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NEWSFLASH: buying land and sitting on it to exploit scarcity creates no wealth. Therefore if you buy lower and sell higher that money comes from wealth created

by ken47 11y ago

NEWSFLASH: buying land and sitting on it to exploit scarcity creates no wealth. Therefore if you buy lower and sell higher that money comes from wealth created elsewhere, making you a leech. If you buy somewhere to live in, fine, but more than one place to speculate: you are leeching off of the labour of others. Is that entirely true? If you're willing to take on the responsibilities of being a landlord, and rent out your property, you are providing utility to those renting from you. I think more people would agree with you if you were talking about those CREATING scarcity, by arbitrarily raising prices in a real estate market that has an inherent cap on supply.

branchless 11y ago
Landlords are the banks footsoldiers, looking for an easy gain. In the finance world this is the definition of "good business" is it not? Nothing expended and lots of electronic money to show for it.
kqr2 11y ago
In Palo Alto, it's easy to speculate with empty plots of land. Example: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2240-Columbia-St-Palo-Alto-CA-94306/19504874_zpid/ http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2240-Columbia-St-Palo-Alto... The owner of this plot was able to hold onto a huge empty lot (with weeds) for ~$1000 a year in property taxes until 2014 when it was sold for more than $2 million with an original purchase price probably under $30 thousand. In less than one year, it was flipped for $3.3 million. 06/01/15 Sold $3,300,000+56.0% 08/15/14 Sold $2,115,000+41.5% 07/21/14 Listed for sale $1,495,000
- prostoalex 11y ago
  > it's easy to speculate with empty plots of land. It's easy once you pony up the cash (land loans are generally in 70-75% range, 80% is an exception, so one needs to have the 25-30%), have a credit history that's good enough for the bank to approve the other 70-75%, willing to take a hit on the property tax (~1% annual), and will generally be okay and have other sources of income if the market were to cool down or take a dive.

by ken47 11y ago

branchless 11y ago

Landlords are the banks footsoldiers, looking for an easy gain. In the finance world this is the definition of "good business" is it not? Nothing expended and lots of electronic money to show for it.

kqr2 11y ago

In Palo Alto, it's easy to speculate with empty plots of land. Example: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2240-Columbia-St-Palo-Alto-CA-94306/19504874_zpid/ http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2240-Columbia-St-Palo-Alto... The owner of this plot was able to hold onto a huge empty lot (with weeds) for ~$1000 a year in property taxes until 2014 when it was sold for more than $2 million with an original purchase price probably under $30 thousand. In less than one year, it was flipped for $3.3 million. 06/01/15 Sold $3,300,000+56.0% 08/15/14 Sold $2,115,000+41.5% 07/21/14 Listed for sale $1,495,000

prostoalex 11y ago
> it's easy to speculate with empty plots of land. It's easy once you pony up the cash (land loans are generally in 70-75% range, 80% is an exception, so one needs to have the 25-30%), have a credit history that's good enough for the bank to approve the other 70-75%, willing to take a hit on the property tax (~1% annual), and will generally be okay and have other sources of income if the market were to cool down or take a dive.