Steps To Buying A Home - How Much Do I Need To Spend On Housing

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Summary

Hey everyone! Mike Wolf is here for MikeWolfMastery.com, and I thank you for tuning in today. I am in the beautiful city of Belize. And I’m actually on a cruise ship, and if you’re tuning in, you probably want to find out what I think about investing in homes that are cheap.

Yesterday, I was on the cruise ship and our stop yesterday was Roatan, in the Bay Islands which is on the coast of Honduras, and somebody on the ship knew that I know a few things about real estate. As you know, I have only been investing for around 28 years.

I have invested in Canada and all over the US, and he was saying; “Well, I saw this 35 thousand dollar condos…,” and he goes; “You know, I might just throw 35 thousand bucks at it and see what happens. What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Well, the worst thing that can happen is that you might lose more than just 35 thousand dollars. One of the things you have to keep in mind is that when you own something, it creates a liability or an asset. Hopefully an asset! But with liability comes some risks, and if you own some piece of property, it’s not just the money that you put in that’s at risk. Quite often, if you get yourself into probably some bad neighborhood for example, quite often it attracts certain tenants that might want to potentially get some money from you. Moreso, I have found out in the past that bad things tend to happen when you buy cheap homes. I am not saying don’t buy a home that’s not expensive, what I’m saying is what matters is not the price. What actually matters is the return of investment? How much it’s going to give you? And certainly, you don’t just throw money without you doing your due diligence. As to how you do your due diligence, it isn’t one of the works you do for 4-5 hours. You work on it long before you arrive, and there are a whole bunch of things you have to keep in mind. Such as, what are the ownership laws? What’s the currency, if you’re buying in a foreign currency? What if the property goes up, but the currency is severely devalued, as it often happens in Central and South America and in Caribbean countries? We see the currencies being devalued and all of a sudden they’re worth nothing, you know, nothing in US dollars. And so, these are some things you want to worry about. You also want to look into, as I’ve said, ownership laws. You want to look into the Squatter’s Rights. I’ve heard of a horror story, somebody I know bought a property in Costa Rica, and … he doesn’t live in it, he lives in Canada. Someone else decided to become a squatter in his property, and he can’t get rid of him. So, you can’t do anything to the property anymore, it’s basically useless. So, ask yourself; “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Because, trust me, there are a lot of nightmares that could happen with real estate. So do your due diligence before you buy. Don’t get attracted to something just because it’s cheap. You know, if I say; “Hey, I’m staying at this hotel. It’s super cheap! It’s 10 bucks a night.” Wouldn’t you just say; “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Of course, you’re going to ask a few questions, or would you just buy a car that’s super cheap? Well, certainly not, and certainly not when it comes to you buying real estate and investment property because it’s cheap.

So, anyway, if you found this helpful, please like this video and share it with all your friends. Also, subscribe to my Youtube Channel, and you get all my latest videos as I make them. I hope you’re having a great day wherever you are and will talk to you soon. Take care!