4 ms·

Why anything real estate related, especially coming from Northern America, looks and smells so dodgy? Even right now I'm getting spam emails "You'll learn how t

Why anything real estate related, especially coming from Northern America, looks and smells so dodgy? Even right now I'm getting spam emails "You'll learn how to help homeowners in default & start collecting checks" while never having been even marginally interested in the topic.

notacoward 5y ago
Because real estate is a key part of what distinguishes the haves from the have-nots. Get on the right side of the real estate world, as a landlord or lender, and you can make a lot of money for little effort (there is risk but Americans always think risk doesn't apply to them). Get on the wrong side, as a renter or borrower, and it's easy to get into a hole that it's hard to climb out of. In between are things like house flipping which involve aspects of both buying and selling but often also involve some deception such as cutting corners on "improvements" so the house looks good for sale but quickly falls apart. Rotten concrete, leaky roofs, that kind of thing. One favorite in my own town is to cut down a lot of trees to make room for a McMansion, then bury them on the property where they cause all sorts of problems from a few years to forever. Real estate in the US is too profitable to be anything but a grifters' game, and everyone else is well advised to keep their interactions to a minimum.
- pavel_lishin 5y ago
  Burying construction debris is popular, too: https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/mmbe4t/georgia_found_buried_construction_debris_in/ https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/mmbe4t/georgia...
- durnygbur 5y ago
  The top grifter had simultanously become president and got banned on Twitter. Seriously Americans, please chill on your real estate investments.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > The top grifter had simultanously became president and got banned on Twitter. Well, “simultaneously” usually doesn’t apply to events that take place nearly four years apart, but otherwise, true.
    - kshacker 5y ago
      Probably meant on the lines of EGOT (life) rather than grand slam (same year)
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > real estate is a key part of what distinguishes the haves from the have-nots It's actually the American middle class that has the largest fraction of its assets in real estate. The myth that real estate delineates the haves and have notes is, in my opinion, the reason these get-rich-quick schemes work. It's the irrational factor that lets a grifter gloss over the asset's intrinsically sub-par returns, gargantuan fees and unnecessary complexity. Speaking anecdotally, the very rich ($100+ million) I know tend to be lightly invested or uninvested in real estate. To the degree they own it, it's mortgaged to finance a better-returning asset. They have real estate exposure, but that's more commonly through the lending channel versus asset side. (Or through an operating business, e.g. a hotel.)
  - notacoward 5y ago
    They also have a very large part of their debt in real estate. It's part of the problem. Median net worth in the US is $121K. Median home price is $301K. The middle class doesn't own most of the real estate in the US. Lenders do, which was kind of my point.
- novok 5y ago
  TBH when I look into real estate investment, it seems like a lot more effort for not as much return as putting my money into VTI and %5 into crypto. Being a flipper or a landlord is a part time or full time job on it's own.

notacoward 5y ago

Because real estate is a key part of what distinguishes the haves from the have-nots. Get on the right side of the real estate world, as a landlord or lender, and you can make a lot of money for little effort (there is risk but Americans always think risk doesn't apply to them). Get on the wrong side, as a renter or borrower, and it's easy to get into a hole that it's hard to climb out of. In between are things like house flipping which involve aspects of both buying and selling but often also involve some deception such as cutting corners on "improvements" so the house looks good for sale but quickly falls apart. Rotten concrete, leaky roofs, that kind of thing. One favorite in my own town is to cut down a lot of trees to make room for a McMansion, then bury them on the property where they cause all sorts of problems from a few years to forever. Real estate in the US is too profitable to be anything but a grifters' game, and everyone else is well advised to keep their interactions to a minimum.

pavel_lishin 5y ago
Burying construction debris is popular, too: https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/mmbe4t/georgia_found_buried_construction_debris_in/ https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/mmbe4t/georgia...
durnygbur 5y ago
The top grifter had simultanously become president and got banned on Twitter. Seriously Americans, please chill on your real estate investments.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > The top grifter had simultanously became president and got banned on Twitter. Well, “simultaneously” usually doesn’t apply to events that take place nearly four years apart, but otherwise, true.
  - kshacker 5y ago
    Probably meant on the lines of EGOT (life) rather than grand slam (same year)
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> real estate is a key part of what distinguishes the haves from the have-nots It's actually the American middle class that has the largest fraction of its assets in real estate. The myth that real estate delineates the haves and have notes is, in my opinion, the reason these get-rich-quick schemes work. It's the irrational factor that lets a grifter gloss over the asset's intrinsically sub-par returns, gargantuan fees and unnecessary complexity. Speaking anecdotally, the very rich ($100+ million) I know tend to be lightly invested or uninvested in real estate. To the degree they own it, it's mortgaged to finance a better-returning asset. They have real estate exposure, but that's more commonly through the lending channel versus asset side. (Or through an operating business, e.g. a hotel.)
- notacoward 5y ago
  They also have a very large part of their debt in real estate. It's part of the problem. Median net worth in the US is $121K. Median home price is $301K. The middle class doesn't own most of the real estate in the US. Lenders do, which was kind of my point.
novok 5y ago
TBH when I look into real estate investment, it seems like a lot more effort for not as much return as putting my money into VTI and %5 into crypto. Being a flipper or a landlord is a part time or full time job on it's own.