When it's the Wall Street Journal giving the advice, I tend to listen, but I have to say you really need to look underneath the rug on this one.

In a brief investment tip, the WSJ quotes- "College markets have long been one of the real estate industry best-kept secrets,” says Jim Gillespie, chief executive of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “Real estate professionals have been investing in college towns for years, often purchasing homes for their children who are attending school.”

That's true….but

You need to understand your market here. 

My sister-in-law, a realtor by the way,  recently visited my nephew who is an engineering student at Auburn.

"They have two couches in the living room so they can both stretch out and watch two ballgames at the same time from their two T.V's," she told us. "I asked him if he ever cooks, and he said he did put a Lean Cuisine in the microwave a few weeks ago."

Folks, college students don't live like the rest of us.  They don't have to.  Make sure you understand fully what you are getting yourself into if you become a landlord to about four or five or maybe more of these guys in a 'frat house' property.

Here's our solution which has worked well for us for almost 25 years now.

Rent to graduate students. 

They are more mature, usually have families and will take good care of your properties.  You won't have to worry about partying because they actually study a lot.

Here's the Wall Street Journal article that you can take with a grain of salt  

image from realtor.com

 Here are five properties that were sold for $1.00

I know, what's the catch?

When you're looking at the the Dodger's Statium, for example, there's a lot to catch.

Then there are the other examples such as the 33,000 square foot Washington manse that was shipped to Canada by barge after it sold for $1.00.

So if the value of the dollar is declining, does that mean these folks got an even better deal?

Read $1.00 Properties

The defeat of Governor Corzine, who was presiding over the state with one of the highest property tax rates in the country, may be a strong indicator that homeowners, real estate investors and landlords have had enough.

We've talked a lot about property taxes in this blog, and for good reason.
Taxes are killing many of us as we invest in real estate.
I live in Tennessee, Davidson County- Nashville, and our taxes have gone way up in recent years.

We were told to just take it because we were still lower than Charlotte and other progressive cities.
Yeah, right.
That's an old copywriter's trick; comparing apples to oranges.

Meanwhile, some of our hard earned sales tax money from Davidson County is being siphoned to other counties across the state to help boost their schools. I'm still trying to figure out if that's really constitutional. I know it's unfair.

But we all have our problems, excepting the biggest property tax mayor of all, our old friend Mayor Bloomberg of New York City.
He just got re-elected again for the third time at an estimated cost out of his own pocket of $100 million.
That's according to the New York Post.

So what's my point?

I think property taxes are reaching a saturation point across the country. I may be reading more into the New Jersey election that I should, but I don't think so.

Local governments are going to have to gone up with other ways of raising revenue. Squeezing the golden geese who's squawks have been ignored for far too long, isn't going to cut it any more.

Some elected officials may have more than a few tea parties to be worrying about in 2010.

Here are some more interesting sources about last night's elections.

New York City election

Defeat of Corzine

Economic discontent among voters

He's also the star of yet another real estate reality shows. This one is called, what else, Real Estate Intervention.

But don't let the nice smile on the cute bald man fool you. He's into tough real estate love.

And that often gets him into trouble with some of his homesellers who are not totally dealing with realty reality.
That's because they still think their properties and houses are worth more than they actually are.

But it always comes down to one question that he always asks them.
"Do you want to sell or not?"

Simple, isn't it?

Here are some more of his sayings which are turning out to be priceless…(maybe I should reword that)

"If you don't price it right, it won't sell."
Duh?
And my most fav, " Real estate pricing is an art, not a science,"
Read more about Mike Aubrey

What exactly is it?

It is an IRA   LLC  which you have more control over.  You will not be turning over your IRA to a mutual fund or some stock market investments which could go south real fast these days.

You can invest in real estate and tax liens, among other things.  The tax liens really surprised me.

I find tax lien investments fascinating, and I'm enticed.

But as with any investing, we need to do our due diligence.  We need lots of info and we need to make sure we get it from reliable sources.

More about Self Directed IRA's

I like the idea of having more control over my IRA and it makes me sick that my IRA has not grown as fast as I think it should have.  

Then again, if we have any money left in our retirement accounts, that's a good thing, right?

But I'm taking more of a hands on approach to my investments.  Why should I listen to some of those crazy people on Wall Street anyway?  Besides, I'd rather put my money in real estate now.

How about you?

IRA Questions Answered

Writer John Lipton brings out one of the top complaints(landlord losses) we  have had with this $8000 credit and asks the question, "What's next?"

But the pace is  getting fast and furious as the deadline approaches. ( We got yet another call from one of our tenants taking advantage of this tax break right in the middle of Sunday dinner yesterday.)

Have they no shame?

As we have been complaining,  we're being left with two empty units in the middle of winter with little chance of renting them "off season" until things start pumping up again next spring.

Thanks Congress.

As always you're making brilliant business decision as you sculpt the housing market. But is it a work of art yet?

 Josh also explains there will be even more housing  trouble coming for this White House.

More Trouble Ahead

The "Shadow inventory of foreclosures" not being counted,as well as the IRS trying to figure out 100,000 "suspicious claims" for first time home buyers will be  major headaches.

Won't the average taxpayer be thrilled?

Pass the  aspirin, please.

Oh, I almost forgot. 

We still have over 300,000 foreclosures per month on the books according to Realty Trac.

So why can't the government give us all tax breaks so we can go out and buy?

Why are tax breaks segmented with surgical precision on just a small minority of Americans?

Is all this corruption necessary?  Couldn't it have been avoided?

However, rumors are flying that interest rates will be going up this summer, so no matter what the government does at this point with more of these so called first time homebuyer tax breaks- it probably won't matter. 

Your tenants probably  won't be biting the bait…

Read  Where the Housing Market Goes From Here

Patricia Cornwell, the writer credited with getting many of us interested in forensics, probably should have been doing a little more investigating of her own investments.

She claims the people who were supposed to be in charge of her real estate are responsible for her loss of $40 million.

On the surface of it that seems like a lot of money.

But what went wrong, or better yet, what exactly happened?

Read Patricia Cornwell's lawsuit against real estate managers

Here's a warning.  We keep reading these stories and if you're thinking about turning your properties over to managers as I am now considering, you'd better do your due diligence or else your money could end up in the morgue.

But perhaps Ms. Cornwell could have been a hard money lender.

Here's an interesting article about what hard money lending is and how it can benefit both those with money and those who are anxious to borrow it.

Hard Money Tips 

Commercial real estate is going down, according to retail and real estate expert, Howard Davidowitz.

"The next shoe to drop will be commercial real estate," he says with a lot of expression.

Here are some more things he is saying:

"Many malls will be closing across America.."

"These guys are very leveraged."

Why?

Davidowitz says there is too much retail space in the U.S.

He gives the figures of 19 square feet for every American man, woman and child.  We only need about 12 feet each.

So that may be the answer about whether we should consider investing in commercial or not.

I think it is interesting to read the readers' comments on MortgageRatesAholic

Some are skeptical about the Fed's bright outlook for commercial real estate.  This is something we should always watch out for. 

We need to get all the facts before we believe public relations stories from the government anyway.

But another thing I think is interesting is this recession seems to be far from over.

There are even more problems with the Chinese drywall as we now move in for round two.

Two insurance companies have dropped Florida homeowners who have made claims about the defective drywall.

As we've written before, the drywall is considered defective in some cases because it can emit sulfide fumes.

There have also been problems with the fumes causing corrosion of wiring and plumbing, plus some skin and breathing problems.

What?

The really bad news here is these insurers are demanding that homeowners fix the defective drywall themselves.

They must do that within six months of the date of notice.

That could cost as much as $80,000 upwards to $100,000 for the average homeowner.

Our take on all of this tragic mess is that we can't expect rehabbers and wholesalers to move in and work with these properties.

Read the Wall Street Journal's Article About More of the Chinese Drywall Problems

Some experts, including the National Consumer Law Foundation, believe there is danger unscrupulous brokers may be targeting our seniors.

This problem could become widespread in the industry and could even become  as bad as the sub-prime mess.

What is the problem exactly?

These reverse mortgages are often complicated and difficult for some seniors to understand. (That was also one of the problems with the sub-prime loans in many cases.)

They are also being advertised as providing life-time income.  This is false in many cases.

Read The next big real estate boondoggle

Reverse Mortgages May Be Next Subprime, Center Says