I'm worried right now about what is going to happen in our real estate markets in the immedate future. There are some segments that may be, or are, in troublesome.
Several segments in the commercial market are stressed. Properties used for retail sales, the mall properties, and the office space market are having huge problems with vacancies, loan & rental defaults and potential foreclosures. These problems were already trends that have been blown up with the lock-downs due to the virus.
Another market that is suffering is people who have Airbnb rentals and vacation rental properties. I received an email from Airbnb today that they are planning to go public. They are adjusting their rules. Again. In the meantime, there are many people who built mini empires based upon Airbnb rentals. The stories usually involve people taking on massive debts, long term leases, and/or making heavy investment to create short term rental income streams. I was reading yesterday about people who can't pay their rent or payments on many of these properties.They are unsuccessfully trying to sell the properties or hang on.
(As I was reading about their Airbnb woes, I thought about how these investor's business model is similar to people who built e-businesses on other people's platforms. It's a pretty slippery slope for the long haul. I was feeling grateful that I only have a couple of sleeping rooms & summer RV spaces listed with that platform. My life is not dependent on the income from them.)
Another market that is starting to show some stress cracks is the multi-family residential market (apartments). Over the last few years the watch words have been OPM (oher people's money). That is a business model using as much debt as possible to buy as many units as possible. I have friends who have refinanced the minute that they had any equity in their buildings. They would use the loan proceeds to go buy more residential units. The problem with this type of agressive investing is that these loans are commercial loans that are subject to different rules compared to single-family homes and small residential unit (2 - 4 units). If the market value of these apartment buildings drops, the bank can call for the owner to pay down these loans to bring them into conformance. And those rules can tighten as the market retracts. (I remember when those loan calls happened to a lot of people around 1990 and they ended up losing their properties.)
So, I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines to wait and see what happens -- no new investments. If the real estate market starts to slide, it normal leaves no man standing. It cascades throughout the different RE segments one after another. If the dominos start falling, cash will be king. Sure, I may miss out on a few deals while hold my cards close to my chest. That's OK. I will survive to invest another day.
Several segments in the commercial market are stressed. Properties used for retail sales, the mall properties, and the office space market are having huge problems with vacancies, loan & rental defaults and potential foreclosures. These problems were already trends that have been blown up with the lock-downs due to the virus.
Another market that is suffering is people who have Airbnb rentals and vacation rental properties. I received an email from Airbnb today that they are planning to go public. They are adjusting their rules. Again. In the meantime, there are many people who built mini empires based upon Airbnb rentals. The stories usually involve people taking on massive debts, long term leases, and/or making heavy investment to create short term rental income streams. I was reading yesterday about people who can't pay their rent or payments on many of these properties.They are unsuccessfully trying to sell the properties or hang on.
(As I was reading about their Airbnb woes, I thought about how these investor's business model is similar to people who built e-businesses on other people's platforms. It's a pretty slippery slope for the long haul. I was feeling grateful that I only have a couple of sleeping rooms & summer RV spaces listed with that platform. My life is not dependent on the income from them.)
Another market that is starting to show some stress cracks is the multi-family residential market (apartments). Over the last few years the watch words have been OPM (oher people's money). That is a business model using as much debt as possible to buy as many units as possible. I have friends who have refinanced the minute that they had any equity in their buildings. They would use the loan proceeds to go buy more residential units. The problem with this type of agressive investing is that these loans are commercial loans that are subject to different rules compared to single-family homes and small residential unit (2 - 4 units). If the market value of these apartment buildings drops, the bank can call for the owner to pay down these loans to bring them into conformance. And those rules can tighten as the market retracts. (I remember when those loan calls happened to a lot of people around 1990 and they ended up losing their properties.)
So, I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines to wait and see what happens -- no new investments. If the real estate market starts to slide, it normal leaves no man standing. It cascades throughout the different RE segments one after another. If the dominos start falling, cash will be king. Sure, I may miss out on a few deals while hold my cards close to my chest. That's OK. I will survive to invest another day.
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