Show Me DA Money

What with everything melting down like butter on a corn cob and folks walking around looking more nervous than a hooker in a cathedral, it behooves me to add my bit of wisdom (I would say "my 2 cents", but the way things are going for a lot of folks, that may be seen as wealth bragging) to the situation.

Where is all the money?

So everything is melting down, money is lost and everybody is poor...just like in the Depression, right? Nope.

You see, we can look at this by way of example. Let's take a poor chap in Belmont --we'll call him "Dumbo Al." for that is what he was called back 1999 when he put 20% down on a multi family in said Belmont. Now "DA" has a 6.25% mortgage; he socks about 40 grand into the place, rents both halves out for 1450 each to good tenants. DA is sitting pretty. He does a RE-FINANCE gig to get the numbers below 6% and he is sitting even prettier. A bit of positive cash flow going. Comes 2005, and Dumb Al gets a knock on the door.

Wouldst thou wish to sell said property? asks the door knocker. How much? Well, it seems, the "HOW MUCH" is almost $400,000 MORE, yes M O R E, that what "DA" paid for it, so Al says ok. He takes the money...he runs; pays off the Mortgage. He is sitting pretty.

Our buyer no longer has the money, in fact he bought it with a low interest low down payment loan. He was expecting to do what AL. did...but he should have done what AL did. He should have used due diligence. He should have looked at rental projections and noted that they are not keeping pace with capital requirements, he should have...you know the drill.

So our buyer goes bust and cries to the government that things are bad. He does not remember that no one put a gun to his head and said buy (The Godfather was not around). He let his greed get in the way of judgement, and now he cries as though he is a victim.

The folks on the news are talking baout hte losers -- they are not talking about the winners in this wonderful "everything nets out to zero" world. There are winners here. The losers cry, but they are no different in intent than the winners -- just that their methods of greed and self-absorption were not properly placed. we should not reward them with bailouts, for they are no different than the winners.

Let them fail; they were not prepared to be there anyway. If General Motors fails, we will stull buy cars, we will just buy them from whatever entity has the ability to make them -- most likely in old GM factories. applied to everything else, is makes for an orderly world where your initiatve gets you forward without need from an excuse note from "MOMMY".

But what about AL (Dumb Al). DA has his money, and he has money from three other folks who bought from him around the same time as the above poor sap. He is sitting really pretty. He took advantage of his skill, and his entrepreneurship. 4 are BROKE and 1 succeeds. Greed killed 4. Good management made succeess for 1.

And that is where the money is -- where it ever been in times like this. A small few follow their own clear council and either buy (or sell) from the many in the herd who are doing what everyone around them is doing. I will tell you now -- I am buying , buyin' and buying in any nook and from any shnoook who has a property that meets my benchmarks.

You should be too.