Jason Hartman gets nervous when homes in his neighborhood start making dramatic leaps in price. Why, you ask? It’s because equity makes him nervous. Should a natural disaster come along, the homeowner is in trouble. It’s a lot of responsibility.
If you’ve got an employee working for you and he or she is lazy, you’ll likely fire them. Treat your money the same way—get rid of the lazy money, or put it to work.
Consider refinancing and buy more rental properties with the money you make. Refi additional loans too. Get a fixed rate mortgage. Don’t get scared or worried if you have your property evaluated and notice that it fluctuates in value—the cost of improvement and the cost of land both go up. But the most significant risk is in areas of high land value, where dramatic appreciation can happen. There is high risk in high land value.
As an investor, you simply avoid markets where this is the case. Think of it this way—Jason purchased a home in Georgia for $159,000 and the insurance company said that they’re insure the house for $135,000. The improvement is the only thing insured because the land will always be there. Cost of house minus insurance equals only $24,000—which is the value of the land.
If the land goes down in value, even by half, only $12,000 is lost. So when you’re choosing your investment markets, look at the cost of land in this way.
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again—the world is growing and all of these people are going to need a place to live. And we’re making more people but we’re certainly not getting any more land. Find areas with cheap land now and build houses. It’s the best job security you’ll ever have.
Of course, if you’re looking for more information, Jason Hartman offers a wealth of free resources to help you make money and develop a great investment portfolio. He’s got a bunch of free podcasts where he answers questions and offers advice, but also interviews industry experts. He’s got his blog, his list of free tools right here on the website. You can even shop for properties online!
Of course, if you’re more of a one on one, in person kind of person, contact him directly or attend one of his events held throughout the year!
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