The first step in any real estate investment plan has absolutely nothing to do with real estate, but rather solid financial planning and risk avoidance. To be sure that a property will cash-flow immediately and to avoid risk in your first investment purchase, I always suggest a minimum of 15% cash, with a preference of 20% to 25% cash down to purchase the first property. Though many investment vehicles can be used to purchase property at 5% or 10% down, this drastically increases the risk of being unable to achieve income on the property because rents are fairly stable and do not account for highly leveraged properties. Also, don’t get sucked in by the latest 0% down investment craze. Many of these so-called investor gurus are just selling you a fantasy. Very few people have the credit to get a true 0% down investment property, and even fewer can find one that will cash flow with this much leverage. This is a huge mistake that many first time investors make. They purchase a property with high leverage (which can be a good thing as your portfolio grows), but are unable to get high enough rents to cover the mortgage and expenses of owning the property. Thus I believe a safe bet is to set a goal of paying 20% down on your first property and then adjusting the price range of homes or multi-family units you investigate based upon your available cash, and also leaving an additional $2,000 to $5,000 or so set aside for cleaning and improvements necessary to get the property ready for lease. If you wish to invest in real estate, but do not yet have the ability to put 20% down then you should simply look for a partner and have each put down 10%. You will have to share the profits, but will not have to save as much money at the outset. Once you have determined the amount of cash you can invest in your first property, the next step is to find an appropriate investment property.

There are only two assets to own and hold during such a Crisis. Real Estate and Gold Bullion.

I have been researching where to buy and hold Gold Bullion, free, clear and unencumbered with full and honest disclosure about all of the legal history, financail history, storage guarantees, audit history, costs, commissions of all of the websites of those Gold Bullion Providers.

Amongst most of the Market Makers, Gold Dealers, Bullion Banks I was shocked by one website that I found that such a history could exist, not disclosed, and they are still doing business. That Entity is Monex Gold Depository Company located in Newport Beach, CA. The website that this shocking information was located at is http://monex.to.

I compared this to GoldMoney in London, Zurich and HongKong for direct purchases of Gold Bullion who buys directly from Gold Bullion Refiners….not Gold Bullion Banks.

What a difference between Monex Gold and GoldMoney. As in any exploration on preserving one’s purchasing power as a hedge against “fiat” paper money, Real Estate and Gold are the only “real money” choices.

Good Due Diligence can dig up a lot of shocking discoveries. Invest the time to discover the downsides “out there” by visiting and comparing against Monex Gold’s website in Newport Beach, CA. What a massive difference in required disclosures.

In these times, stay well and prosper.

I tend to agree with Mike’s sentiments in that the real-estate market has yet to bottom out. You will see a loss on your investments for some time to come. When recovery does start, it will take time for it to gain traction. Better find somewhere else to invest.

All ideas are welcome!