Arbitrage, Profiting from the Spread: Sunday Morning Thoughts 19 May 2013

Arbitrage The simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from a difference in the price. It is a trade that profits by exploiting price differences of identical or similar financial instruments, on different markets or in different forms. Arbitrage exists as a result of market inefficiencies; it provides a mechanism to ensure prices do not deviate substantially from fair value for long periods of time.  http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/arbitrage/

 

Understand when you look up the word arbitrage, you will find many varied references to the stock market, for this post the term will be applied to real estate investing.

In real estate as a private lender arbitrage will be the spread between the costs of monies.  If you borrow $100,000 at 3% interest then loan the same money at 6% interest then you would have 3% interest as a gain.  Many private lenders and real estate investors have taken advantage of arbitrage.

Flipping houses is also a form of arbitrage.  The method is slightly different today but it is still the buy low/ borrow low and loan/sell at a high rate and the difference will be the profit.

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Welcome to 2011: Sunday Morning Thoughts 2 January 2011

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With the New Year underway we are all looking more hopeful towards the immediate future.  This past holiday season showed signs of the return of consumer confidence.

All signs indicate we are still slowly emerging from our deep recession.  It is a slow process, but nonetheless we are emerging.  Consumerism from the holiday numbers looks like it is making a comeback, with a usage of cash instead of plastic.

Although the DOW almost made it to 12,000, it is now going into another cycle.

As for the housing market, even with the recent interest rate hike, will remain a flat line, then a sudden down turn and on to leveling out and slowly appreciating.  In the coming weeks you will hear and read more from many analyst about the impending double dip in the housing market.  Actually a good thing for investors; there’s always a silver/platinum lining to all clouds, buying now for homes, office space, and apartments deserves more than a light consideration.

Leveraging your money as a private lender can earn a nice return without the headaches of ownership, so if you don’t feel like owning an income property then make an income with being a private lender.

Arbitrage and Real Estate: Sunday Morning Thoughts 14 November 2010

Arbitrage by definition: The practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.

And there you have it, a way of making money in real estate in a nutshell, now let’s crack it open and see what’s inside.

An example of simple arbitrage and real estate, making money on the difference as a private lender, would be if you did not have the funds but you have a wealthy Uncle with the funds.  The Uncle loans you the money at 2% simple interest then you loan the money to an investor with the collateral being real estate at 8% simple interest.  Not a bad investment.  Your Uncle loaned you the money as a personal loan then you in turn loan the money on a collateralized investment.  The difference of 6% simple interest is your profit.  This is how easy arbitrage works.

Now let’s look at arbitrage with your own credit abilities if the rich Uncle does not pan out.

There are many types of credit you can utilize to perform arbitrage.

Line of Credit from a property you currently own. You use the line of credit which has a low-interest rate then invest in a property as a private lender gaining a profit from the difference in interest.  You can pay a line of credit with the line of credit (read the fine print from your lender to make sure).  You may also have tax benefits, consult an accountant for the specific in’s and out’s.

Credit Offers in the mail, the best ones are the interest free for 12 months or longer.  But be careful to read the fine print, make sure the creditor is not charging a fee for using the credit.  Also make sure the investment you are lending on can be liquidated before the interest begins from the credit offer.  With the use of this type of credit, payments would have to be made, so make sure you can cover the monthly payments with either payments from the loan or from your own source of funds.

Credit Cards you currently have.  Credit card companies send convenience checks to some of their customers from time to time.  Occasionally the use of the check may or may not be interest free for a period of time.  But beware some of the check offers charge a fee, which may be a percentage of the value of the check.

Obtaining a regular personal loan, this may not give you the best arbitrage but as long as there is a difference in interest in your favor then you still have arbitrage.  A personal loan normally will have a specific limit with a payment schedule, so monthly payments are something to be considered.

Which ever way fits your situation arbitrage is a way a private lender can make money in real estate with minimal use of your own liquid funds.  You can make a profit on lending the funds and make a profit on the use of the funds.  So even if you are just thinking about becoming a private lender.

 

Our Topsy Turvy Economy

With the stepping down of Obama’s lead financial advisor Christina Romer one would begin to wonder who will take her place.   According to Reuters there are three candidates Austan Goolsbee, Jared Berstein, and Laura Tyson.

This news of a prominent member of Obama’s financial advisory will possibly impact the stock markets, causing foreign investors to be more apprehensive of America’s economic recovery.

This new change in the presidential financial advisory, mixed with higher unemployment and stagnant growth in many sectors, the stock market for Friday will likely end down.

But the cycle for this month of August is a negative ending of the DOW.  This prediction is based on previous cycles.  When looking at the previous cycles of the month of August plus lagging unemployment, sluggish consumerism, and the dollar losing more value it is not hard to predict that the month of August for the DOW will be a non gaining month.

Conversely, tangible assets are going up at a steady pace.  Gold and silver are gaining more on a daily basis.

Real estate is not too far behind with some markets seeing some slight increase in price.  Although another wave of foreclosures in residential and commercial will soon be coming.

Warren Buffett defined the difference between investing and speculation in this famous passage from his book, The Intelligent Investor:

The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements. The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels, at which he would be wise to buy, and high price levels, at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell.

Now is the time to invest in real estate.  Take advantage of the market being low and having an abundance of real estate that is due to appreciate.  For more information on how to take advantage of our current real estate market http://www.BackedByRealEstate.com

Realistic Investing vs Speculative: Sunday Morning Thoughts 01 August 2010

Warren Buffett defined the difference between investing and speculation in this famous passage from his book, The Intelligent Investor:

The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements. The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels, at which he would be wise to buy, and high price levels, at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell.

This statement can apply to the new wave in investing, binary options.  This is a loose example of how binary options work; the premises is to state whether or not a stock or commodity will go up or down in the next ten minutes.  Although this is a rather pedestrian look at the inner workings of binary options, this is basically the way you play the hand.

If you picked up on the poker, or card game reference, this is what binary options sum up to be, yet another casino game.

Currently on the trading floor a lot of speculation has been transpiring.  Many investor newsletters are giving their predictions for stocks, commodities, etc. to have in their portfolios.

When choosing to invest you will have to have a proven earning strategy to see a return on investment.   Not matter how you look at investing you will always be speculating or projecting on a number of factors.

Studying the cycles is also a proven strategy to help increase a return on investment.

Everything in nature has a cycle.  To better understand the cycle of things is to watch and make note of changes.

The changes could be obvious or very subtle.  Noting the changes in the cycle we can then project what will likely happen next.

The housing and commercial housing market also have a cycle, when the prices go up drastically in any given area that same area have a hard bottom.  Examples would be Stockton, CA and the Inland Empire.

The house prices in those areas where going up up up almost everyday by leaps and bounds.  Then suddenly the market in those same areas fell down just as hard.

The Inland Empire was a growth area in the late eighties then became a declining area a short time later.  Fast forward to the late nineties, the same area was growing past its highest peak.  Then with all things fell as sharply as it went up.

If you were to invest now in the Inland Empire the starting strategy would be to hold the property knowing it will appreciate as in times before, and then sell the property right at the peak or slightly before the peak.

The stock market also has a pattern because all things in nature follow a cycle.  This is one of those rare times when all really does exist.  But also note within a cycle are also more cycles contributing to the larger cycle.

In real estate the job market fell in the early nineties with companies cutting back to purchase stocks back from their investors.  For our current housing market the down turn initiated from the sub prime lending and over extension of credit; similar to the late eighties early nineties.

So with all cycles now is the low time in the market, the time to buy and hold.  Appreciation is waiting.