Comments on: MagazineLife.net is a big, fat rip-off site (and Ask the Broker)

By: Phil Hoover

Phil Hoover — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:31:01 +0000

I caught someone copying/pasting my blog posts a few weeks ago too.
He had put up a site aggregating the most popular blogs’ content, organized by state.
No attribution; just plain stealing content and putting it on his blog like he authored it himself to get high search engine rankings and sell ads.
I e-mailed him telling him to remove my content within four hours or face a lawsuit and he pulled it.
I checked yesterday and he now only has two states mentioned on his blog.
Joe @ http://www.Sellsius.com has some good info on how to stop this.
It isn’t hard to get the guy’s ISP to shut down his site when you threaten to name them in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

By: Steve Berg

Steve Berg — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:34:35 +0000

Jeff - I usually agree with you and mostly do in this case as well re: SD investments. However, like most things there are exceptions. I’m not referring to the professional type investor going after commercial or multiple unit residential properties and requiring immediate ROI. There are those who prefer starting out small (such as a short sale condo), having it close by so they can manage it or even “visit” it and who are in it for the long term (10 years or more). It may not provide the ROI your typical investors require, but it works for them. I also have clients who want to invest for the purpose of helping out their children get started here - children who may or may not even be ready to occupy. There are areas of San Diego that I believe are becoming ripe for these types of investors.

Investments outside of our local area pose challenges and costs such as obtaining all of the investment metrics necessary to feel as comfortable as one would buying in their own backyard, as well as a property manager @ approx. 10% of the rent.

As prices decline further here it becomes a bit more tempting for those with sufficient equity. Assuming another a year of potential downside, we all know what can happen here in a 10-year period. Even though the odds are against another run-up like we had, the long term upside potential may still be equal to or greater than many/most other markets.

If I had purchased a residential investment property here in 1993 in the midst of the last major downturn (there were still 3 more years of declining values) when the market was totally tanked and sold it 10 years later in 2003 I would have looked like a genius. I’m certainly not saying that scenario will repeat itself, but if the next ten years were to yield even half the ‘93-’03 performance it would be a decent investment.

Having said that, go easy on me.

By: Chris Lengquist

Chris Lengquist — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:56:31 +0000

“The falling knife” - I love it.

Maybe we should have Rambo hunt down down the pirates from MagazineLife.net and have them “taken care” of.

By: Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:40:35 +0000

Kris — catching falling knives aside — owning San Diego income (investment) property, with rare exception, is not something you wanna keep doing on purpose.

You are, as usual on target about predicting when this downslide will end. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, those in areas like San Diego are slowly watching their equity become moldy vehicles taking them nowhere fast.

Won’t bore you with the details here, but suffice to say there are areas for your net equity which will more than make up for your perceived (but false) losses incurred while moving said equity to more productive locations.

You can figuratively stick a fork in San Diego investment real estate, probably for at least a generation, if not permanently.

When SD investors can acquire much younger, more financially productive property elsewhere, why on earth would they even contemplate sustaining the status quo?

Getting your real estate investment equity outa Dodge (San Diego) is 2008’s easiest no-brainer.