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Gerald A. Gotts · 15-08-2008, 08:17

Like GZgunner I would like to know where to buy houses for that price that rent for that amount. I'm in Florida and although I agree now of course is the time to buy where do I get those kinds of deals????

Jerry-

Vasco · 15-08-2008, 08:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tspringer

While At least with real estate, you cannot end up holding a piece of worthless paper.

Terry

Have a look at this. It cost the bank $10000 to sell a house for $1.
House sold for $1 in sign of US property crisis - Telegraph

speedoo · 15-08-2008, 08:23

This is a great thread. Lots of great ideas and practical advice.

My take for gunner is, go sooner rather than later. I like the two years cruising plan, then come back and do some more saving for the longer term cruising.

starbolin · 15-08-2008, 09:10

GZgunner

Just get out there sailing and enjoy yourself. Planning seven years out is unreasonable. After just a few years at sea your needs will have changed, your wants will have changed and you will have changed.

Forget tying yourself to active onshore investments. It's tremendously difficult to hold on to your former life when at sea and keep things in any kind of order. If you were to try to do that I would recommend something like six months at sea and six months ashore.

If I were your I would plan to go out for a year and then re-evaluate my position.

Tspringer · 15-08-2008, 09:20

Vasco....

I saw that a few days back. Detroit is toast. The City is buying lots those kinds of houses and simply tearing them down and leaving the lots vacant. The population base in Detroit is shrinking as tens of thousands of people leave every year. The reality is that the job base there is shrinking, is likely to continue to do so and there really isn't much anyone can do about it.

As someone else said, the key to real estate is location. Detroit is a dying city. Atlanta is a thriving city. Where would you prefer to own real estate?

As to the banks and the massive inventories of foreclosed homes they are holding.... I can tell you from first hand experience that almost all of these banks are making a massive mess of their efforts to liquidate the REO holdings. These banks did an absurdly horrible job evaluating lending risks over the past 4-5 years and now they are doing an equally bad job in trying to sell all the foreclosure holdings.

They do not maintain the properties, they do not market them, they do not process offers or evaluate actual values and they are being swamped as more and more inventory comes in the door. I have watched banks turn down offers of $50K on a house and then 2 months later lower the asking price to $30K. Stupid stuff.

I have on many occasions put in offers on homes and had it take almost a month to hear anything back from the seller. Cash offers.... and they do not respond. Then they may decline the offer, and a few weeks later lower the listed price to under the offer. It makes no sense and it makes purchasing these homes a real PITA.

Some of the banks though are pretty savvy. I am seeing some sellers use the tactic of lowering the price to a stupid low number and then collect multiple offers. I purchased one house like this. The bank lowered the listing price to $22K. I called the agent to put in an offer and was told that the bank was already evaluating 5 other offers. So I offered $35,100 and got the house..... the next highest offer was $35K even! But the bank was smart knowing that with a price listed at $22K they would very quickly get multiple offers and then could go back to all requesting "highest and best" counters and then pick the best one to sell. This is a much better strategy than listing the house at $60K and sitting on it.

Sorry for rambling

Terry

Delezynski · 15-08-2008, 10:18

GZgunner,

Back to your original question...
Without investing that cash in anything other than a simple savings account, head south, around Cabo (without stopping) then north into the Sea of Cortez.

Anchor out north of La Paz, use a spear gun and fishing tackle, do not participate in a lot of beach side potlucks and your money will last the rest of your life with some left over.

Anchor out 95% of the time, fix the boat once in a while (major items only) and go to a few beach side pot lucks and you will be there almost to the end of your life.

Stay in marinas most of the time, hit the bars, have a lot of shore side fun with great meal at all the restaurants and you got maybe 5 years.

Your choice

Greg

jaga · 15-08-2008, 13:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delezynski

head south, around Cabo (without stopping) then north into the Sea of Cortez...

Greg,
Great advice. That approach has a lot of appeal, and is one area you really could live off $1000/month. I'll be testing that theory, just not soon enough!
Scot

Charlie · 15-08-2008, 13:16

For those of you who don't know Greg has first hand experience on this sort of thing. He's been in the Sea for a number (not sure which one) of years. Check out his website. Top Notch!!! I've been following it for a couple of years.

Charlie · 15-08-2008, 13:18

One more thought more directly related to your question. What about commuter cruising. Work one take one off. If you can keep your business going doing that you can still make money and then slowly ween yoursle foff working and sell the business and then you'll know what you need to cruise. Most things in life aren't balck or white.

KIWI · 15-08-2008, 13:40

I think the Kiwi dollar is the best bet, Kiwi bank term deposit pays 8.5% paid monthly and now that our dollar has come off the big high it would be the best bet , I , like you have been checking all avenues as as from next year I will be off for a 6-8 year world cruise and there is nothing that matches our dollar and it's reasonable stable I belive like a lot our money men 65 to 75 cents to the us is where our dollar should be and it's 70 cents now good enough for me.

GZgunner · 15-08-2008, 15:48

Can you linka reputable bank in NZ i could check out. At 8.5 that is a considerable gain over the 3.95 i cureently have going. would i lose much in the exchange and do i have to jump through many loops to open an account there??

KIWI · 15-08-2008, 21:46

there web site is Kiwibank Banking, New Zealand

I changed to Kiwi bank last year and it's the best thing I have done for a long time, As for my self now as I said my house is up for sale and I hope it sells soon as the rates for term deposit is still 8.5% and I could tie it for 1-3 years, Me I would go for the three years while the rates are still high and I would be putting around 400k because if the dollar drops much more the rates will come down, But nothing like the US.
Any way I can help just yell

Graham

GZgunner · 16-08-2008, 01:15

ok now for the 1 million dollar question. I investigated both banks recoomended to me and in both cases including Kiwi bank you MUST be a resident.

Now I am not always the smartest guy but California is a fairly long way from either Turkey and or NZ. How might one go about open said account or was this a tricky way of getting me to switch my citizenship cuz for an extra 4.55% i'll just about join any country, club, team or band. j/k , actualy no i'm not.

Ok Ok is this something most cruisers do?? and since the current term is only 5months what do most of you do when you find a sweeter deal somewhere else?

I am a bit confused or maybe I missed something.

sctpc · 16-08-2008, 01:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by GZgunner

ok now for the 1 million dollar question. I investigated both banks recoomended to me and in both cases including Kiwi bank you MUST be a resident.

.

mate you would be mad to move the us dollar to nz as if/when it drops you could lose BIG money.

In the 80s some au banks let some people get loans in US dollar and when the AU droped some owed a lot more than they started with. You would have to keep an eye on the market every day to look for changes one word DONT you will lose oneday.