked onto AAPL like 7-8 years ago around the time of iPad / iPhone being successful products.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon. | | "You say that money, isn't everything | But I'd like to see you live without it." - Silverchair
Jack FFR1846
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

Zero.....
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jabbahop
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by jabbahop »

Zero. Overall w have lost money on real estate.
Gopherrube1
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Gopherrube1 »

If you think real estate is the way to true wealth, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you...
livesoft
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by livesoft »

Zero. Our McMansion was purchased for less than $200,000 and its value has not kept up with inflation.
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msk
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by msk »

RE is simply like another stock pick. Made 7 figures in RE by being at the right, booming location short of housing, and then made 7 figures when I sold and put most of the proceeds into one stock. Luck counts at least as much as judgement in both venues. RE is more appropriate for those youngsters with an insignificant amount of capital. Gearing the right asset does work!
NYC_Guy
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by NYC_Guy »

I've lost money on real estate. My net worth comes from a high income and a reasonable limitation on my expenses. Savings is the result. The less you make, the more you have to cut expenses to get to the numbers you are talking about.

Take, for example, a professional couple in their mid-30s who are making, combined, $500k per year (after tax) -- think lawyers, doctors, consultants. That couple can spend 60% of net income per year and still be able to retire in their mid-50s with a comparable lifestyle. They will easily have a >$5 mm portfolio and be fully retired at 55. Real estate gains never need to enter the equation.

On the other hand, take a couple in their mid-30s who are teachers. A noble profession. Perhaps with a great pension at the end of their careers. If that couple is making $125k per year (after tax), a $3 million nest egg at retirement (excl the NPV of any pension) is going to be a challenge and require higher than average returns or an extreme savings rate (well in excess of 50%).

A final note on real estate. In my experience, those that have been successful with generating wealth via real estate do it as an active job, not passive investment. If my real estate holdings require me to do things, like find tenants and fix problems, that's a job. I don't believe passive investment in real estate is a better source of returns, per se. But if you want to make a job of it, and actively manage, then that's a career...and a source of income generation based on your skill and not your capital. Not comparable to other types of passive investment.

Put another way, your earnings potential is your greatest source of wealth generation. Your ability to reasonably limit spending is the catalyst.
Last edited by NYC_Guy on Thu May 18, 2017 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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EATaxGuy
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by EATaxGuy »

ten percent
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SmileyFace
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by SmileyFace »

Great question...just from my personal experience and opinion:
I know someone who's path to a slightly larger Net Worth was tied to real estate (happened to buy a house cheap and some rental properties cheap and later sold them at a HUGE gain). On the flip-side - I know someone who lost ALL their Net Worth because they made big bets on real estate at the wrong time and lost (3 highly-leveraged mortgages on rental properties - all lost when the last bubble burst). I view real estate somewhat like the stock market - if you time it right you can make a lot of money - but whether you do or not has a lot to do with luck and little to do with skill.
Having a small amount of rental income from one or two properties is a different story - seems like it can help with some additional income - but as a major net worth builder is questionable to me.
RoadHouseFan
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by RoadHouseFan »

We do not include house in net worth calculations. It is an expense, not really an asset.
remomnyc
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by remomnyc »

We sold our apt and the gains represent 10% of our net worth. In other words, 90% of our NW is a result of saving, investing in index funds and staying the course. I view my home as a place to live, not an investment, and I have no interest in investing in real estate unless it's a REIT fund.
CWhea1775
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by CWhea1775 »

One big difference between real estate and other investing is the use of leverage. I imagine a few people would be a lot richer and a whole lot would be broke if they invested in the markets with 80 - 90% borrowed money (see Depression - Great)
wolf359
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by wolf359 »

Do you realize that you're asking this question on a board that's pretty much dedicated to index funds, or at least low cost investing? My guess is that you'll get a lot of people responding if you asked this question on a real estate forum like Bigger Pockets.

It might also be interesting to ask the question on Mr Money Mustache, because some of his members used the stock path, and others did the real estate path. But while those may be affluent, most won't be 3 million + net worth (they tend to drop out sooner.)

I'm not at the net worth you specify, but I see a path there. I can hit it with either real estate or with stocks.
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John151
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by John151 »

Zero for me too. I bought my condo thirty years ago, and its value hasn’t kept up with inflation. My net worth is the result of frugal living and careful investing, mostly in index funds.
NJFlyer
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by NJFlyer »

I do know a high net worth individual who did it through real estate, although for him it was buying distressed properties, renovating them and selling. He is fortunate in that he lives near the New Jersey Shore where high-end houses sell at a premium and has a skill with renovations that appeal to this segment. He generally finds properties that can be either torn down or can be substantially modified. Yes, he's made a lot of money doing this, but I can say it's a massive amount of work (pretty much seven days a week) with a lot of frustration. I can't say how many times I've heard him say "this is the last house I'm going to do".
hicabob
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by hicabob »

About 15% thanks to the greater bay area real estate boom over the last few decades. Just my personal house but I traded up a couple times.
edge
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by edge »

Not much
arsenalfan
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by arsenalfan »

I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't count home equity in current NW, as I will always need a home. If the taxman is right I do have $1.2 MM in equity. Sometimes I put $1MM in retirement calculations as an event 35 years from now when I downsize. I haven't tried to add our rentals to the NW number either, since they cashflow positive each month & are paying themselves off - and the grand plan has them throwing off cash in retirement 15 years from now.

For you, I'd say don't do RE if you don't want to landlord. There are plenty of other ways to make your nut.

You could add REITs. 3 Days ago I was contemplating Vanguard REIT VNQ versus all the crowdfunding RE options out there to finance flips, get in on commercial/residential hard money loans, etc. The end result of that thread is that I sold my 5% biotech tilt (FBIOX) and added that to my REIT allocation by buying VNQ for the long haul.
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Cruise
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Cruise »

Not counting my residence in NW.

ZERO. Never thought I had skill set to try RE investing.
Bacchus01
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Bacchus01 »

jzzmn88 wrote:Hi all,

For you high net worth individuals (talking $3 million+), how much of that was attributed to real estate investing? I always keep reading and hearing from friends that real estate is the way to true wealth. There are a few reasons why I haven't gotten into RE yet:

1. Have no experience in it except for buying my home.
2. Not interested in becoming a landlord. Hear horror stories of crazy tenants.
3. I live in southern California and housing prices are sky high right now. Not that I can't invest in other areas, but being a long distance landlord is tough.

I can't help but think I'm missing the boat by not getting into RE but what say you, fellow Bogleheads? Does one need RE in their overall portfolio to achieve true wealth?

Thanks!
Very little. It has become more interesting lately, but it wasn't how we got there.
btenny
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by btenny »

I know three people who are very high net worth of at least 8 figures. All three made their money in real estate, two in California and one in Arizona. They are all old and made highly leveraged bets on properties in the 1970-80s and then continued to invest the resulting cash flow. I am not sure those conditions work today.

One lady made money by buying a home a year (for 30 years) to rent in Orange County when it was orange trees. She and her hubby both worked jobs to fund this and did evening repairs and painting and upkeep as well as managing the properties. They quit their jobs after a while and went into the property management business and the escrow business. They got very rich. I do not know anywhere in the US that offers these kinds of opportunities today. Maybe back in 2007 after the crash would have worked for a while. So the issue now is timing and buying at the right price. Are you willing to work that hard and try to time the RE market? Are you willing to manage the properties yourself?

Another friend bought a old commercial building when he was young. It was downtown in a coast city way back when. The city revitalized the downtown areas and his building went up in price so he remodeled and raised the rents. He did it in other locations. He bought old buildings and paid to have them fixed up. Now he owns several commercial buildings. I have no idea how he found the buildings or how much he fixed them up but that is what he does. He loves to shop for stuff every day. He buys junk and finds gold in it. He is a semi hoarder of collectibles and cars and buildings. He lives in Marin county north of San Francisco.

My Arizona friend rode the Scottsdale boom. He bought big land parcels with friends and sold them off for 10-100X the purchase price. One deal I did not have the guts to play in was a 5 year seller finance deal for 40 acre parcels at $2.5K per acre. My friend bought two 40 acre parcels for himself. He sold off 10 acres after 2+ years at $15K per acre. So then he paid off most of what he owed the original seller and still had 70 acres of prime develop-able land. That land sold for $100K per acre 10-15 years later. It sells for $500K per acre now. There were lots of other opportunities.

So yes you can make big $$ in real estate. But you have to take big risks and use a lot of leverage and many times lots of things go wrong. So you can go BK over night.

So there is no free lunch. Good Luck.
MikeG62
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by MikeG62 »

jzzmn88 wrote:Hi all,

For you high net worth individuals (talking $3 million+), how much of that was attributed to real estate investing?
Zero. Wealth accumulated through high paying job (at large corporation) and living below our means (although far from frugally), which allowed for retirement at 53.
Last edited by MikeG62 on Fri May 19, 2017 6:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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LeeInTN
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by LeeInTN »

I know none in this category who made it in RE. For us, it was frugal economic backgrounds that extended through our working lives, Bogle style investing, and just a few years of fairly high income.
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Abe
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Abe »

By your definition ($3 million+), I guess I classify as high net worth with over twice that much now. I live in an economically depressed area and it is worse now than when I started out buying single family houses to rent. I would say roughly $1 million of my net worth can be attributed to investing in single family houses as rentals. And probably another $1 million can be attributed to investing in mortgages, either houses I sold with owner financing (know as creating paper) or mortgages I bought at discount. If I was just starting out again, knowing what I know now, I would probably just go with a 3 fund portfolio and not have the headaches associated with real estate. I would like to sell the houses now as I'm getting older, but most of the houses have depreciated out, so I will have a big tax liability. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Edited to add: As others have pointed out, real estate is just another way, among many, to make money. It has its headaches, true enough, but I learned a lot by owning rental properties. They say experience is the best teacher and I agree with that. There is only so much one can learn from a book. As I posted earlier, I might not have taken the RE path if I had known back then what I know now. But the thing is, I wouldn't know what I know now if I had not invested in real estate. There is a saying, "experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward." So, to the OP, no one can tell you if RE is for you are not. The only way for you to know, is to buy a property and see how it works for you. But keep in mind what Taylor Layimore says, "there are many roads to Dublin", or something like that. I think the main thing anyone needs to do is to save and invest. If you invest in whatever it might be, real estate, stocks or whatever, you will probably be financially independent at some point down the road, and that is what all of us are striving to do.
Last edited by Abe on Fri May 19, 2017 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Meg77
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Meg77 »

You don't need real estate to achieve real wealth. You don't even need stocks technically. Some people build wealth through starting or helping run a business (stock options, etc.). Others do it through real estate (tons of different options here too - development, construction, residential rentals, apartment buildings, fix and flips, hotels, rehab deals...). Others own oil and gas interests. Some just invest in index funds steadily over 2-3 decades.

If you're not interested in being a landlord, don't be. I work with high net worth clients who made their money every which way you can imagine - including lottery winnings and inheritances and divorces. Most ultra high net worth folks started or sold a business in my experience. Many generally affluent folks ($1M-$5M invested) were high earning professionals or inherited some money. There are many paths to wealth and many more paths to success, which can be defined in other ways.
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retired recently
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by retired recently »

Zero. High-paying job and frugal living. I do not include my home in my NW calculations. We bought in 2010 and will sell in two years I guess. I would be very happy if we breakeven.
greenfire
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by greenfire »

I think the way you make money on real estate is to hold it for decades. My dad bought his house in 1952 for $22,000 and sold it in 2004 for $1,600,000.
FoolishJumper
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by FoolishJumper »

If I'm not at your HNW cutoff, then I'm close. Real estate accounts for ~60% of that net worth (personal residence being maybe 8-10% of that 60%). The rest from diligent savings and investments over the years.

I purchased all within a few years after 2008. I could see where prices and rents had landed on the low side, and felt comfortable purchasing real estate in affluent areas that were positive cash-flow. I look today and wouldn't touch anything in these areas; prices are getting a little unsustainable, certainly no where close to cash-flow positive.
grayparrot
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by grayparrot »

Several people in my family have made a lot of money in real estate over time. I did a bunch of analysis on their returns.

You should divide "real estate" into two different categories of "investment". There's the various forms of speculating/improving/flipping/developing etc, and that's in many ways like any other business: a combination of luck, hard work, endurance of volatility, and gradually won expertise over a long period can produce solid returns. So can operating a fast food franchise. Both paths can also be stressful, challenging, sensitive to short term market conditions/changing tastes etc. So as a "business" there is no real magic about real estate, other than some not-insignificant tax incentives of course.

The other form of real estate investing is buying at a reasonable price/rent ratio, obtaining a reasonable fixed rate mortgage, and holding for a long multi-decade period. Over time, after insurance, taxes, and maintenance, the value of your physical property will likely keep pace with your local inflation rate...i.e., real return of 0%. However, you will have a starting net yield from the use value: what you get either from renting the place out to others, or by using it yourself and saving the cost that you would have otherwise paid in rent for an equivalent property. Like stocks, starting yields vary based on starting prices and are currently relatively low; however, so are financing costs, and the effect of gradually rising rents with fixed financing costs can add positive leverage over time.

Overall, in the 40+ year analysis I did on my family's real estate investments, they slightly underperformed stocks, with roughly 8% total nominal returns for the real estate. Presumably the property values weren't quite as volatile as stocks, so this makes sense to me. Of course, the liquidity and minuscule transaction costs for securities vs real properties is also essential to consider.
fareastwarriors
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by fareastwarriors »

Bogleheads in general are not huge fans of RE investing. Nothing wrong with that. Just a different approach.

Check out http://realestateforums.net// .

Most of them are primarily Bay Area based but not exclusively.
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jzzmn88
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by jzzmn88 »

I really appreciate everyone's responses!! It is no small measure of relief to read that most everyone here does not think that RE is necessary to true wealth. I had begun to panic a bit just thinking that I would need to incorporate RE into my portfolio. Just the thought of it was stressing me out.

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing: work hard, save, invest (3 fund portfolio!) and live frugally.

Keep the responses coming. I love reading what others are doing!
Malinois000
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Malinois000 »

Zero. 32+ year career and the good fortune of a high salary, investing is stocks for years and living well below our means.
Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

livesoft wrote:Zero. Our McMansion was purchased for less than $200,000 and its value has not kept up with inflation.
Don't know if I qualify based on OPs standards, nonetheless I will still reply, not much. My home has not kept up with inflation, had I simply invested the money and rented i would be better off, 10 years into home ownership. Had property values kept up with growth rate of property taxes, I would still be behind the growth rate of portfolio.

To make money in real estate you've got to leverage up and be all business. There is little room for empathy in landlording, I've been to court twice representing family interests, it takes time away from your life and lawyers cost $$$. Time - they aren't making more of that yet. Use it wisely.

Focus on career, saving, investing and spend judiciously. Don't say, it's only a dollar, that dollar could be worth 20x over your lifetime, but you will not realize the potential if you waste it. On the flip side of it, you need to live too, don't be a miser, everything in moderation.
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Johio
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Johio »

Zero. I live in the Midwest. If housing prices rise 5% in the next 5 years we will be lucky...
hale2
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by hale2 »

I don't think it's necessary but it helped me a lot. Not counting primary residence it's around 30%. Started with stocks which gave me the assets to be able to take advantage of the real estate crash. Selling some now due to the high prices (unfortunately will have to deal with the big tax bill), and keeping others for the good cash flow. I've always liked the idea of different income streams.
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by TomatoTomahto »

We hope to break even on our house.

High income and only moderately high spend = high savings per year.

I once had a cabin that my ex wife wanted to rent out. After some deadbeat renters, I vowed to burn it to the ground before renting it again.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
bcc1234
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by bcc1234 »

Bought our house 25 years ago for 124K. It's worth around 375K now. It was NEVER intended as an investment, it was/is a great place to live and raise our children.

Including the house, our net worth is around 3.6M.
fareastwarriors
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by fareastwarriors »

jzzmn88 wrote:I really appreciate everyone's responses!! It is no small measure of relief to read that most everyone here does not think that RE is necessary to true wealth. I had begun to panic a bit just thinking that I would need to incorporate RE into my portfolio. Just the thought of it was stressing me out.

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing: work hard, save, invest (3 fund portfolio!) and live frugally.

Keep the responses coming. I love reading what others are doing!

If just the thought of real estate investing is stressing you out, then you probably shouldn't bother with it. There are easier paths to prosperity. Get a decent job, save/invest for the long term and live below your means. RE Investing is just another business. Most people will be terrible, some average, and a few will be stars.
Last edited by fareastwarriors on Thu May 18, 2017 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

Thirty years ago several of my relatives got together and purchased a 40 acre plot of land in a non descript wooded area, and I mean, it was like a forest. The speculation was a resort was going to be built and all the land values were going to skyrocket. They bought it for $100 an acre (that's right, $100. The development was in the works, they were counting the money in their minds, then a bad recession hit, real estate got walloped, the developers went bankrupt and no one wanted to build on spec and no bank would finance. And, no one was interested in buying the land from relatives. So, they decided to sit on it, but they still had to pay taxes to the county. It took 23 years to find a buyer, it sold for $50 an acre. The area is still wooded, nearest services are 10 miles away, it's in the middle of no where. Tell me if they made any money on this deal. In my book, they lost their shirts, they made their money in the stock market, investing over 50 years, so this bad investment really did not register.
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gr7070
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by gr7070 »

Keep in mind this appears to be a biased website favoring the high income path.

There are obviously at least a handful of paths to significant wealth. Another I commonly hear as "the one path" is to be self employed - it certainly can help, but it's also a better path to bankruptcy than being an employee.

It's very hard to quantify what percent of my net worth is from real estate as it's provided some income over the decades.

I have a much better handle on what percent of my net worth is from held real estate. Obviously that's a simple calculation.

I would agree with what at least one poster said above - that I paraphrase as - "get rich slowly".
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goingup
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by goingup »

Real estate investing? No. But our 2 homes have appreciated and the mortgage balances decreased (or get paid off). Means about $1m currently in real estate equity. No shrewd leveraging, just buying places to live on the West Coast, and becoming an accidental landlord.
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Vanguard Fan 1367 »

I have paid rent to myself for a number of years for a professional office. I was doing OK as far as the net worth until the 2008 crisis. These sure are different days than my parents who bought a 20k house and sold it for 250k 30 years later. My mother complained because it later became worth half a million.

I would have been far better in the stock market than in Real Estate. Of course the market has done really well since 1982 when I first bought the land for the professional office.
John Bogle: "It's amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he's paid a small fortune not to understand it."
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by jdbee »

Been a landlord for 30+ years. About 20% of NWorth is southern Cal residential income property. All free and clear/cash flowing now but still have times where you have to drop everything and fix something or deal with a tenant. If you have someone else manage it I don't think you will make much, if any, $ until you get below 50% LTV. I would look at it as a diversification and eventual cash flow instrument. If apartments = pure cashflow, little appreciation, particularly if cap rates go back to historical norms. If condo/home, you also have a shot at appreciation as a "for sale home". Best time to buy is when the market is getting creamed and you can afford to feed it/keep a tenant in it for a few years, cost basis is key. If you want to get technical, read Case-Shiller's study on housing appreciation from about late 1800's to about 2005 (or thereabouts); the takeaway is national housing has appreciated at about the rate of inflation, so I guess you could look at it as an inflation hedge as well. Compared to historical returns of the stock market I think you will make more $ with less tenant hassle factor (especially with California's pro-tenant laws). There are many former landlords and former passive landlords for a reason.
abner kravitz
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by abner kravitz »

I've cleared some modest amounts (less than $100K total) from the sales of personal residences, but none from any other real estate investing.
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Toons
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Toons »

Zero. :happy
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
Wagnerjb
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Wagnerjb »

retired recently wrote:Zero. High-paying job and frugal living.
Same here
Andy
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Sandtrap
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by Sandtrap »

100%
R/E
Wiki Bogleheads Wiki: Everything You Need to Know
investingdad
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Re: Question for you high net worth individuals...

Post by investingdad »

Based on the OP's stated cutoff, we are not high net worth...only 2 million at the moment, none of that is real estate or home equity.

I, frankly, am in the camp of people that are sick of reading Yahoo type articles that state the only sure way to wealth is by creating that magical second or third stream of income that is rental income.

Enough already.

My wife and I got here by good incomes, early and consistent investing (early 20s), and living below our means.

No real estate.
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