US Home prices...1890 to 2007

They suck. They make it look all wine and roses. People spend $300k on a house they turn around and sell for $500k after spending 6 weeks throwing $50k at the house and walk away with $150k profit. Seriously. That's the premise. My sister's husband is considering this. He lives in an area where houses average $85k. He thinks he can do this. Mind you, he doesn't know the difference between a framing hammer and a rock. He lives in a trailer.

 

I grimmace each time I see one of those shows. I knew they were bogus when I watched one show and all homes were miracuously worth $1 million after refurbishing. Surprisingly, they never did say for how much the homes sold.

 

The better shows on home remodelling involve people trying to sell their own house that they've owned for a while. $2000 for paint, decent furniture, and cleaning the damn thing up. No one wants to see your laundry.

 

Yep, he's going to get hosed. The savings part comes from doing most of the labor yourself. Sounds like he's not going to be able to do that.

 

No worries, right now, he can't even afford the hammer.

 

The new TV ads feature " How to make money from foreclosures". I saw one of those this morning and started laughing.

 

Foreclosures aren't bad...unless you're trying to flip them. Foreclosures lower the appraisal value.

 

Unless you're the guy that buys the house for next to nothing and then gets hit with a $1 million evnvironmental assessment.

 

I prefer buying as I want, never having to 'pay' for owning, and having liquidity at the click of a mouse.

VWELX, baby.