THE BEST INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE TODAY THAT THRIVES IN BOTH GOOD AND BAD ECONOMIC TIMES MIKE CONLON
in the 10th year of his 15year plan . His plan was buying an older , singlefamily house each year for around $ 50,000 . He bought each house at a 15 20 % discount from the market value because it needed work , which he was able to do himself and with a little help from some of his friends . He said he could rent it for $ 500 / month , which was a little below the market rent , and keep it rented because “ in good times or bad times , there is always a need for affordable housing in this country .” His plan also included using all his profits to pay off his mortgage as soon as possible . Being young and naïve at the time , I thought he was crazy to invest in boring affordable housing because the stock market was averaging over 20 % returns each year .
perform well in good and bad economic times .”
So I did what at least 95 % of the other investors won ’ t ever do – I took action ! I sold my financial planning practice and started to invest in affordable housing . My research led me to buying multifamily investments , i . e . apartments or mobile home communities , because all your tenants are in one place making it much easier to manage . For the first four years , I bought affordable apartment complexes in Orlando , FL with the intention of holding them for the longterm . However , prices soared so I sold all seven of my complexes by mid 2006 because I had received unsolicited offers that were way more than I
I didn ’ t see that client again for five years . During that fiveyear period , the stock market lost nearly 40 % of its value , with those invested in technology stocks losing much more . When I saw him , I asked the client how life was treating him . He said he had just put in his retirement papers at the mill because he now had 12 of the houses paid off and his net income , after all expenses were paid , was over $ 60,000 / year , more than he ever made at the mill . More important , his net worth was now over $ 1 million . After hearing this , I thought to myself – why would you ever invest in the stock market when you could invest in affordable housing ?
So I spent a couple months researching the real estate industry . My research more than validated my old client ’ s thesis that “ affordable housing investments had paid a couple years prior . Once I sold , I wanted to reinvest , but Florida prices were too high , so I looked around and with strong input from one of my commercial brokers , I decided to invest in North Carolina . But instead of buying more apartment complexes , I started buying mobile home communities ( MHC ” s ). I had no idea what MHC ’ s were in 2005 , though I had probably driven by many through the years . However , I found some information