buying and ripped off

[Norbert Radd]

Buying an apartment in Shanghai took nine nerve-racking months for Randy Mucek. At the time, a little over a year ago, it was a sellers' market and prices were rising even as the Chicago native and his wife negotiated. But they finally put down a small payment on a unit, signed a binding purchase agreement and assumed they were on their way to becoming homeowners.

"Then the seller suddenly decided that it wasn't in his best interest to sell," Mucek said. "He could get a higher price, so he pulled out." He also refused to return the deposit, even though the contract required it, so they went to court. Eventually they got the money back.
Zimny, the private investor in Shanghai, said the most important thing when buying in China was to get experienced people to help.

"You can find well-established, well-built, well-designed properties," he said. "And you can do it with protection and without encountering high risk. And you can find competitive prices. But the buzz words here are: Be smart."
www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/15/news/rebuychina.php

[Mr Nobody]

I got the 'Mrs N network' on my side here. They know about the local conditions, since, for example, her sister owns 5 properties plus two businesses, with the second getting off the ground now. They have the govt, council, PSB, whatever, wired for sound, through a wife network or a teacher network. So many of them went to school, or something, where my wife or one of her colleagues taught, for example.

(Now is not a good time to buy in Nanning - Guilin or Liuzhou is better right now)

Plenty of guanxi in Guangxi.

[Hamish]

My advice?

Stay away from real estate in China, and the cities of the US.

Own nothing.

Easy for me to say.

[Mr Nobody]

Well, our appartment is worth about 250,000 rmb, bought it for 70,000 about 18 months ago. Had to pay about another 10,000 in fees and things, though, including renovations. I paid cash for half, and Mrs N got the rest as an interest free loan due to having contributions in a housing scheme for govt employee teachers thingy. We can do it again, once she has enough for a deposit, which will be in about a year.

My flats in Oz cost me 90,000 ten years ago, and now, nearly fully paid off, are worth about 250,000 AUS. I have to pay interest on it, though, although because i lived there for all that time, I won't have to pay taxes if I sell it.

Not too shabby.

Real estate is a good thing, if you can pull it off. However, costing 90K plus interest means that if I had done it over 30 years, it would have cost about 300K so would not have been successful. THis is an important concept. People always forget that the interest over about 12 years is more than the loan.

[con's fly is open]

Remember, over 85% of all the self-made millionaires did it in real estate. One just has to be careful, persistent, patient, and be good at maintaining all the little crap.

Me, I'm looking to be one of the other 15 percent, but if I got married, I'd reconsider.