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Originally posted by coaster

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Originally posted by samurai
But the market may take a bigger plunge soon...and so I will bide my time.

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Investing on "buts" or on "mays" ... i.e. waiting for the perfect opportunity, as one sees it in one's own mind ... it will never come. The time to invest is:

1) is there an opportunity now?

2) is the opportunity a good value?

3) can you afford to invest in it now not using money you can't afford to lose?

4) are you willing to wait for the market to recognize you were right about the opportunity?

5) are you willing to get out and take a loss if you discover you were wrong about the opportunity?

That's how you know when the time is right. It will never be perfect; it will never be without unknowns; it will never be about risk; you will not know until after the fact. But if you wait until you know, then it's too late, and the opportunity is gone.

I doubt it's much different for real estate than it is for stocks. Recognizing the right answers to #1 to #5 is different and takes some experience and a different knowledge set. But I'm pretty sure the basics are the same, whether you're buying land, a building, a stock, or a cow.

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Originally posted by samurai
I think it is number 5 that worries me the most. Wherein real estate is much more difficult to unload than paper assets, especially nowadays. Making a mistake here would be so difficult to correct!

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