Targeting the 100 Plus Market

I've never invested in a down market. I was lucky enough to began my real estate ventures nearly 10 years ago. I was in my late 20's and I purchased a 2 bedroom with 2 full bathrooms in Long Beach California. The condo was a REO property and I picked it up for a measly $60,000. Long Beach was just starting to come out of the real estate crash of the early 90's and I was a naive young investor. That same condo would be listed for nearly $300,000 today.

Little did I know that within a year the market was going to explode. I took advantage of the appreciating marketplace and made a killing. Any mistakes that I made were covered by the market. Come to think of it, I never really lost any money.

Well that was then and this is now. A day doesn't seem to go by where there is an article written about the how bad things are getting in the real estate market. There are even blogs written about the struggles of real estate speculators and even the agents themselves. I'm not sure if the authors of these types of blogs are investors or agents, but they get a kick out the mistakes that these people have made.

I refuse to add fuel to their fire.

I know that in this type of market I cannot afford to speculate. I cannot afford to even consider that any home that I purchase will even appreciate. I have to purchase "correctly", so any potential down-shift in the market will be absorbed. There is even talk on some of these bubble blogs that the bottom will not be hit until 2009!

I can't afford to wait that long. I have been sitting in the sidelines being a landlord for almost two years and it's time to make a move. I have two goals this year. The first one is to double my real estate cashflow to $3000 per month. The second one is to pay off my home equity line of credit. (The line of credit is not a large amount, I just hate owing it.)

So what does that have to do with targeting the 100 plus market? Well alot and it's not targeting people over the age of 100 if that's what you think. Get real, how many of them are out there any way?

There are agents out there who have listings in my area that have been sitting on the market for over 100 days. There are 98 of them to be accurate. They are competing with 300 other homes who have in on the market less that 100 days and they are competing with the countless of new developments as well.

Don't you think that among those 98 there could be a potential deal perhaps?

Tune in tommorrow and I'll tell you my plan of attack.