Went to the local real estate meeting. I think San Diego has the best REI club in the nation and probably the world. Its non-profit and all profits go to the library.

John Schaub was last night’s speaker and he was pretty funny and made a couple of extremely valid points.

1. When you eat out with investors, its not a business meal thats subject to 50% deduction, but a marketing cost that you can deduct 100%.

2. Markets are cyclical. So why buy in places like Texas that never go up when you can buy in San Diego. If you’re creative and can come up with ways to pay the mortgage for a few years eventually the rents here will rise and so will the property values. A $500k house in San Diego will be worth $5 million in another 25 years, while in Texas a $150k will probably be worth $300k. [based on whats happened over the past 25 years].

3. He had everyone who’s been sued stand up. In an audience of around 250 about 40 people stood up. Out of that only 1 person ever had to pay more than $10k from his own pocket. So don’t waste money on asset protection, but get good insurance.

I liked what he had to say so I picked up his latest book. I figure it’ll be interesting and I can probably get one idea to make me an extra $5k so the 20 bucks is a good investment.