Smoke and Mirrors Investment Condos

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We did a dozen or so condo projects around Table Rock Lake in the Branson area yesterday and can't believe what's going on. Google Indian Point Resort and get a better presentation than I can make of what I mean, that resort being on the lower end of the projects.

In a nutshell, it is:

1. Give us a bunch of money--for here ($180000-$500000) and you got yourself a condo, but we don't want you living in it.

2. Pay us fees--both HOA and Condo fees--anywhere from $100 to $500 a month.

3. Put your condo in our rental program, and we will keep 50% of whatever we can get, no gurantee that will be anything.

That's pretty much it. Everywhere we went everything seemed to be sold, with pre-construction sales of the next building.

And resale condos, wow! At one place, as established development everyone knows, the agent had one of those cell phone ear thingies and kept running us from one condo to another, each just coming on the market at that instant, we being the first to see it, it probably not lasting until the end of the day! Man, I got dizzy!
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But, there is a substantial shortage of condos to live in, the nicest and quietest being the ones right here in our neck of the woods.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

PS: Sure sign of smoke and mirrors--If you pull into a project and see that there are no garages, they don't want anyone living there.

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

This same thing has happened in wisconsin Dells. The big resorts are successful at this. However, smaller condo developments that you can live in, in good locations, have barely gone up in value for several years. what is more remarkable is that the $600,000 condos go first. The Dells has such a short season, that I don't think the investors are getting the rental incomes they expected, but it hasn't stopped new developments from selling out fast.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Part of one of the spiels were heard was that except for January and February, the company that handles the rentals runs 85% occupancy.

Heck, I don't believe our house runs that!

And, just how much rent would it take to be able to split it 50/50 and have a positive cash flow on a $350000 (or $500000) (plus fees) condo?

Since we had looked at the original Emerald Point condos (now called Emerald Bay) 10 years ago, another part of the spiel was, "Think how much you would have made if you had bought then!"

My brain was saying, "Think how much we would have lost in negative cash flow over the last ten years. I doubt that the appreciation would have been more. How much would that same amount have grown to had it been properly invested elsewhere, like I am so good at doing."