Sloe Times
A journal of my adventures in learning and growing personally and professionallyTuesday, June 28, 2005
Starting to break it down
Applying some problem solving stratagies to this, and extrapolating from my reading I'm starting to identify an approach for my learning as well as some near term tasks that I need to start moving on. The ability to effectively evaluate a property seems like a very daunting task with many different areas of knowledge that have to come together to be able to do it successfully. The concern here is to be able to confidently identify investment opportunities that are financially worse than they appear. Speaking of finacials the near term tasks I've identified for myself are to take the microscope to my financial situation which means tightening up the budget a little and continuing to put the seed money away.
Evaluating property seems to break down into four main areas:
I think evaluating the market should be pretty easy from looking at the classifieds in the paper as well as data from the MLS realators use. The agents I used to purchase my current home provide a nice benefit to me in that I can search and monitor the MLS for any properties that match what I think I'm looking for. The other side of that is figuring out what neighborhood(s) are good candidates for investing in and that's going to just require some driving or walking around that I'm not quite prepared to do yet.
Physical property inspection seems pretty daunting. I mean it can't be trivial or a whole career for home inspectors wouldn't exist. I've noticed that Chicago (lucky me) has a school with courses for home inspectors that could even lead to certification. I'm thinking this may be useful, but obviously I have to weigh that against whatever the cost is to hire someone who already is certified and has experience.
The financial opportunity a property presents has lots of twists in turns in it starting with the type of property, the financing scheme, etc. Lots of twists and turns here that can probably be broken down into a matrix when I get that far. Beyond though, I'm sure there are other things to concider that I haven't figured out yet so this is an area for extended study.
Finally, the legal side of things seems to boil down into two questions. What can I find out myself? What aspects of REI do/should I need a RE lawyer for? Again, I don't have enough information here to really expand on what I don't know here so an area for extended study.
Evaluating property seems to break down into four main areas:
- Housing Market
- Physical Property
- Financial Potential
- Legal State of the Property
I think evaluating the market should be pretty easy from looking at the classifieds in the paper as well as data from the MLS realators use. The agents I used to purchase my current home provide a nice benefit to me in that I can search and monitor the MLS for any properties that match what I think I'm looking for. The other side of that is figuring out what neighborhood(s) are good candidates for investing in and that's going to just require some driving or walking around that I'm not quite prepared to do yet.
Physical property inspection seems pretty daunting. I mean it can't be trivial or a whole career for home inspectors wouldn't exist. I've noticed that Chicago (lucky me) has a school with courses for home inspectors that could even lead to certification. I'm thinking this may be useful, but obviously I have to weigh that against whatever the cost is to hire someone who already is certified and has experience.
The financial opportunity a property presents has lots of twists in turns in it starting with the type of property, the financing scheme, etc. Lots of twists and turns here that can probably be broken down into a matrix when I get that far. Beyond though, I'm sure there are other things to concider that I haven't figured out yet so this is an area for extended study.
Finally, the legal side of things seems to boil down into two questions. What can I find out myself? What aspects of REI do/should I need a RE lawyer for? Again, I don't have enough information here to really expand on what I don't know here so an area for extended study.
posted by Andres Silva # 6/28/2005 08:47:00 AM 
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