Travelin Monkey

You know, if I hadn’t lost the original database from this site and if I had invested wisely in a good host, I would have my original articles on the housing market. But, needless to say, we all make mistakes, and here I sit with nothing to show for it.

I’ve been following the housing industry for years. When I was in undergrad, I tried to buy a townhouse in Irvine so I wouldn’t have to burn my money on rent. The idea of assets and liabilities has always been crystal clear to me. Your house can never be an asset unless you can hop out of it in a heart beat, similar to what Robert Deniro told his girlfriend in Heat (will update with the exact quote when I find it).

Any which way, people seem to ignore trends, people seem to think that “it won’t happen again” and other tunnel vision ideas about the housing industry. Yes, there was this enormous boom in the real estate market over the last decade or so. And I say, so what? What that tells me is that the ruthless nature of agents from the 80’s has dwindled to nothing. When people had money (or pretended to have money via ARMs), all agents had to do was find the listing first. We have people in Orange County writing about how difficult it is to close a deal. Why? Because they don’t have those skills anymore. Now they have to be more educated than before. People are now looking for the hot deals, the lower prices, the better APRs. The illusion (delusion?) of buying any house and selling for a higher price in a couple of years, banking on a raise or an increasing economy to help pay the bills later on… is gone.

My advice? Go out, get a couple of good paying jobs. Get rid of your credit card debts, pump up your credit score, and have about $20,000 - $30,000 saved up and get ready to make a killing in about 1 year, when all the ARMs readjust for the new, much higher APRs.

Soon.. oh so soon..

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