patrick.net

Millions of them. All the toxic mortgages given out by banks few years before 2007 were considered investment by banks. Banks are still holding them in the hopes of return of golden days. :)

Nomograph..way to deflect from the question.

To respond to your inquiries...public employees salaries are public.

A good number of upper level public employees have a large enough income that investing is a constant past time. They also tend to not hide that they handle their investment activity while at work.

So by nature, it cannot be snooping around when it's pushed in your face.

Nomograph says

jealousy

There comes the jealousy theme from uncle Nomo. Jealous of what? Millions of investors making thousands since 2007? LOL.

could it be a tax write off??

Okie dokie duck, I'll ask an unbiased question and two follow up questions;

Do some people or groups of people who invest in real estate lose money ?

If the answer is yes, how many lose money and how many make money?

What is the amounts of those gains and losses?

dodgerfanjohn says

Do some people or groups of people who invest in real estate lose money ?

Some do, some don't.

dodgerfanjohn says

how many lose money and how many make money?

Some lose money, some make money.

dodgerfanjohn says

What is the amounts of those gains and losses?

I hope your question was meant to be rhetorical. You aren't speaking of a specific investment, so it's impossible to answer.
dodgerfanjohn says

Real estate investing is touted as a near fail proof investment.

If someone tells you an investment in real estate is nearly fail proof, please make sure that your calendar shows that the year is 2011 and not 2007. This is a common mistake.

dodgerfanjohn says

is there any vehicle that measures how much investors take it in the shorts?

No. There are as many investments as there are stars in the sky.

dodgerfanjohn says

Person bought a investment property...and it still sits vacant.

ptiemann says

From the original post, I cannot figure out why it stays vacant.

I read the OP and there simply isn't enough information to even figure out how long the property has been vacant. It could be a day or a year... It could be an empty lot, a SFH, commercial property or a unicorn stable.

This thread is ridiculous, except the part about the Dodgers sucking. That was painfully true.

Nomograph says

bubblesitter says

Jealous of what?

People who make more money than you do. It's an extremely common form of envy.

Do you ever have any argument other then pure BS jealousy argument? What a no sense crap. Good bye.

Jealousy?

Often when we hear that, it is someone imposing their own values onto another.

bubblesitter says

Do you ever have any argument other then pure BS jealousy argument? What a no sense crap. Good bye.

The OP is no sense crap. He just wants to brag about how much someone else lost investing in real estate so he can say "I told you so".

Here are some interesting charts on Real property values.
http://investmenttools.com/median_and_average_sales_prices_of_houses_sold_in_the_us.htm
They May not relate to buyer in question. Need more info . Maybe the guy NEEDs the write off. Maybe the property is a big dog.

I guess that chart of Las Vegas prices needs a little lubrication.

Hi From Melbourne Australia, our 2011 is your(USA) 2007. Our property market is 18 months into our decline and it's looking terrible. I wish people over here would read more of what's gone on in the states. I keep hearing, "America is different" Yeah, from what I can tell the only difference is 5 years.

tatupu70 says

The OP is no sense crap. He just wants to brag about how much someone else lost investing in real estate so he can say "I told you so".

You forgot to mention the obvious glee he feels when a more affluent coworker fails - although it's pure conjecture on his part because he's not actually part of the conversations.

The OP throws out a pitch in the form of resentment about overpaid public employees who discuss their investment strategies at work - which is common for both public & private employees. People gotta talk about something, it's human nature. It's also human nature that people tend to discuss their "wins" and not their "losses," so casual conversations at work shouldn't be taken too seriously. Swing & a miss.

The OP then opines that "on a day to day basis, their life is probably horrible" because the investor of which he speaks "(has) the money but probably not the drive to make things work." Since this was a conversation that was overheard rather than one he was part of, another swing & a miss for our dear OP. You don't claim to know this person well, so you base your assumption of his horrible life on conversations overheard at work?

dodgerfanjohn says

So the question remains...is there any vehicle that measures how much investors take it in the shorts?

Notice how, in this game of fantasy baseball, the OP is playing both sides - he's the pitcher as well as the batter. Unfortunately, he showed his weakness (his glee at the possibility of someone he loathes failing) and it was used to the other team's advantage.

dodgerfanjohn says

it cannot be snooping around when it's pushed in your face.

Since the conversation(s) were overheard, it's still snooping around. And is it really being pushed in your face, or are you eavesdropping?

Yes, I caught that one. So you're out.

TMAC54 says

Maybe the property is a big dog.

That ain't a dog, it's a cow!

Theres some serious idiocy involved in this thread.

What prompted the posting was the overwhelming push by some of investment property combine this property:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angeles/312-W-5th-St-90013/unit-219/home/8163726

Seemingly people cannot stay away from ZOMG SOOOOOOO CHEAP!!!!!!!

Few, if any will buy into this property as a primary residence. Lots of reasons, but the parking situation is awful, the denizens of the immediate area are sketch, the property owner has a history of really bad stuff, and much much more. Take my word for it, or look up reviews on Yelp.

So that leaves the purchases as being investors putting down 100%(banks wont loan on the building).

If one did any sort of due dilligence...like for instance a 30 second search on craigslist....they would discover that there are a never ending barrage of ads for rentals in the building, from both private owners and building management:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/apa/lac?query=sb+grand&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=&bedrooms=

A slightly deeper probe would show that several units have remained vacant for a VERY long time and ads continually run over and over.

Yet you never ever hear about real estate investors taking a loss. You hear about stock market investors taking a loss. You hear about individual stocks and the market as a whole falling, thereby indicating risk. But you never once hear from those on this site touting real estate investment about potential risk.

So I was curious why that is? Some investors obviously lose money. Curious why there isn't a measurement or disclosure of risk in most of the postings.

dodgerfanjohn says

Curious why there isn't a measurement or disclosure of risk in most of the postings.

You're curious why a craigslist posting for a home doesn't have a disclosure of risk? Are you kidding me?

dodgerfanjohn says

why there isn't a measurement or disclosure of risk in most of the postings

Aside from fat bottom girls, RISKs make the world go round. The next breath you take MIGHT be your last if walking in to bad hazardous material situation. Your 0.09% interest paying savings account carries a little risk.

Should he be told of the risks? Or let him figure it out ?

dodgerfanjohn says

What prompted the posting was the overwhelming push by some of investment property combine this property:

I prize my ability to comprehend the written word – and in most cases I’m successful - but what the hell does that sentence mean?

dodgerfanjohn says

Few, if any will buy into this property as a primary residence.

And you base this assumption on ???

dodgerfanjohn says

So that leaves the purchases as being investors putting down 100%(banks won't loan on the building).

And you know this how???
dodgerfanjohn says

Yet you never ever hear about real estate investors taking a loss...But you never once hear from those on this site touting real estate investment about potential risk.

I'm not sure we're on the same site…
dodgerfanjohn says

Theres some serious idiocy involved in this thread.

Yes, there is. Your stated purpose was to ask how to tell if someone has lost money on a RE investment, and you went on to describe a person you overheard bragging about his investment prowess. The idiocy to which you refer belongs to you...

without knowing that persons income and how much their risk tolerance is the question cannot realistically be answered.

On business news sometimes it is said that a 2% loss is a "crash"..hardly

If you want to see something really bad look at not residential but industrial. I did some work near an abandoned hospital. the grass was three feet long, graffiti all over the place, broken windows..so I figured no one actually owned this thing..it was empty for the past 15 years...

Nope..they left it like that and there is a owner..they just sold it to another hospital!

15 years is a pretty long time to wait to sell something..but the need was there again and the population grew.

@TMAC54

where do you get these photos / images?... cool stuff !

On a related note, I'm regularly amazed by how difficult eTrade, Ameritrade, Schwab, and Merrill Lynch all make it to figure out how your investments are performing. The front page on all of their websites is set up to market that I'm doing poorly and need their consultation. When I finally find the performance data, I'm doing great!

Does anyone offer a business with trust anymore? Or only when there's not much money on the line? It seem like every big money event, like buying houses or cars, is just a huge, confusing, uncomfortable experience.

dodgerfanjohn says

Person bought a investment property...and it still sits vacant. This would make the second property this person bought that remains vacant(the other is going on 4-5 years).

If you have one property that is sitting vacant and your losing money on, why the hell would you buy a second? Not much of an investor in my opinion.

TechGromit says

If you have one property that is sitting vacant and your losing money on, why the hell would you buy a second?

Nowhere, not once, has dfj said that the guy is losing money. He's just assuming it because he's a spectator in this thing, it's all pure conjecture.

TechGromit says

Not much of an investor in my opinion.

dfj isn't much of a reporter in my opinion. Thread FAIL!!!