Location, location, location. Real property investment is blistering hot today. Many fortunes will be made off real property investments over years to come. Right now is the right time to invest in real property income, such as rental income homes. A challenge is coming up with a down payment and more of a challenge is finding a bank willing to lend. This is why I always adamantly insist people make sacrifices and stash away as much cash as possible for rainy days. We are currently into twenty days of rain out of forty. These low prices on real estate will not come back around during our lifetimes. Next real estate crash is many decades away. Much money is to be made if you act fast and with care, a lot of care. Location is most critical. A fairly decent typical existing home in a clean, quiet and well kept neighborhood is an absolute must. Location must be moderately central to employment centers or within a reasonable commute to employment centers. Existing home, not a new home and never a condo. An older home which is basically sound but with a dead yard, in need of a new roof, in need of painting, carpet, fixing of broken windows and such, is the ideal. A sound older home with poor “curb appeal” is your ticket to earning good money. Real estate sales are beginning to increase, thanks to speculators like our family, and real estate prices are beginning to increase. This is not nationwide rather is regional specific, such as California, Washington and New York. Location is critical. Fairly soon, northern Nevada, Reno area, will become the hottest real estate market of our nation, with my fairly soon being one to three years. Nevada, Reno, general region, suffers the highest foreclosure rate which draws in speculators like flies on mule manure. Stay away from Las Vegas; that place is a glossed over desert slum. On the average, a home will gain a minimum of ten percent in value per year. You will not earn this type of growth from bonds nor bills like we did back in the Jimmy Carter days when CD accounts paid twelve percent interest per year while we waited in line for gasoline several hours. Readers are strongly encouraged to research, to learn and to look closely at real property income; rental home or homes. Caution is a must. A rental home must be carefully selected by location and condition. A rental home out in the middle of the Mojave Desert will do you no good but a rental home just outside a large urban center will prove profitable, if a good decent location. A rental home grows in value each year and a rental home provides monthly income, typically in a range of $1200 to $1800 per month. This is very good money and often just about enough to make your rental home mortgage payment, close, maybe a little bit of negative cash flow. However, you must save away for property taxes, insurance and upkeep. This amounts to about one-fourth of your annual rental income. Your rent income might be as much as your mortgage payment, but you will have a bit of negative cash flow after paying taxes and such. Nonetheless, your net realized growth, with equity value growth and monthly rent income, works out to be around 15% per year. This is darn good money which is safe and reliable; always there. Watch out for Obama, he intends to nearly double our capital gains tax. Under an Obama administration, a very bad time to sell a home for profit, but a good time to enjoy rent income. Plan on keeping investment income property until we are rid of Obama. You will easily double your money over about a decade, once this real estate crash is behind us, maybe another two years. Should the real estate market become overheated again, you can easily triple your money over a decade. Think retirement. Never think “social security.” You must plan for and secure your own retirement funds; social security is a poverty joke. Best option is to hold income real property for twenty to thirty years. Bank loans. Despite all this hype of banks not lending, there are local community banks and other lenders just begging to loan you money at acceptable interest rates, typically around 6.5% or slightly less. You can secure a loan if you come in with 10% to 30% down on a home. This is why you _always_ make sacrifices and stash away cash, which is King today. Remember, only 30 year fixed rate loans. Do not accept any other type of loan such as a predatory adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loan. Research, learn, be prudient, make good decisions and you will not go wrong on real property investment. Right now, this is where wise money is being invested. Above all, you must be willing to invest sweat equity. This is get in there and make your own repairs. Do your own roofing, your own painting, fixing windows, replacing faucets, cleaning up yards but leave carpet installation to a carpet company; this is very affordable. Stocks. This is an excellent time to buy “value” stocks. These are companies with a long history of turning profits, a lot of cash on hand and very low or no debt. These are often companies involved in consumer staple goods; food, clothing and home repair items; commodities which are in constant demand despite our economic downturn. However, our stock market conditions will not change much for a couple of years. You have plenty of time to research, learn and become a smart investor in stocks. Nonetheless, like real estate, you will not see again these bargain basement prices on stocks during your lifetime. This is the time to buy. Best action, a “must do” action, is for you to research, to learn, to become smart about your money investing. You will lose your money if you do not first educate yourself on the ways of investment methods. You must first learn before all else. I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough. Real estate and value stocks, this is where fortunes will be made, if you approach this with smarts backed by good learning. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation