As the real estate cycle changes I now find myself investing again in bank-owned properties. This is how I began 11 years ago at the bottom of the last cycle. What a ride that was!!! Currently the market is much more appealing to a real estate investor than it was back then. What I am buying currently cashflows at 15-20% without financing! Imagine the returns using financed money! As we all know, the banks are in a mess, and getting financed can be a long process. They are so over-whelmed that the simplest transactions take 45 days. Enter…. Private money. This is business with the people for the people! Back to basics! Most people are getting watered-down returns (if any), in part due to the fact that there are too many middlemen and also due to the fact that investments open to the general public have to be ’sanitized’. By this I mean, it has to be ’safe’ and that anyone can do it without using their brain. Unfortunately too many people rely on others to make the most important decisions of their life. We need more accountability from ourselves. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you don’t want to think for yourself, you are stuck playing someone elses game, by their rules, and getting paid for your involvement. If your involvement is less, you are paid less. If you really get involved, you will really get paid! This is true for many things. Why not earn more on your money? Numbers don’t lie. I know I can pay these returns day and night no matter what happens, because I do the numbers every day. Whether a property sells or not does not matter with the cash flows that can be generated by these properties. The valuations are so low right now compared to the height of the market, that to build these properties you would be paying double the current prices. I’ll get off my soap box for now, but feel free to contact me and learn how to put you back into control of your finances!