Real estate is a tough business, especially in this recessionary economy. Prices, almost universally across the 50 states, are down and in some places, still dropping. If you got into the market a few years ago when prices were inflated you are in bad shape now. Especially if you were sold a bill of goods on a cheap mortgage that turned out to be a little too good, chances are you are going through a foreclosure or short sale.

I live in California, where the prices of homes five years ago was way above the assessed value and people routinely had buyers with fat checkbooks knocking down their door to get into homes. Unfortunately, I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I needed a place to live. Going with the conventional wisdom of buying is better than renting, I bought property.

I bought a place way beyond my means. Why? Because I was able to get a mortgage which I never thought I could. So, I got into a house that cost too much with an interest-only mortgage that I could barely afford. I was building no equity and, when we had our second child and my wife decided to stay home, giving up her full-time salary, we were set up for disaster. We couldn’t pay our bills and, when things broke, we were stuck with home space heaters to keep us warm and deteriorating furniture to sit on.

As was bound to happen, the housing market and economy collapsed. Our home devalued quickly but our mortgage payments did not. Now, not only could we not afford the home, we couldn’t sell it at a profit and barely sell it at a loss. We went through a bankruptcy to get rid of our debt and decided that to free ourselves up from all financial burdens, we would sell the home through a short sale if we could.

We are currently doing much better renting a home. I hate that we went through what we did but, had we not, we may not have learned some valuable lessons.

I would buy an income property, something that I could put a renter in that would cover my mortgage. I would buy a slight fixer-upper and spruce it up with some cheap home decor accents and maybe a coat of paint. But, most importantly, I would buy something below my price range, taking the renter into consideration and get a mortgage that earned equity and had a good rate either fixed or with a long arm.

I wouldn’t want to do this again and have to worry about covering mortgage monthly without the income to do it. I would own something with obvious value and not sell until it was a truly decent resale property regardless of the economy.

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