[quote author="SoCalGal" date=1208339096]SacRenter, you're "fascinated" by the "frenzy" while long time real estate investors are licking their chops. The situation in which we find ourselves is when/how fortunes are made in real estate. I know several successful real estate investors who have waited a long time for this moment. They have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads because we're nearly exactly where we were when they made a fortune THE LAST TIME.</blockquote>
ROFLMAO... no... seriously... ROFLMAO... OMG... must... regain... composure.
Okay, what I want you to do is go to the foreclosure auction. I want you to scan the people there, and figure out who these "investors" are. If you can tell the real pros from the wannabes, then you will notice the pros shake their heads way more than they ever lick their chops. You have to be on some planet made of Kool-Aid, if you think investors are chomping at the bit. My gawd, the banks have been dropping the minimum bid from the NTS amount by $200k plus, and still no bidders. Not a single home was bought by an investor today, and it is a rare occasion when they do. There was a home in Mission Viejo that went back to bank for half the NTS amount, and a home in North Tustin that went back to the bank for over 30% less than the NTS amount. This is the NTS amount, not the appraised value, otherwise the % would be worse.
Don't you dare say I am just a doom and gloomer, and I suggest you check my <a href="http://ocecon101.blogspot.com/2007/01/foreclosure-comparison.html">foreclosure comparison from January 2007</a>. I was off, way off, and the foreclosures hit 647 mark by mid-April, let alone half way through the year. The 2008 Q1 foreclosures broke the 96 record, and once the NOD data is available it will break it as well. The NTSs were greater than resale home sales, this has never, ever, ever, happened.
The real true real estate investors are waiting and watching on the sidelines. In fact, they have gone in hibernation, and they realize there will be plenty of wannabes who will get burned. I think I may be watching one get burned on my own street. I am not trying to be a jerk, but for gawdsakes, please keep your head above the sand, and see the true reality of what is happening. This comes from a 3rd generation Southern California real estate investor, who has the 2nd generation agreeing and supporting his theory. Fortunes are made in RE, but when sugar plums are dancing in wannabes heads, then you, them, and anyone else who believes this will only end up with dry rotting prunes.