Friday, November 26, 2021
Dear Your Overseas Dream Home Reader,
You can’t really talk about Black Friday without mentioning Jay Gould and Jim Fisk—quite possibly the most ruthless cut-throats that Wall Street ever created.
Back in the mid-1800s, these two investors, who served as president and vice president of the Erie Railroad, were known as two of the most devious financial masterminds in the country. But it was in 1869 that a failed scheme of theirs made their biggest mark in history, and on the economy.
Gould and Fisk had been engaged in a conspiracy to artificially drive up the price of gold and corner the market, planning to make millions. Their scheme seemed to be working, with gold hitting a high of $160 on the market by September 24, 1869, up from $100 in August of that year.
But then Civil War general and sitting U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant got wind of their scheme.
Grant flooded the market with $4 million in gold from the U.S. treasury, tanking the price in an attempt to foil Gould and Fisk.
While it did loosen their grip on the market, this sudden avalanche of gold into the previously bullish market had other, much more dire consequences. Gold dropped from $160 to $133 in minutes, sending Wall Street into chaos and dropping the stock market a full 20 percentage points. Some of Wall Street’s most respected firms went bankrupt, thousands of speculators were financially ruined, and at least one is known to have taken their own life. The after effects would be felt for years to come and left a stain on the rest of Grant’s presidency.
September 25, 1869 was a black day for the U.S. economy and earned it the name Black Friday.
As for Gould and Fisk, they didn’t make quite as much money as they had planned, but otherwise got away pretty much scot-free despite an official investigation by Congress. Gould is even thought to have made around $12 million from the scheme.
Another reason that I never trust stocks or Wall Street types.
I tried speculating on the stock market when I was younger, and it wasn’t for me. I made some money in a fast growing market before realizing it was sheer luck. I realized I would always be an outsider. I prefer to put my faith in something I control and understand: real estate. (And thanks to our RETA group buying power we get insider access and deals). Something where I can find an angle through a mix of work and experience.
Done right, investing in real estate is harder, slower going, and sometimes more boring than stocks. You have to work and wait for your money.
But real estate is not subject to the rapid and wild fluctuations you see with the stock market. It can generate income. If you buy right, it can make you very rich. You can live in it, vacation in it, enjoy the life you’ve always dreamed of…all while making money.
It’s telling that real estate is a favorite asset of some of the world’s wealthiest families. It builds the kind of generational wealth that the elites can live off without ever diminishing their fortune.
But back to Black Friday.
These days, the story of Gould and Fisk gold scheme is all-but forgotten. Ask a random person on the street and they’ll tell you Black Friday is a day of killer deals on everything from consumer electronics to sporting goods.
These “deals” are the worst kind in my opinion. Artificially created, arbitrarily timed, and designed to benefit only one party: the big box stores that see crowds of desperate shoppers line the block to rush through the doorway and trample each other in order to fill their arms with products that the store could discount any other day of the year, should it choose to.
I prefer a genuine deal. The kind that lets me buy at a price the rest of the market never even sees, and allows me to make gains without having to line the block with a sea of other hopefuls, all prepared to step on me to get the deal for themselves.
These genuine deals are the kind that I regularly bring to members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group.
Because of my network of contacts, I’m able to get meetings with top developers around the world. I can then negotiate with the developer for a deal that’s well below retail pricing.
Developers give a big discount because they know the reputation of Real Estate Trend Alert. They know that we have incredible group buying power. We can offer them a large number of rapid sales, but only if they give us a price that makes it worth our while. So, it’s a win-win.
As the saying goes in real estate: “You make your money buying.” And that’s exactly what my group of insiders and I do. By buying way below regular retail pricing, we can see rapid appreciation on our deals from the outset.
And this strategy has handed my group discounts that have amounted to millions in savings.
Take a look at what we’ve achieved recently:
- Last month, members bought in an exclusive, private location in booming Tulum called Samsara. It’s down an essentially private road and in front is the national park where development is totally forbidden. Even as Tulum grows, Samsara is set to be a high-end enclave. I figure the condos with RETA-only prices of $198,600 will be worth $290,000 just three years after delivery. I also predict rental income of $29,500 a year once Samsara is established and word is out among the millions of vacationers, snowbirds, and digital nomads flocking to Tulum.
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- In October 2019, RETA members were able to own condos minutes’ walk from the beach, in the Riviera Maya town of Akumal, for $174,800. One of those units recently sold for $352,000. That’s a $150,200 gain. RETA members who bought then made a killing.
- In February 2020, RETA members could buy two-bed homes in Edena, Tulum, for $149,000. Edena was designed to feel far from the bustle of fast-growing Tulum, yet mere minutes from everything—a gourmet supermarket, banks, pharmacies, cafés, ice cream parlors, world-class restaurants, trendy bars. A few months after our deal, in October, homes were listing for $199,000.
- Then there’s Tao Tulum, where RETA members secured condos in 2017 for $208,440 that are now listed at $311,000—a $102,560 lift. Another condo type that was available for the RETA-only price of $166,860 is now at $239,000…a paper gain of $72,000. I myself bought one of the entry-priced two-bedroom condos in Tao Tulum that had RETA pricing of $154,500. I sold my unit in early 2020 for $225,000.
Of course that’s just a sample of what I brought to RETA members over the years.
To name just a few more…
- A RETA member bought on Spain’s Costa del Sol in mid-2014 for €99,000. In July 2019, a similar unit was listed at €229,000.
- In 2015, a RETA member paid $374,786 for a house in a 5-star beach and golf resort in Los Cabos. A similar house a few doors down sold for $675,000 in April 2020.
- In Ireland in 2013, I recommended two-bed condos in Dublin’s financial district when you could buy at auction for €140,000. In July 2019, the list prices on similar two-bed condos was €365,000/€375,000. I suspect, they’re even higher today.
- And of course, in Playa Caracol members bought beachfront and ocean view condos in 2017 from $199,000. In August 2019, a similar-sized condo farther back from the beach with only a side view listed for $299,000.
So, while throngs of shoppers are cramming themselves into big box stores today to fight over arbitrarily discounted TVs, I will be sitting back in my home here in sunny Cabo, making phone calls to my established network of real estate contacts.
I’m hunting for the next genuinely killer deal that I can bring to Real Estate Trend Alert members. A deal with off-market pricing based on our collective buying power, working with developers I trust to bring members quality real estate at prices that will let them lock in serious gains.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
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Ronan McMahon, Real Estate Trend Alert
P.S. One of the deals I’m working on right now is a chance to own a spacious luxury condo in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of Lagos, Portugal—the Algarve’s most historic beach town—with some of the world’s best beaches only minutes from your doorstep. I’ll be sending the full details to RETA members tomorrow, so if you’re a member watch that inbox. If you’re not a member yet, there is still time to join RETA here and get in on this deal when it opens next week.
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